“I got a hernia at work.”

The public safety presumption

Hernia is one of the conditions the Labor Code presumes to be industrial for qualifying firefighters and peace officers — alongside heart trouble, cancer, pneumonia, tuberculosis, meningitis, MRSA, and certain blood-borne infections.

And several of the public safety presumptions extend past the end of employment, for a period tied to length of service.

Note also that SB 230 and AB 1125 (Ch. 404 and Ch. 291, Stats. 2025) changed the presumption landscape — check the date on anything that describes the earlier framework. How the presumptions work.

For everyone else

Report it in writing immediately and describe the mechanism specifically — what you lifted, how much, from what height, whether you twisted, whether the load shifted, and whether you felt it at the moment.

A hernia noticed the next morning is still compensable, but the contemporaneous account is what carries it.

Get it examined promptly. A documented examination close in time to the event is worth more than any later argument.

What gets disputed

“It was pre-existing” or “it’s congenital.” ApportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. is to the causation of disability, not to anatomy. Under City of Petaluma v. WCABWCAB Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. The court system that decides these cases. 23 district offices statewide. (Lindh) (2018), a pre-existing condition that never disabled you can still support apportionment — but the defense must prove, on substantial medical evidence, that it caused part of this disability, and under EscobedoEscobedo The en banc decision requiring an apportionment opinion to explain how and why. A percentage without reasoning is not substantial evidence. the opinion must explain how and why. More.

“There was no single event.” Repeated heavy lifting over time is a cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed. claim, and the 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. is when you first suffered disability and knew, or should have known, it was work-related. More.

Two things not to miss

A recurrence or a second hernia after repair is generally a compensable consequenceCompensable consequence A new problem caused by the original injury or its treatment. Overusing the other side, the joint above or below, a surgical complication. of the original injury, not a separate misfortune. More.

And chronic post-surgical pain and nerve entrapment after hernia repair are recognized — and under Hikida v. WCAB, disability caused by industrial medical treatment is industrial and generally not apportionable. But Hikida has been cut down, and the site that does not say so is out of date. In County of Santa Clara v. WCAB (Justice) (2020) 49 Cal.App.5th 605 [85 Cal.Comp.Cases 467] the Court of Appeal held that Hikida “precludes apportionment only where the industrial medical treatment is the sole cause of the permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week..” Where pre-existing pathology also contributes, §§ 4663 and 4664 apportionment still applies. Sole cause is a demanding test, and the rule is much narrower than it is usually described.