Last week, the California legislature amended proposed Senate Bill 788 to eliminate language that would have prohibited apportioning permanent disability to non-industrial causes based on a worker’s age or genetic characteristics.

Initially, the bill included prohibiting apportionment based on these age-related and genetic factors, which would have offered a tremendous benefit to our older injured workers. Specifically, the original bill proposed adding language to Labor Code Section 4663, which would have read:

"The approximate percentage of the permanent disability caused by other factors shall not include consideration of race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual identity, sexual orientation or genetic characteristics."

Now, the amended bill includes all of the aforementioned — except for the age and genetic characteristic factors.

In reality, “age-related degenerative changes” is most often the go-to apportionment factor when physicians feel compelled to offset an injured worker’s disability award in order to appease the defense, whether warranted or not. It is unfortunate that the legislature once again refused to address this often perplexing issue of reducing awards for injured workers simply because they are older.

If you’d like to discuss how age-related factors may affect a potential Workers’ Compensation claim for you or a co-worker, don’t hesitate to contact the experts at Baziak & Steevens for clear answers to all your Workers’ Compensation questions.