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Lab. Code, § 5402 · Chapter 2. Limitations of Proceedings

Lab. Code, § 5402

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Knowledge of an injury, obtained from any source, on the part of an employer, the employer’s managing agent, superintendent, foreman, or other person in authority, or knowledge of the assertion of a claim of injury sufficient to afford opportunity to the employer to make an investigation into the facts, is equivalent to service under Section 5400.

(b) (1) If liability is not rejected within 90 days after the date the claim form is filed under Section 5401, the injury shall be presumed compensable under this division. The presumption of this subdivision is rebuttable only by evidence discovered subsequent to the 90-day period.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for injuries or illnesses defined in Sections 3212 to 3212.85, inclusive, and Sections 3212.9 to 3213.2, inclusive, if the liability is not rejected within 75 days after the date the claim form is filed pursuant to Section 5401, the injury shall be presumed compensable under this division. The presumption of this subdivision is rebuttable only by evidence discovered subsequent to the 75-day period.

(c) Within one working day after an employee files a claim form under Section 5401, the employer shall authorize the provision of all treatment, consistent with Section 5307.27, for the alleged injury and shall continue to provide the treatment until the date that liability for the claim is accepted or rejected. Until the date the claim is accepted or rejected, liability for medical treatment shall be limited to ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

(d) Treatment provided under subdivision (c) does not give rise to a presumption of liability on the part of the employer.

(e) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Division of Workers’ Compensation shall identify and amend its existing data collection processes to include collection of the date on which the claimant is notified of acceptance, denial, or conditional denial of liability for a claim, consistent with this section.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 835, Sec. 3. (SB 1127) Effective January 1, 2023.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=5402.
Text hash
sha256 565fc1caa60f6f783668f3c23d2c29c5e44cd4c13dc2f516984b4b0c892fa0d2
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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