Injuries Caused by Employer Misconduct

Labor Code sections 4553 and 4553.1 provide for a 50 percent increase in benefits, together with costs and expenses not to exceed $250 in situations where the employee is injured by the serious and willful misconduct of the employer. In essence, the employer pays a penalty equal to 50 percent of the cost of the entire claim including medical treatment and disability directly to the employee for its serious and willful misconduct causing the injury.

To prove a claim of serious and willful misconduct, it is the employee’s burden of proof, meaning the employee must show an intentional act, or an intentional failure to act, with