Why it’s important to keep records of workplace violence now
Workplaces in California have become more and more unstable. Patients and their families can be very rude to healthcare workers. Retail workers are verbally abused and threatened with violence. The front desk staff have to deal with threatening behavior that leaves lasting psychological scars.
When these workers get PTSD, anxiety, or depression from violence at work, it can be very hard for them to prove that their injuries are worth money. Psychiatric injuries, on the other hand, are not visible on X-rays like broken bones are. Insurance companies take advantage of this by calling real psychological trauma “subjective complaints” or “personal weakness.” If you’ve experienced workplace violence and psychological injury, a psychiatric work injury attorney can help you understand your rights.
But California Senate Bill 553, which went into effect on July 1, 2024, has changed the way evidence is used in a big way. The law says that employers must keep detailed Violent Incident Logs that record threats, harassment, and violent behavior. If employers don’t keep these logs up to date as required, their failure to do so becomes proof against them, hurting their credibility and going against their claims of reasonable behavior.
This article talks about how failing to follow SB 553 makes psychiatric injury claims stronger and how workers can use employer violations to get around problems that usually stop legitimate stress claims.
What Employers Must Do Under SB 553
Senate Bill 553, which is now part of California Labor Code Section 6401.9, is the first general industry workplace violence standard in the US. Almost all employers in California must make, put into action, and keep up with effective Workplace Violence Prevention Plans, according to the law.
The Violent Incident Log requirement is the most important part of SB 553. Employers must keep a record of every incident of violence at work, even if no one was hurt. This duty is absolute: you must write down any threats that are made. Every log entry must have the date, time, and place of the incident, a full account of what happened, and information about the employees who were affected. You have to keep these logs for at least five years.
The law says that threats and intimidation (verbal statements, written messages, or gestures that show an intention to harm), physical violence (any use of physical force against an employee), and harassment and aggressive behavior (including bullying or intimidating behavior) must all be documented. SB 553 applies to almost all employers in California, with a few exceptions for some healthcare facilities, corrections, law enforcement, and people who work from home.
The Violent Incident Log as Evidence in Court
The Violent Incident Log is more than just a Cal/OSHA checklist; it’s a record of the “actual events of employment” that Labor Code 3208.3 says must be kept. The log gives objective proof when employees say they were traumatized by certain events or a series of threats.
Logs are official records made at the time of incidents, unlike supervisors’ memories, which may “fade” during court cases. They turn claims into facts that are written down. If a store worker says they have PTSD from a robbery, the log entry that lists the weapon used is proof that the stressor was real.
When logs are missing or incomplete, they are often the most powerful legal tools. If workers talk about violent events but their bosses didn’t write them down as they should have, this makes it hard to prove things in court. Evidence Code 413 says that judges can assume that evidence that was purposely hidden would have hurt the people who hid it. The lack of documentation is direct proof that the employer was careless.
Claims for Psychiatric Injury in California Law
If a psychiatric injury makes someone unable to work or requires medical care, California law says they can get money for it. These injuries can happen because of one traumatic event or because of a lot of stress over time.
In contrast to physical injuries, where workers must merely establish that work was a contributing factor, psychiatric claims typically necessitate that workers prove that “actual events of employment” were the primary cause (at least 51%) of the injury. Defense lawyers look into workers’ personal lives very carefully to show that non-industrial factors make up 50% or more of the cause.
But there is one important exception. If being a “victim of a violent act” or “directly exposed to a significant violent act” caused psychiatric injury, the threshold for causation drops to 35–40%. By officially labeling events as “workplace violence” in logs, employers may be admitting that “violent acts” took place, which makes it much easier for workers to prove their claims.
The “Good Faith Personnel Action” Defense
The “Good Faith Personnel Action” defense, which is found in Labor Code 3208.3(h), says that if a lawful, nondiscriminatory, good faith personnel action caused a psychiatric injury, the person who was hurt will not be paid for it.
Employers often use this defense for internal investigations, discipline and performance reviews, schedule changes or demotions, and firing people. The defense is strong because it completely stops compensation. Even if medical evidence shows that the action caused the injury 100%, claims are still denied if the action was done in “good faith.”
How Breaking SB 553 Hurts the Defense
The Good Faith Personnel Action defense says that actions must be legal and done in good faith. Violations of SB 553 attack both sides. If employers don’t take threats of violence seriously and don’t log, look into, or reduce risks as required by Labor Code 6401.9, they are breaking the law.
Think about this: An employee says that a coworker is threatening them and is hostile. The employer doesn’t take the complaint seriously and doesn’t write it down. Instead, they punish the employee who complained for “poor performance” because the employee was too anxious to focus. The discipline can’t be “good faith” because it has to do with the employer’s illegal failure to fix the safety hazard that SB 553 says they must.
Employers must act honestly and without doing anything crazy in “good faith.” It is unreasonable to ignore laws that require people to keep track of violent acts. It implies that employers don’t care about their employees’ safety and are willing to break the law. If employers can’t follow safety laws, they can’t honestly say that their management was “good faith.”
Using SB 553 Non-Compliance to Back Up Claims
SB 553 makes employers aware. The law makes sure that employers can’t say they didn’t know by making them ask employees for information and write it down. If they didn’t write it down but should have, judges can assume they knew.
