Alert!! - California's Cumulative Trauma Crisis!!

This morning’s WorkCompCentral leads with a detailed and well-done article [sub required] on CWCI’s cumulative trauma (CT) injuries, a diagnosis unique to California’s work comp system.

The research and article lead to more questions than answers…experts are stumped by this mysterious public health crisis.

Readers may recall MCM has addressed this issue several times - as far back as 2017… here here and here - and a few other times.

Here’s the “highlights”…

• The volume of CT claims in California increased dramatically from 2021 to 2025…

  • A LOT of this growth occurred outside SoCal

    

• In 2021 CT accounted for one of every 11 claims; four years later it was one of every 6 claims.

• That jump cannot be attributed to:

  • increased employment

  • increased population

  • increased overall claim frequency (non-CT claim frequency declined)

  • worker tenure

• The increase was driven by more workers filing CT claims - not more claims filed per worker

• Seven years ago 3/4 of NorCal CT claims were represented by NorCal attorneys; by 2025 that flipped to 3/4 CT claims being represented by SoCal attorneys.

This from an article in Risk & Insurance:

• CT claims now represent 26% of indemnity claims in preliminary 2024 data, up from 13% in 2012.

• 58% of CT claims in accident years 2022–2024 were filed after a worker’s employment ended, up from 44% in accident years 2013–2015. [emphases added]

So, allow me to summarize…

SoCal attorneys have identified a growing epidemic of CT claims spreading from the LA Basin to that state’s Central Valley and northern metro areas.

To date there has been no clinical, epidemiological, or medical explanation for a) the unique geographic nature of this affliction or b) why it is spreading.

This epidemic is solely responsible for the increase in frequency.

What does this mean for you?

• Doing the same thing over and over can lead to creaky joints and complaining connective tissue and muscle.

• Its devilishly hard to attribute that to one’s past employment, non-employment, or just plain getting old or being generally lazy and/or crappy lifestyle decisions

• Absent any epidemiological research, it certainly appears that profit-seeking litigators are a major driver of this “epidemic”.

CWCI’s full report is here - I strongly suggest anyone with exposure in the Golden State read it carefully.