California Fish & Wildlife

We focus our representation on California State Fish & Wildlife employees in California.

Why Are Workers' Compensation Fish & Wildlife Peace Officers cases different?

Fish & Wildlife cases work injuries are different than regular workers' compensation cases. Workers' compensation injuries can impact a person's ability to work, and this can raise retirement issues.

Regular workers' compensation benefits may not be the only consideration in a cases involving California Fish & Wildlife employees.


- Jason Wells, Attorney At Law

Industrial Disability Leave (IDL)

Based on Government Code 19871, most state employees who are unable to perform modified duty or who are taken completely off work (very common in CDCR environments) get IDL in lieu of temporary disability.

Industrial Disability Retirement (IDR)

Industrial Disability Retirement (IDR) may be a benefit available to Fish & Wildlife employees (whose essential job functions are considered safety) are who medically eligible for retirement because of a work related injury.

Essential Job Functions

Understanding Fish & Wildlife employees' essential job functions can be critical to multitude of a issues both in the workers' compensation system and other benefits provided by CalPERS. In safety cases, having an understanding of your essential job duties or your HR departments' job description on your safety position can be a critical part of handling multiple issues in your case. We recommend you obtain a job description from your HR department and review it to ensure that it accurately reflects your job duties; then provide a copy to your physician who is to assess your ability to do the job.

Injury Presumptions

Injuries involving heart, pneumonia, hernia, Lyme disease, blood borne illness, MRSA, and biochemical exposure are given special consideration by workers' compensation courts for California Fish and Game employees who are safety workers.

The heart presumption is a critical one to understand, because heart conditions often go undetected. Our recommendation is that before any corrections employee leaves their job either through change in circumstance or retirement, they have their doctor schedule an echocardiogram (EKG) and EBCT Heart Scan to make sure the heart is functioning properly, especially if the employee has had a history of hypertensive disease. If not, the heart presumption can help get you workers' compensation benefits if there is undetected symptoms.

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