“A fighting force both consistent and compassionate on a scale’s a 5 all around.”
Rachael Hall
✦ Board-Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — State Bar of California ✦
Bad ruling? We take your case to the next level — Reconsideration, Writ of Review, and beyond.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law
A bad ruling from a workers' comp judge does not mean your case is over. If you received an unfavorable decision at the Bakersfield WCAB — whether it involved your BNSF Railroad yard injury, a toxic exposure claim from the Mojave Air & Space Port, or a back injury from trucking along Highway 58 — California law gives you the right to appeal through a Petition for Reconsideration. But the window is dangerously narrow: you have just 20 days from the date of the judge's decision to file under LC §5903.
Workers' comp appeals require a fundamentally different skill set than trial work. You are no longer arguing facts to a single judge — you are identifying specific legal errors in a written decision and persuading a panel of WCAB commissioners that the outcome must be reversed. Mojave industrial injury cases are especially fertile ground for appealable errors because they involve complex causation issues, unusual exposure histories at the Air & Space Port, and the intersection of state workers' comp with federal railroad law at BNSF. Judges who handle standard slip-and-fall claims daily may misapply the law when confronted with aerospace chemical exposure or railroad vibration injury causation.
From our office on Avenue M-14 in Palmdale, we have filed Petitions for Reconsideration on Bakersfield WCAB decisions for Mojave workers across every type of dispute — disability rating challenges on aerospace injuries, apportionment rulings on railroad cumulative trauma, denied toxic exposure claims, and treatment authorization disputes. When the WCAB panel itself rules incorrectly, we pursue Writs of Review at the California Court of Appeal under LC §5950.
Under LC §5903, a Petition for Reconsideration must identify specific legal grounds — you cannot simply argue that you disagree with the outcome. The WCAB Appeals Board panel will grant reconsideration only if it finds one or more of the following:
Time moves fast in workers' comp appeals, and Mojave's geographic isolation makes every day critical:
If the WCAB panel denies your Petition for Reconsideration, the fight can continue. A Writ of Review under LC §5950 takes your case to the California Court of Appeal — a higher court with the authority to overturn WCAB panel decisions. Writs are granted sparingly, but they serve an essential function in cases involving novel legal questions about aerospace workplace exposure standards, railroad injury causation under overlapping state and federal frameworks, and industrial disease apportionment. We have pursued Writs of Review for Mojave workers when the stakes and the legal errors justified appellate court intervention.
Filing a Petition for Reconsideration does not automatically stay the judge's order. If the Bakersfield WCAB decision awards you benefits, the insurer generally must comply while the appeal is pending. If the decision denies or reduces your benefits, filing the petition preserves your right to challenge the ruling but does not automatically restore benefits. We can petition for a stay of adverse orders in appropriate circumstances to protect Mojave workers from financial harm during the appeal process.
Injured at work in Mojave? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →All Mojave workers' comp trials and initial decisions are issued at the Bakersfield WCAB in Kern County. Petitions for Reconsideration are filed at Bakersfield and reviewed by the WCAB Appeals Board panel in San Francisco. We handle every filing and appearance.
Mojave industrial injury appeals involve complex legal issues that general practitioners routinely miss — incorrect application of cumulative trauma apportionment standards, failure to apply aerospace-specific exposure thresholds, and misinterpretation of railroad injury causation. A board-certified specialist identifies every appealable error and frames the petition to maximize the chance of reversal.
Ready to discuss your case? Schedule a free consultation.
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