About these guides

Editorial standards: how we research and review these guides

Our guides are read by people deciding what to do about a real legal obligation, so how we write them matters. Here is how SB553Ready researches, writes, reviews, dates, and corrects every guide in this resource center.

Updated June 14, 2026 Editorial policy Checked against Labor Code §6401.9
In short
  • Every guide is written from primary sources — the statute text and Cal/OSHA / California DIR publications — not from other blogs.
  • Each guide is checked against the text of Labor Code §6401.9 before it is published, and carries a visible "Updated" date.
  • We update dateModified when we make a substantive change, so the freshness signal is honest.
  • These guides are information, not legal advice — SB553Ready is a software tool, not a law firm.

We work from primary sources

California's workplace violence prevention law is widely summarized online, and the summaries don't always agree — penalty figures in particular get quoted inconsistently. Rather than repeat what other pages say, we write each guide from the underlying sources and link them so you can check our work:

The primary sources we rely on
  • Labor Code §6401.9 — the statute itself, including the violent-incident-log fields at §6401.9(d).
  • California DIR / Cal/OSHA — the model workplace violence prevention plan, the employer fact sheet, and enforcement guidance.
  • DIR's published penalty schedule — the source of every dollar figure we quote, with the "citations issued on or after January 1, 2025" qualifier kept attached.
  • Title 8 §336, §3342, and §3203 — penalty assessment, the healthcare violence standard, and the IIPP regulation referenced in the exemptions.

How each guide is written and reviewed

Every guide is drafted and reviewed by the SB553Ready editorial team and checked against the current statute text before it goes live. We hold the whole library to one internal standard so facts stay consistent from page to page — the same penalty figures, the same retention periods, the same four workplace-violence types numbered the same way. When a guide makes a legal claim, we tie it to the statute or to a Cal/OSHA source rather than stating it on our own authority.

We are deliberate about what we don't do. We don't invent statistics, we don't quote penalty numbers without the date qualifier that makes them accurate, and we don't present obligations from other laws as if they were SB 553 requirements. Where a question genuinely turns on your specific facts, we say so and point you to qualified counsel.

Freshness and dating

California's penalty maximums adjust most Januarys, and a formal Cal/OSHA general-industry regulation is due by the end of 2026 — so this is a moving target. Each guide shows a visible "Updated" date and carries a machine-readable dateModified in its structured data. We bump that date when we make a substantive change to the content, and we leave it alone for cosmetic edits, so the freshness signal means something.

Corrections

If you spot something that's wrong, out of date, or unclear, tell us and we'll fix it. Email [email protected] with the page and the issue. Substantive corrections update the guide and its "Updated" date.

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SB553Ready editorial team Guides checked against Labor Code §6401.9 · Updated June 14, 2026

SB553Ready's guides are general information about California law, not legal advice, and SB553Ready is a software tool, not a law firm. Statutes and enforcement practice change; confirm your obligations with qualified counsel or a safety professional. Statute text: Labor Code §6401.9.