The appointment is at two on Thursday and you cannot say why. Since 1 January 2025 the answer is that you do not have to say much, and the employer has to keep what you do say to itself.
The short answer: yes. Under Government Code §12945.8 — the survivor-leave law that took over from Labor Code §§230 and 230.1 on 1 January 2025³ — an employer with 25 or more employees may not "discharge or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against" an employee who is a victim of a qualifying act of violence, or whose family member is, for taking time off "to seek, obtain, or assist a family member to seek or obtain psychological counseling or mental health services related to an experience of a qualifying act of violence," among nine other listed purposes.¹ An employer may cap the leave at twelve weeks in total.¹ You may use paid sick leave, vacation or personal time to make it paid.¹ Any documentation you give, and the fact that you asked, must be kept confidential.¹ Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking qualify "regardless of whether anyone is arrested for, prosecuted for, or convicted."¹
Who the law covers
Two tiers, by employer size.¹
- Every employer, whatever its size, may not punish an employee for taking time off to serve on a jury, to appear in court as a victim or witness, to obtain a restraining order or other injunctive relief for their own safety or a child's, or — since 1 January 2026 — to attend judicial proceedings related to a listed serious crime of which they or a family member were the victim.
- Employers with 25 or more employees must also allow the ten purposes below, for the employee's own victimisation and for a family member's.
"Family member" means a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse or domestic partner, plus a "designated person" — "any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship" — whom an employer may limit to one per twelve months.¹
The ten purposes
An employer of 25 or more may not retaliate against a victim, or the family member of a victim, for taking time off for any of these:¹
- To obtain or attempt to obtain relief, including a restraining order, for a family member, to help ensure the family member's health, safety or welfare.
- To seek medical attention for, or recover from, injuries caused by the act.
- To seek services from a domestic violence shelter, program, rape crisis centre or victim services organisation.
- To seek "psychological counseling or mental health services related to an experience of a qualifying act of violence."
- To participate in safety planning, or take other actions to increase safety.
- To relocate or secure a new residence, including enrolling children in a new school or childcare.
- To provide care to a family member recovering from injuries caused by the act.
- To seek or obtain civil or criminal legal services.
- To prepare for, participate in or attend any civil, administrative or criminal proceeding related to the act.
- To secure childcare or care for a dependent adult, if needed for safety.
Item 4 is the one this site exists for. It covers the weekly hour with a therapist, an intake at a rape crisis centre, a psychiatric consult, group — and it covers taking a family member to any of them.
What "qualifying act of violence" means
Four categories: domestic violence; sexual assault; stalking; and any act, conduct or pattern of conduct in which someone causes bodily injury or death to another, exhibits or uses a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or uses or threatens to use force against another to cause physical injury or death.¹ Each applies "regardless of whether anyone is arrested for, prosecuted for, or convicted."¹ A police report is not a precondition of the leave.
How much time
An employer may limit the leave under the ten purposes to twelve weeks in total.¹ Where the employee is not themselves a victim but is taking leave for a family member who is a living victim, the employer may limit it to ten days, and to five days where the purpose is helping that family member relocate; those two caps do not apply where the family member was killed.¹ The leave runs at the same time as any CFRA or FMLA leave the same facts would support — it does not stack on top of them.¹ CFRA or FMLA: which one covers me? →
What you have to show
The employer may ask for "reasonable advance notice" of a planned absence, unless advance notice is not feasible.¹ For an unscheduled absence — you left because you had to — the statute says the employer may not take action if you provide certification "within a reasonable time."¹
Certification is any one of these:¹
- a police report showing the employee or family member was a victim;
- a court order protecting or separating the employee or family member from the perpetrator, or other evidence from the court or prosecutor that they appeared in court;
- documentation from a licensed medical professional, domestic violence counsellor, sexual assault counsellor, victim advocate, licensed health-care provider or counsellor that the employee or family member was "undergoing treatment or seeking or receiving services directly related to the qualifying act of violence"; or
- "any other form of documentation that reasonably verifies" the act, "including, but not limited to, a written statement signed by the employee, or an individual acting on the employee's behalf."
That last line matters. A signed statement from you is enough on the face of the statute. Nobody is entitled to a diagnosis, the therapist's notes, or the story.
