How Much Is My Workers’ Comp Case Worth? One Case, Worked

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Why nobody honest gives you a number on the phone Start with the paycheck The checks paid along the way The rating, and why a point is not a point What takes points away, and what adds them The line at 70%Future medical care The money that is easy to leave behind What comes out before the final check When the number can be known When you do not need a lawyer for this Key takeaways Frequently asked questions Tell us what happened

In thirty seconds

Nobody can tell you what your case is worth from the injury alone, and an “average settlement” cannot tell you either. But the number is not a mystery. It is built from a few inputs, and you can find out where you stand on each.
The inputs are your wage, the weeks you could not work, your permanent disability rating, the future medical care you will need, and the money that is easy to leave out: the voucher, penalties, and claims beside the case. Then the fee, the advances and the liens come out.
The rating is where most of the money moves. A point is not a point: at the maximum rate, a point between 15% and 24.75% is worth $1,450, and a point above 70% is worth $4,640, with a life pension on top.

A carpenter in Pasadena, forty years old, came down off a ladder wrong and hurt his lower back. Months later, with a stack of pay stubs, a doctor’s report and a letter from the insurance company, he asked the question everyone asks: what is this worth? A coworker had heard of someone who got $50,000 for a back. A website promised “the average settlement.” The adjuster, when he asked, said it was too early to say.

The adjuster was the only one telling the truth. A case’s value cannot be read off a chart of body parts, and no honest lawyer will give you a number on the phone before anyone has read the medical report. But “too early to say” is not the same as “unknowable.” A California workers’ compensation case is arithmetic. Each part of it comes from a statute, a schedule or a medical report, and every part can be checked.

This article builds one illustrative case from start to finish: the carpenter’s wage, his checks while he was off work, his permanent disability rating and what moves it, the line at 70%, future medical care, the money that is easy to leave behind, and what comes out before the final check. Every figure in his case is illustrative, and it uses the limits for a 2026 injury. It will not tell you what your own case is worth. That depends on your own wage, your own medical reports and your own rating, and the point of this article is to show you how to read them.

Why nobody honest gives you a number on the phone

An average cannot tell you what yours is worth.

There is no average that means anything. Two workers with the same injury can end up with very different cases. One rated 5% and back at work in three months. The other rated 30%, off work for a year, with surgery and a job he cannot go back to. An average of the two describes neither of them, and this site will not publish one.

What the number is built from. The value of a case comes from a short list of inputs:

Your average weekly wage. It sets every weekly check, and it is computed wrong more often than people think.
The weeks you could not work. Temporary disability, paid while you recover.
Your permanent disability rating. A percentage, built from a doctor’s measurement and then adjusted for your occupation and your age.
Future medical care. What treatment you will need for this injury, and whether it stays open or is bought out.
What else is in the case. Every injured body part, the job displacement voucher, penalties, and claims that sit beside the workers’ compensation case.

And what comes out. Advances already paid, the attorney’s fee, and liens. The gross is not the net.

How do I know what my case is worth?

Start with the paycheck

One wage, and two very different weekly rates.

Average weekly wage. Everything weekly in a case starts here: what you were earning, on average, each week before the injury. Not your hourly rate times forty. Overtime counts. A second job can count. Irregular or seasonal work is averaged in a way that has to be checked. This is the number most often computed wrong, and an error here repeats on every check for the life of the case.

The carpenter’s wage. He earned $25 an hour for forty hours, $1,000 a week, and averaged $200 a week of overtime. His average weekly wage is $1,200 (illustrative).

Temporary disability: two-thirds. While he cannot work, temporary disability pays two-thirds of his average weekly wage: $800 a week. For a 2026 injury the weekly check cannot be less than $264.61 or more than $1,764.11. Those limits reset every January 1, and the year of your injury, not the year you are paid, decides which limits apply.

What the overtime is worth. If the insurer left out the overtime and used $1,000 a week, his check would be $666.67 instead of $800. That is $133.33 a week. Over thirty weeks off work, it is $4,000 he would never see unless someone checked the arithmetic, and unpaid temporary disability is money the case is still owed.

Permanent disability: a different rate entirely. Permanent disability is paid at two-thirds of the same wage, but between a minimum of $160 and a maximum of $290 a week, and those figures have been frozen since January 1, 2014. Anyone earning more than $435 a week gets the maximum. So the carpenter’s $1,200 wage produces an $800 temporary check and a $290 permanent one. A worker injured in 2026 is paid permanent disability at a rate set twelve years ago, and it is the quiet erosion at the center of the system.

Figure 1. One paycheck, two weekly rates, drawn to scale in dollars a week: the carpenter’s illustrative average weekly wage of $1,200; his temporary disability rate of $800, two-thirds of that wage; and his permanent disability rate of $290, the maximum, which has not changed since 2014.