Discovery lets lawyers ask for whole Violent Incident Logs. If logs are empty even though there are a lot of changes in staff or police calls, this shows a pattern of downplaying threats, which is objective proof of a toxic work environment.
If there is proof that employers regularly broke safety laws meant to stop the stress workers are feeling, qualified medical evaluators are more likely to find industrial causation. Attorneys give QMEs the text of SB 553 and proof that employers didn’t do their job right. They ask QMEs to think about whether the fact that employers didn’t validate and record threats made workers feel helpless and traumatized.
Workers Who Are Most Affected by Violations
The American Hospital Association says that healthcare workers are the most likely to be victims of violence, costing the country more than $18 billion a year. SB 553 covers a lot of other healthcare settings, and not keeping track of verbal abuse from patients is a big problem that can lead to cumulative trauma claims.
Receptionists and front-desk staff are the first line of defense against the public. They often have to deal with verbal abuse that employers think is “not serious enough” to report. Data shows that retail theft has gone up 48% since before the pandemic, and workers in stores and services are always at risk of violence. Utility workers, transport drivers, and social service providers who work with the public have to deal with hostile interactions every day that add up to mental harm.
Why Stress Claims Don’t Work Without a Plan
Stress claims often fall apart without using SB 553. If employers don’t write down stressors and workers don’t keep proof, claims turn into “word against word.” SB 553 makes it the employers’ job to keep records.
Workers who have been hurt often downplay threats in their first statements to adjusters. “It wasn’t a big deal; he just yelled.” Defense lawyers use this to say that the events weren’t “violent acts.” A good legal strategy uses the broad definition of violence in SB 553 to show that even yelling can be a threat that needs to be reported. A stress injury lawyer can help you navigate these complex legal arguments.
Employers frequently assert that managing difficult individuals is a routine job responsibility. SB 553 says no to this. It says that violence is a problem that needs to be fixed, not something that needs to be dealt with.
Questions That Are Asked a Lot
What does SB 553 say is a “violent incident”?
It doesn’t just mean physical battery. It includes threats of violence, harassment, intimidation, and aggressive behavior. This definition even includes text messages, emails, or social media posts that show a desire to hurt someone.
What if my boss never told me about the Violent Incident Log?
Labor Code 6401.9 says that the employer must tell you and keep the log. If they don’t, they are breaking the law. You can use this violation to show that they were careless and question their credibility.
Can breaking SB 553 really help a claim for stress or PTSD?
Yes. They show that employers didn’t keep their workplaces safe or follow the law. This weakens the Good Faith Personnel Action defense and helps show that work events caused injury.
Does SB 553 guarantee that my claim will be approved?
No. You still need to meet the medical evidence requirements. But if you break SB 553, it makes it much easier for you to get around legal defenses that usually stop these claims.
How Lawyers Use SB 553 to Their Advantage
Attorneys ask for the Violent Incident Log for the time period in question and look for holes in it. If clients say they were threatened on certain days and there are no logs, lawyers have immediate proof that the clients did not follow through.
If employers say that logs don’t exist or were lost, lawyers can get internal emails, security footage, and witness statements to show that things really did happen. This sets up spoliation arguments: the evidence is there, but employers didn’t have to keep it in logs.
Attorneys give QMEs logs or proof that they weren’t there, and they base their medical analysis on the mistakes of employers. When defense attorneys say “Good Faith Personnel Action,” the applicants’ lawyers show proof of SB 553 violations and ask how personnel actions can be “lawful” when employers were breaking Labor Code 6401.9.
What Workers Should Do Now
Be on the lookout for warning signs like supervisors not wanting to take written reports of threats, being told “it’s just part of the job” when threatened, not knowing how to access a Violent Incident Log, or not getting enough training on the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan.
Always write down what happened in an email or text so that there is a record with a timestamp. Get the names and phone numbers of people who saw what happened. Write down the dates, times, and details of threats and how your bosses responded in personal journals.
Getting legal advice early on helps keep evidence safe in a planned way. Lawyers can send preservation letters to employers telling them to keep all logs and footage. If the employers destroy them later, they will face spoliation sanctions.
When compliance failures change who has power
SB 553 changes the way California workers’ compensation law works. The Violent Incident Log is no longer just a way to keep track of compliance; it’s also a way to hold employers accountable. Employers can’t say they were acting in “good faith” when they broke the law, and they can’t say they were acting “lawfully” when they didn’t keep safety records that were required.
When compliance failures are used wisely, they change the balance of power. They turn a lack of evidence into proof of carelessness and change “subjective” stress into “objective” legal violations. SB 553 gives workers who have been hurt on the job a new way to get justice and makes sure that psychiatric injuries get the legal protection they need.
Get the Help You Need with the Law
Don’t think your claim will be denied if you’ve been hurt mentally, stressed out, or had PTSD because of threats, harassment, or violence at work. It could be very important to your case that your employer didn’t follow SB 553.
ODG Law Group is an expert in handling complicated workers’ compensation claims. They know how to use violations of laws like SB 553 to get around employer defenses. We offer private case reviews to look into whether your employer is following SB 553 and how strong your possible claim is.
We understand that people are worried about retaliation. California law says that employers can’t punish workers who file workers’ compensation claims. We help you protect your rights the whole time. You don’t have to pay legal fees unless we win benefits for you.
Call ODG Law Group today for a private meeting. To set up your free case review, call 818-230-2428 or go to www.odglawgroup.com.