Confidentiality
The employer "shall maintain the confidentiality of any employee requesting leave" under the section, and documentation given in support of a leave or accommodation request must be kept confidential and "shall not be disclosed by the employer except as required by federal or state law or as necessary to protect the employee's safety in the workplace."¹ The employee is to be told before any such disclosure.¹
Paid or unpaid
The statute does not itself require pay. It does say an employee "may use vacation, personal leave, paid sick leave, or compensatory time off" that is otherwise available.¹ California paid sick leave separately covers leave taken "for a purpose described in" the same section,⁴ so the two rights sit together: this section protects the absence, sick leave pays for the first hours of it. Using sick leave for therapy → For longer absences, State Disability Insurance and the leave statutes have their own rules. Can I get paid during mental health leave? →
Safety accommodations at work
Beyond time off, an employer must provide "reasonable accommodations" for a victim's safety at work on request, unless doing so creates an undue hardship: a transfer, reassignment or modified schedule; a changed work telephone, permission to carry a telephone at work, or a changed workstation; an installed lock; help documenting violence that occurs in the workplace; a safety procedure; or a referral to a victim assistance organisation.¹ The employer must engage in a "timely, good faith, and interactive process" to work these out.¹
The notice you are owed
The employer must tell employees of these rights in writing: on hire, every year, on request, and any time it learns that an employee or their family member is a victim.¹ The Civil Rights Department was required to publish a form for that purpose — Survivors of Violence and Family Members of Victims Right to Leave and Accommodations — by 1 July 2025, in English and more than a dozen other languages.¹ If you were never given it, that itself is a gap the employer is meant to have closed.
Where to go if the employer refuses
Section 12945.8 lives inside the Fair Employment and Housing Act, so its protections are enforced through the Civil Rights Department, which takes complaints of discrimination and retaliation under that Act.² ³ A complaint there is separate from any workers' compensation, disability or wage claim, and can run alongside them.
Q&A
Q: I work for a company with 12 employees. Do I have any of this? A: The court-appearance, jury-duty and restraining-order protections apply to every employer. The ten expanded purposes — including counselling — apply only from 25 employees.¹
Q: Does my employer get to know what happened? A: No. A signed statement from you is listed as sufficient documentation, and whatever you provide must be kept confidential.¹
Q: Can I use this for my sister, who was assaulted? A: Yes, if your employer has 25 or more employees; a sibling is a family member, and the purposes include seeking counselling for a family member and caring for one who is recovering. Where the family member is a living victim, the employer may limit family-member leave to ten days.¹
Q: Is this the same as CFRA? A: No. CFRA needs twelve months of service and 1,250 hours; this section has no service requirement. Where both apply, they run at the same time.¹
Our therapist directory: See its current status →
If home is the problem too, the same documentation — a signed statement from a therapist or counsellor counts — ends a lease with 14 days' rent owed. Can I break my lease after domestic violence? → · Is what I tell a rape crisis or DV counsellor confidential? →
Sources
Cal. Government Code §12945.8 — the all-employer protections in subdivision (a), including (a)(4), in force 1 January 2026, on attending judicial proceedings related to a listed crime; the ten purposes for employers of 25 or more in subdivision (b), including "psychological counseling or mental health services"; notice, certification and the signed-statement alternative, and confidentiality, in subdivision (c); reasonable safety accommodations and the interactive process in subdivision (e); use of vacation, personal leave, sick leave and compensatory time in subdivision (g); the twelve-week, ten-day and five-day limits and concurrency with CFRA and FMLA in subdivision (i); the definitions of "family member" and "qualifying act of violence" in subdivision (j); and the written-notice duty and the Civil Rights Department form in subdivision (k) — california.public.law.
Cal. Government Code §12960 — complaints under the Fair Employment and Housing Act are filed with the Civil Rights Department — california.public.law.
Department of Industrial Relations, Expansion of Victims of Crime Protections and Transfer of Jurisdiction to Civil Rights Department — Labor Code §§230 and 230.1 moved to "Government Code section 12945.8 under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)," "Effective January 1, 2025," enforced by the "Civil Rights Department (CRD)" — dir.ca.gov.
Cal. Labor Code §246.5(a)(2)(B) — paid sick leave may be used, "for leave taken or requested on or after January 1, 2025, for a purpose described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of subdivision (a) of, or subdivision (b) of, Section 12945.8 of the Government Code" — california.public.law.
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