BEFORE YOU ACCEPT THE FIRST CHECK

Ask the adjuster in writing how your average weekly wage was computed: which weeks, which pay, whether overtime and any second job were included. Compare it to your own pay stubs.

The checks paid along the way

Temporary disability is part of what the case is worth, and it is paid first.

It is paid while the case is open. Temporary disability is not part of a settlement offer; it is paid every two weeks while a doctor says you cannot work, or cannot do your job, and before anyone talks about settling. People leave it out when they ask what a case is worth. It is often a large part of it.

The carpenter’s checks. He was off work for thirty weeks (illustrative): 30 × $800 = $24,000, paid as he went.

It does not last forever. For most injuries, temporary disability is limited to 104 weeks, paid within five years of the date of injury. A short list of severe injuries, such as amputations and severe burns, can be paid for up to 240 weeks.

Late checks cost the insurer. The first check is due within fourteen days of the employer’s knowledge of the injury and disability, and a late payment carries an automatic 10% increase that nobody has to ask for. Where a delay was unreasonable, a separate penalty can reach 25% of the delayed benefit or $10,000, whichever is less.

When the checks stop. Temporary disability ends when you return to work, when a doctor finds you permanent and stationary, or when the weeks run out. What comes next is a different benefit at a different rate.

Workers’ comp checks stopped? Why they end, and what comes next The 10% the law adds to a late check, by itself

The rating, and why a point is not a point

The percentage becomes weeks, and the weeks become dollars.

Where the percentage comes from. Once the carpenter’s condition stopped improving, a doctor measured his impairment under the AMA Guides. That measurement is a whole person impairment, and it is not yet a disability percentage. It is adjusted by 1.4 for injuries since 2013, then for his occupational group, then for his age. His rating string reads: lumbar spine, 10% impairment, 14 after the 1.4, 18 after his occupation as a carpenter, and 18% after age, because forty sits in the neutral bracket.

From percentage to weeks. The law converts the percentage into weeks of payments, and the weeks per point climb as the rating climbs: 3 weeks a point at the bottom of the scale, 16 weeks a point above 70%. The statute says the figures are cumulative, so each step earns the weeks of the band it lands in. At 18%, the carpenter earns 65.50 weeks.

From weeks to dollars. At his $290 rate, 65.50 weeks is $18,995 of permanent disability.

Figure 2. A permanent disability rating, as weeks and dollars at the $290 maximum: 5% is 15 weeks and $4,350; 10% is 30.25 weeks and $8,773; the carpenter’s 18% is 65.50 weeks and $18,995; 25% is 100.75 weeks and $29,218; 50% is 271.25 weeks and $78,663; and 70% is 433.25 weeks and $125,643, with a life pension on top.

Look at the slope. At the maximum rate, each point between 15% and 24.75% is worth $1,450. Each point between 50% and 69.75% is worth $2,320. Each point above 70% is worth $4,640. A dispute over two points near the bottom of the scale is worth a few thousand dollars; the same dispute near 70% can be worth far more than that, and it changes whether a life pension is owed at all.

A case is not worth a number. It is built from one, and every piece of it can be checked.

What your permanent disability rating means, number by number Permanent disability: how California builds the rating

What takes points away, and what adds them

Apportionment, the occupational group, and the body part nobody rated.

Apportionment. If a doctor finds that part of the disability comes from something other than work, such as an old injury or a degenerative condition, the rating is reduced by that share. Suppose the carpenter’s report said 20% of his disability came from non-industrial causes (illustrative). His 18% comes down to about 14%: 46.25 weeks and $13,412.50 instead of $18,995. One paragraph of one report moved $5,582.50.

It has to be explained. In Escobedo v. Marshalls, an en banc decision of the Appeals Board in 2005, the Board held that an apportionment finding must explain how and why the doctor reached it. A percentage with no reasoning behind it is not substantial evidence. Apportionment is the single largest variable in many cases, and it is the one most often asserted without the reasoning the law requires.

The occupational group. Your occupational group is supposed to reflect what you actually did all day, not your job title. A heavier group raises the rating; a lighter one lowers it. If the group on your string does not match your real duties, that is one of the most valuable corrections in the system, and one of the cheapest to make.

The body part nobody rated. A back injury changes how you walk, and months later the knee starts to hurt. Sleep goes. Depression follows a long recovery. Each of these can be part of the case if it is in the medical record, and none of it is in the number if it is not. More than one body part does not simply add; the ratings are combined through a chart that produces less than the sum. In Vigil v. County of Kern, an en banc decision in 2024, the Board held that the chart can be rebutted where the impairments interact.

When the book rates it too low. Under Almaraz/Guzman, an en banc decision of 2009, a doctor may use another method within the AMA Guides where the strict rating does not fairly reflect the impairment. It has to be built into the report with reasoning. It is not something to ask for after the report is written.

