“A coworker hurt me.”

The insurer may also say the fight was personal. A personal motive does not defeat the claim on its own. Where the work played a part — it put you in the other person’s path, or the quarrel was about the job — the injury is generally compensable. Where the attack only happened to take place at work, it may not be.

And the part worth more than the injury

For injuries on or after January 1, 2013, the law bars increasing your rating for “sleep dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, or psychiatric disorder” arising out of a physical injury.

§ 4660.1(c)(2)(A) excepts injury from “being a victim of a violent act or direct exposure to a significant violent act.”

An assaulted worker is squarely inside that exception. The psychiatric consequences of being attacked at work — and they are usually the more lasting injury — can be rated, where an identical physical injury from a fall could not.

It has to be raised, evaluated, and rated. It will not happen automatically.

How the exception works.Psychiatric injury claims.

And note the lower causation threshold. A psychiatric claim ordinarily requires showing actual employment events were predominant as to all causes combined. For a victim of a violent act, the law requires only that employment events were a substantial cause — defined as at least 35 to 40 percent of the causation from all sources combined. That is a materially easier standard.

Where assaults happen

Healthcare — and the law requires a Violent Incident Log and a workplace violence prevention plan. If patients on your unit had assaulted staff before and nothing changed, that log is evidence. Healthcare worker claims.

And since July 1, 2024, this is no longer a health care–only rule.

Labor Code § 6401.9 (SB 553) requires nearly every California employer to maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan and a Violent Incident Log — recording the date, time, location, type of violence, and consequences of each incident — and to make those records available to employees and their representatives.

Ask for the log by name. A documented history of incidents with nothing done about it is the core of a § 4553 serious and willfulSerious and willful +50%, and uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. 12 months. misconduct petition — one-half more, paid by the employer personally, with a twelve-month deadline. How.

Security, retail, convenience stores, hotels, transit, and delivery — where inadequate security may also create a claim against the property owner.

And robbery, which is both a work injury and, frequently, a third-party case.

The other claims

§ 4553 serious and willful misconduct. Where the employer knew of a specific threat — a prior assault, a documented complaint, a known dangerous condition — and did nothing, compensation is increased by one-half, paid by the employer personally. Twelve-month deadline. How.

A civil claim against the assailant, which is not barred by workers’ compensation exclusivity.

A premises liability claim against a property owner where inadequate security contributed.

And where a coworker caused the injury, exclusivity generally protects both employer and coworker — but there are exceptions, including for intentional conduct outside the scope of employment. Worth evaluating rather than assuming. Third-party claims.

What to do

Report it in writing immediately, and describe it accurately.

File a police report. It is contemporaneous evidence and it matters in both the comp claim and any civil case.

Get the incident documented — the employer’s incident report, security footage before it is overwritten, witness names.

Ask about prior incidents — and ask for the Violent Incident Log by name. Nearly every California employer must maintain one and make it available to employees and their representatives; in health care, the law imposes the same obligation.

And get evaluated for the psychiatric injury, not just the physical one. That is where the value is, and it is the part most often left out.