Psychiatric Injury

■ Kimberly Allen v. Antelope Valley Union High School District, 2019 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 66
Psychiatric Injury—Violent Acts—Increased Permanent Disability—WCAB rescinded WCJ’s finding that applicant was entitled to increased permanent disability for her psychiatric injury, and concluded that applicant was barred under Labor Code § 4660.1(c)(1) from receiving additional permanent disability for that injury, when WCAB reasoned that applicant’s psychiatric injury was not directly caused by events of her employment but rather was compensable consequence of her multiple industrial orthopedic injuries, and, consequently, pursuant to Labor Code § 4660.1(c)(2)(A), applicant’s permanent disability could only be increased for psychiatric impairment if injury resulted from either being victim of violent act or from direct exposure to significant violent act or catastrophic injury, and WCAB found that here applicant’s injuries, which were incurred in slip and fall accident during her employment as high school receptionist, were not sufficiently extreme or intense so as to rise to level of “violent act” where there was no loss of consciousness or immediate need for medical treatment and found no merit to applicant’s assertion that all head injuries, regardless of how mild, constitute violent injuries. [See generally Hanna, Cal. Law of Emp. Inj. and Workers’ Comp. 2d §§ 4.02[3][a], [b], [f], 4.69[1], [3][a], 8.02[4][c][ii], [5], 32.02[2][a]; Rassp & Herlick, California Workers’ Compensation Law, Ch. 7, §§ 7.05[3][b][i][ii], 7.06[6], Ch. 10, § 10.06[3][a], [b][i].]