The line at 70%

Where a life pension begins.

A pension for life. If a rating is 70% or higher but less than 100%, the law adds a weekly pension for the rest of the worker’s life, on top of the permanent disability award, beginning when the permanent disability weeks run out. It rises every year with the state average weekly wage.

What it is worth. At the maximum, a 70% rating carries a life pension of $77.31 a week; 75%, $115.96; 80%, $154.61; 90%, $231.92; 99%, $301.50. A 75% case for a 45-year-old is not only its permanent disability award. It is that award plus $115.96 a week, rising every year, starting around year ten, for the rest of his life.

Where settlements go wrong. A Compromise and Release that pays the chart value of a 75% rating and quietly closes out the life pension is one of the most expensive mistakes in the system. It is also a common one. At 100%, permanent total disability is paid at the temporary disability rate, for life, and the step from 99% to 100% is the largest step in the schedule.

BEFORE ANYONE SETTLES A CASE NEAR 70%

Ask for the life pension to be calculated in writing, and ask how the settlement accounts for it. A case at 68% deserves a very careful look at the rating.

Permanent total disability

Future medical care

Often the largest part of a settlement, and the hardest to price.

Two ways a case ends. Almost every case ends in a settlement, and there are two kinds. Stipulations with Request for Award pay the permanent disability every two weeks and leave future medical care for the injury open, with the right to reopen for worsening within five years of the date of injury. A Compromise and Release pays a lump sum and closes the claim, future medical care included, for good.

How the insurer prices it. When future medical care is bought out, the insurer’s figure is built from what it actually paid for your treatment over the last twelve to twenty-four months, annualized and projected forward. A worker who has been treating regularly has a record that supports a real number. A worker who stopped going, because of the pain, the drive or the paperwork, has handed the insurer its best argument that future care is worth very little.

The structure can matter more than the amount. A Compromise and Release for $80,000 that closes future medical is not obviously better than Stipulations for $60,000 that keep it open. In any case with a device, a joint replacement, ongoing medication or a condition that gets worse with time, the choice of structure can outweigh the difference in dollars.

Medicare. If you are on Medicare, or reasonably expect to be within thirty months, a settlement that closes future medical has to protect Medicare’s interests, usually through a set-aside. The set-aside is part of the settlement’s value, but it is reserved for future treatment. It is not cash you can spend.

A judge has to approve it. No settlement is final until a workers’ compensation judge approves it, and in Gaines v. ABM Aviation, an en banc decision of June 2026, the Board confirmed that the judge must independently decide whether the settlement is adequate, not simply that both sides signed.

The money that is easy to leave behind

The voucher, the supplement, penalties, and the claims beside the case.

The job displacement voucher. For an injury since 2013, if the employer does not offer regular, modified or alternative work, the worker is owed a $6,000 voucher for retraining or skills. The carpenter’s employer could not offer work he could do with his restrictions, so his case includes it.

The Return-to-Work Supplement. A separate $5,000 payment from the state for workers who received the voucher. The application has to be made within one year of the voucher being issued, and it is missed constantly.

Penalties and interest. The automatic 10% on any late payment, the penalty for unreasonable delay, and interest. A settlement approved without saying so can resolve every penalty claim that has accrued, so they should be counted before anything is signed.

Serious and willful misconduct. Where an injury was caused by the employer’s serious and willful misconduct, such as ignoring a known hazard, the whole award can be increased by one-half. That increase is not insurable: the employer pays it personally. The petition must be filed within twelve months of the injury.

A prior disability. If you had a disability before this injury and the two together leave you far more disabled, a state fund, the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, may owe you money your employer does not. SB 171 rewrote its rules in July 2026.

Someone else who caused it. Workers’ compensation never pays for pain and suffering. A claim against someone other than your employer, such as a driver, an equipment maker or a property owner, can, and in a serious case it is often the larger claim.

Figure 3. The carpenter’s illustrative case, piece by piece: temporary disability, 30 weeks at $800, $24,000, paid as he went; permanent disability at 18%, 65.50 weeks at $290, $18,995; the job displacement voucher, $6,000; future medical care, left open or priced into a buyout; and the automatic 10% on any check that came late.

What comes out before the final check

The gross is not the net.

Advances already paid. After temporary disability ends, permanent disability is usually paid every two weeks before the case settles. Those payments are advances, and they are credited against the award. The carpenter received 20 weeks of advances at $290 (illustrative): $5,800. Check the credit claimed against your own records; an overstated credit is a common quiet error.

The attorney’s fee. In California workers’ compensation, a lawyer may not charge or collect any fee until a judge approves or sets it, and it is generally 9% to 15% of the award. It comes out of the disability money, not out of your medical care. At an illustrative 12%, the fee on the carpenter’s $18,995 is $2,279.40.

