In general there are types two types of injuries, a specific injury and a cumulative trauma injury.

A specific injury is an injury that happens on a specific date. For instance, if you bent down to lift a box and hurt your back or fell off a ladder, those are specific instances where you were injured.

A cumulative trauma injury is an injury that happens over time, generally from repetitive use or repetitive trauma. These injuries happen over time due to over work or repetitive action. For instance, if your job involves typing and you notice wrist pain over time, or you do a lot of walking or climbing and notice knee pain that gradually gets worse, or you were exposed to toxins and have respiratory problems, or hear loud noise at work causing hearing loss, those are injuries that occur over time.

There are also psychological injuries, injuries that cause anxiety, depression, loss of sleep, hair loss, body pain, stomach problems, sexual dysfunction, and other symptoms associated with a mental injury. Your psychological injury could be separate and related to a hostile work environment for instance, or could be paired with your physical orthopedic injury at work, for instance depression due to being on bed rest for a broken leg that happened at work.

If you have a psychiatric injury, you must have a diagnosis, and your work must be a predominant cause (generally, 51% responsible, 35-40% for a violent act) of your condition. You need to work for your employer for a total at least 6 months (need not be continuous) before a separate psychological injury can be claimed. (L.C. Section 3208.3). If the injury is caused by “sudden and extraordinary” employment condition, the 6 month rule does not apply.

For injuries after 2013, SB 863, only allows psychiatric injuries to recover a permanent disability monetary award if the injury is a stand alone injury and not as a result of an orthopedic injury; or if the psychiatric injury is related to an orthopedic injury, you can recover permanent disability if the injury was catastrophic (such as burns, or loss of limb), or if you were a victim or witness to a violent crime at work. For any psychiatric injury, if it’s work related, then you are entitled to recover future medical care.