“I hurt it again.”

The three characterizations

A new specific injurySpecific injury One identifiable event on one date.. A new event, a new date of injuryDate of injury For a cumulative or occupational disease claim, the law sets it as when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the wear began. Almost every deadline runs off this., a new claim — potentially against a different employer, a different carrier, and a different policy year.

A new cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed.. Work performed since the first injury wore the body part down further. This has its own § 5412 date of injury, which is frequently recent. It is the most commonly missed route, particularly by workers who assume a settled claim ends everything.

New and further disability on the old claim. The original injury got worse without a new event. The law permits reopening within five years of the date of injury — not from the settlement, not from the award. More.

Why the difference matters

Who pays. A new claim may fall on a different employer or carrier entirely.

Which deadlines apply. A new claim has a fresh one-year period. Reopening is bounded at five years from the original date of injury — which can already have expired.

Whether the case can be reopened at all. A Compromise and ReleaseC&R — Compromise and Release A lump sum that closes future medical treatment permanently. generally forecloses reopening. A Stipulated Award does not. Which one you signed.

And how apportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. is analyzed. Expect the defense to argue the disability belongs to the other claim — whichever one they are not defending.

Two things to know about that argument. A prior award of permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. is conclusively presumed to still exist — but that requires an actual award, not a C&R without one. And Lindh cuts the defense’s way: a prior condition that never disabled you can support apportionment. What it still requires is substantial medical evidence tying that condition to this disability. How apportionment works.

What to do

Report it as a new injury, in writing, today — with its own date. Do not let it be absorbed into the old file by default.

File a new DWC-1DWC-1 The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation.. That starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation.

Check your old claim’s date of injury and count five years from it. If you are inside the window and the old case was resolved by Stipulated Award, a petition to reopen may also be available — and filing both is generally the right move.

And describe the mechanism precisely. Whether this was a new event, a gradual worsening from continued work, or a spontaneous deterioration of the old injury is a medical question, and the report will follow the history you give.