Your deadlines

California workers’ compensation runs on clocks, and several of them start on the day you were hurt — not on the day you found out, not on the day something was denied, and not on the day you decided to do something about it. Enter your dates and we’ll lay every applicable deadline out with the statute next to it.

The two that are miscounted most often

The five years to reopen runs from the date of injury — not from your award. Labor Code § 5410. People settle in year four, get worse in year six, and discover the door closed while they were still inside the case.

In a repetitive-motion or exposure case, the date of injury is not the day it started hurting. Under § 5412 it is the date disability and knowledge of industrial causation coincide — which is often the day a doctor first told you the work caused it. That date can be years after the symptoms and it can be argued. How that date gets established.