The 10% the law adds to a late check by itself

First, the schedule — because “late” is defined, not felt

Three due dates, all written into the statute.

A payment cannot be late until something says when it was due. For 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. — the wage-replacement checks that arrive while you cannot work — the law sets the schedule explicitly:

The 14-day clock starts at knowledge, not at paperwork. It is not fourteen days from when a claims examiner opens the file. The schedule is designated once and then it binds — once the day is set, a check that misses it is late on its face. And permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. has its own trigger: a gap between TD ending and PD starting is not the system thinking; it is a payment going late on a schedule the statute already wrote.

The automatic penalty: § 4650(d), in the statute’s own words

No petition, no hearing, no request.

Read it slowly and notice what is not in it. There is no requirement that the delay be unreasonable. There is no requirement that the worker complain. No hearing, no petition, no finding for a judge to make. “Without application” means you do not have to ask. A late check that arrives for the bare amount is, by the statute’s own arithmetic, a short check.

“If any indemnity payment is not made timely as required by this section, the amount of the late payment shall be increased 10 percent and shall be paid, without application, to the employee.”

How to check your own payment history

1. Line up every payment you have received: date issued, date received, the period each check covers, and the amount.
2. Apply the schedule. First TD payment within fourteen days of knowledge; every payment after it on the designated day, every two weeks.
3. Flag every gap. Any indemnity payment more than fourteen days after the last one should carry the 10% increase.
4. Compare against what actually arrived. If a late payment came through for the bare amount, the difference is owed — and it was owed without your asking.

The litigated penalty: § 5814, for delay that was unreasonable

Bigger, contested, and decided by a judge.

The second penalty is a different machine entirely, and a bigger one. § 5814(a): where payment of compensation has been unreasonably delayed or refused, “the amount of the payment unreasonably delayed or refused shall be increased up to 25 percent or up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000), whichever is less.”

It reaches more than checks

Indemnity, medical treatment, medical-legal costs, mileage. A wrongly denied MRI is delayed compensation.

Reasonableness, not good faith

An unread report or an unstaffed file is not made reasonable by the absence of bad intent.

It must be litigated

Nothing here is automatic. A judge decides whether the delay was unreasonable, and how much of the up-to-25% it earns.

Two years — from the due date

§ 5814(g): not from when you noticed. A two-year-old pattern may already be partly gone.

The two penalties together — not either/or

One check can carry both. The second is reduced by the first.

A payment can be late — triggering the automatic 10% — and unreasonably delayed — supporting up to 25% — at the same time. The first is the floor the schedule itself builds; the second is what unreasonable conduct adds — but not on top of the first. A § 5814 award is reduced by any § 4650(d) increase already paid on the same delayed payment.

What to do about a delay — this week, in order

Everything above turns on documentation that only you can create, because only you receive the checks.

• Build the payment ledger — Every check: date issued, date received, the period covered, the amount. A ruled page does it.
• Put the request in writing — An email or letter, dated, saying what is owed and why. It removes “we didn’t know” from the defense.
• Keep the envelopes or deposit records — Date of issue and date of receipt are different dates, and both matter.
• Know the window — The 90-day self-correction is open only to an employer that finds the delay before you claim a penalty; once you claim one, the Board decides it.
• Do not let a treatment denial sit — A denied treatment is delayed compensation — but URUR Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out. 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). have their own short deadlines. Run both tracks.