“What’s my case worth?”

The five inputs

1. Your whole person impairmentWPI — Whole Person Impairment The percentage from the AMA Guides that a rating is built from. Extremity percent is not whole person percent: 100% upper extremity = 60% whole person, 100% lower extremity = 40%. This is the most common source of confusion in a rating., from the AMA Guides. Not what hurts — what the method measures. Some injuries rate far lower than people expect, by design. Shoulder · Knee · Carpal tunnel · Hearing loss

2. ApportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image.. How much of the disability is attributed to non-industrial causes. The single largest variable, and the one most often asserted without the reasoning EscobedoEscobedo The en banc decision requiring an apportionment opinion to explain how and why. A percentage without reasoning is not substantial evidence. requires. How to attack it.

3. Your occupational group and your age, which adjust the impairment into a final percentage. How the rating string works.

4. Your average weekly earnings — which determine the weekly rate, and which get computed wrong when there is a second job, overtime, or irregular work. More.

5. What else is in the case — and this is where most of the missed value sits.

What else belongs in the number

Every injured body part, including compensable consequences. More.

A cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed. claim alongside the specific injurySpecific injury One identifiable event on one date..

The job displacement voucher, if no offer of regular, modified, or alternative work was made.

SIBTFSIBTF Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund. Pays where a pre-existing disability plus an industrial injury produce a substantially greater disability. Rewritten by SB 171 in July 2026., if you had a pre-existing disability — money from a state fund, in addition to what your employer owes, and rewritten by SB 171 in July 2026. More.

Extended 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. — § 4656(c)(3): 240 weeks instead of 104 for nine conditions. Up to about $240,000.

Penalties — the automatic 10%, and up to 25% or up to $10,000, whichever is less.

A § 4553 petition — one-half of everything, paid by the employer personally. Twelve-month deadline.

And a third-party claim, which pays for pain and suffering. Workers’ compensation does not, and in a serious case the civil claim is frequently the larger one. How.

What reduces it

Permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. advances already paid — check the credits; overstatement is a common quiet error.

Liens — medical, EDD reimbursement, child support, and any Medicare Set-AsideMSA — Medicare Set-Aside Funds allocated for future injury-related care where Medicare’s interest is involved. CMS reviews above $25,000 for current beneficiaries, or $250,000 with enrollment expected within 30 months.. The gross is not the net. Every category.

Attorney’s fees, set by a judge at generally 9%–15%.

And the number is not the whole question

A Compromise and ReleaseC&R — Compromise and Release A lump sum that closes future medical treatment permanently. for $80,000 that closes future medical is not obviously better than Stipulations for $60,000 that keep it open.

In any case involving a device, a joint replacement, ongoing medication, or a progressive condition, the structure matters more than the amount. Why.

And at the top of the scale, one rating point changes everything. A life pensionLife pension Payable at 70%–99% after the PD award is exhausted. § 4659(a): 1.5% of average weekly earnings per point above 60 — with earnings capped at $515.38 since 2006. at 99% starts at up to $301.50/week; total disability pays up to $1,764.11/week for life. Why.

What we will tell you

A range, once we have seen the medical report and the wage records — and the reasoning behind it. Not a number on the phone before anyone has read anything.

And if the case does not have much in it, we will say that too. When you probably don’t need a lawyer.