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What actually controls the clock
Your medical condition, more than anything else. A case cannot resolve on permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. until you are permanent and stationaryP&S / MMI Permanent and Stationary / Maximum Medical Improvement. Your condition has plateaued — not that you are healed. Temporary disability ends here. — meaning your condition has plateaued. If you need surgery and a year of recovery, that is a year the case cannot end, and no lawyer can compress it.
Whether the claim was accepted. A denial adds months, sometimes more than a year.
Whether treatment gets denied. Each utilization reviewUR Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out. dispute and IMRIMR Independent Medical Review. The appeal from a UR denial. 30 days (10 if the dispute is only over drugs on the MTUS Drug List). appeal has its own cycle. How that works.
The medical-legal evaluation. Obtaining a panel, scheduling the exam, waiting for the report, and — where the report is inadequate — obtaining a supplemental report or taking a deposition. This is frequently the longest stretch in the case. The QME process.
And how many body parts and how much apportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. is in dispute.
The parts with fixed timing
| Step | Timing |
|---|---|
| First disability payment, or a written delay or denial notice | 14 days |
| 90-day presumption | If liability is not rejected in 90 days (75 for the public-safety presumption injuries), the injury is presumed compensable |
| IMR after a UR denial | Request within 30 days (10 for a Drug List-only dispute) |
| Mandatory Settlement Conference | 10–30 days after a Declaration of Readiness |
| Trial | Within 75 days of the DOR |
| Decision after trial | Taken under submission — not from the bench |
| Petition for Reconsideration | 20 days; the Board has 60 days from transmittal to act — § 5909 runs from the date the judge transmits the case, not from filing |
The full timeline, stage by stage.
What makes it take longer than it should
Nobody moving it. Cases sit. A Declaration of Readiness is what forces the calendar, and it can be filed by either side.
An inadequate medical-legal report. A report that does not address a body part, does not explain apportionment, or does not state restrictions specifically has to be fixed — supplemental report, deposition, or a new evaluation — and each of those is months.
Body parts added late. Every addition restarts a piece of the medical development. Why compensable consequences have to be raised early.
And treatment disputes that are never appealed. A denial that sits does not resolve itself.
What you get while you wait
This is the part that matters more than the end date.
Medical treatment — including up to $10,000 while the claim is being investigated.
Temporary disabilityTD / TTD / TPD Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week. every two weeks while you are off work — and a late payment carries an automatic 10%. More.
Permanent disability advances, once there is a rating basis.
A case taking a long time is not the same as a case where nothing is being paid. If nothing is being paid, that is a separate problem with its own remedies. When nothing is happening.
Timing, and after it ends
How long it takes, and what can still be done later.
Sources
§ 5402(c)§ 4650(d)
General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.
Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney · Last reviewed
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC · (213) 380-9310
Printed from https://www.solovteitell.com/answers/how-long-will-my-case-take/ · Last reviewed