Liens. If you collected State Disability Insurance for the same period, EDD is reimbursed from the case. Medical providers, health plans, child support and Medicare can all assert liens. Many liens are negotiated, and every dollar taken off a lien is a dollar that reaches you.

Taxes. Workers’ compensation benefits are generally not taxable income. If you also receive Social Security disability, talk to a tax professional about how the two interact.

Figure 4. From the carpenter’s permanent disability award to what is still to come: the award, $18,995; less 20 weeks of advances already paid, $5,800; less the attorney’s fee at an illustrative 12%, $2,279.40; leaving $10,915.60 still to be paid. Every line is knowable before anything is signed.

Ask for the net in writing. Before you sign any settlement, ask for one page that starts with the gross and lists, by name and amount, every advance, the fee and every lien, and ends with what you will receive.

Why is the settlement check smaller? Liens and deductions, line by line

When the number can be known

Before the rating exists, every figure is a guess.

Early on, only the wage is knowable. In the first weeks you can check your average weekly wage and your temporary disability rate. Almost nothing else about the value of the case can be known yet, because the injury is still healing.

After permanent and stationary. When a doctor finds that your condition has stopped improving, the report describes your impairment and any work restrictions. That report is the raw material of the rating.

After the rating. If you are not represented, the state’s Disability Evaluation Unit rates the report, and it must serve the rating within twenty days of receiving a complete package. You then have thirty days to ask for reconsideration of that rating. From the rating, the permanent disability is arithmetic.

The window before the report. Before a medical-legal evaluator reports, the insurer is pricing a range of possible outcomes, not one number. On a case with real uncertainty, that window can be the best time to settle. Once the report lands, the uncertainty is gone, and so is the leverage it gave whichever side the report went against.

What not to do. Do not settle before the rating exists. Do not settle before every injured body part has been evaluated. And do not stop treatment that you need in the year before a settlement; it is the year the insurer will use to price your future care.

The QME appointment, from the panel to the report

When you do not need a lawyer for this

Some cases do not have much in them, and you should know that early.

Small cases are small. A 5% rating at the maximum rate is 15 weeks and $4,350. If your injury healed, you went back to the same job, your temporary disability checks were right and on time, and your rating is low, the case may be worth only a few thousand dollars, and a fee of 9% to 15% of it may not buy you much.

What you can do yourself. Check your average weekly wage against your pay stubs. Check every check against the dates. Read your rating string, and compare the occupational group to what you actually did. Ask the state’s Information and Assistance officers for help with a rating; they work with workers who have no lawyer.

When a consultation is worth having. When the rating is near a break point or near 70%; when apportionment took a large share without explaining why; when a body part was left out; when the wage leaves out overtime or a second job; when you are being offered a Compromise and Release that closes future medical you will need; when you are on Medicare or close to it; or when someone other than your employer caused the injury. A consultation with this office costs nothing, and if there is nothing worth doing, we will tell you that.

When you don’t need a lawyer, and what changes the answer What does a workers’ comp lawyer cost?

A file for valuing your own case:

Pay stubs for the year before the injury — Every one, with overtime and any second job.
Every benefit notice and check — The dates and amounts of temporary disability and any advances.
The permanent and stationary report — And the rating string, if one has been issued.
The apportionment paragraph — Does it explain how and why, or just give a percentage?
Your real job duties — A few lines on what you actually did all day, for the occupational group.
Every body part that hurts — And whether each one is in a medical report.
Your treatment record for the last two years — Visits, medication, therapy, and any requests denied.
Any offer — With its structure, and the net figure, in writing.

Key takeaways

There is no honest average. A case’s value is built from your own wage, weeks, rating, medical needs and what else is in the case.
Check the wage first. Overtime and a second job change every weekly check, and the error repeats for the life of the case.
A point is not a point. Each point is worth more as the rating climbs, and at 70% a life pension begins.
Future medical is often the largest piece. How it is settled, kept open or bought out, can matter more than the dollar figure.
The gross is not the net. Advances, the fee and liens come out, and each is knowable before you sign.

Frequently asked questions

How much is my workers’ comp case worth?

It is the sum of its parts: temporary disability, permanent disability from your rating, a life pension at 70% or more, the value of future medical care if it is bought out, the voucher, and any penalties, less advances, the fee and liens. Any figure given before there is a rating is a guess.

What is the average settlement for a back injury?

There is no average that tells you anything about your case. Two back injuries can be rated 5% and 30%, which are $4,350 and $37,990 at the maximum rate, before anything else is counted.

Why is my permanent disability check so much smaller than my temporary one?

Temporary disability is two-thirds of your wage up to a high limit. Permanent disability is two-thirds of your wage too, but between $160 and $290 a week, figures frozen since 2014.

Should I take a lump sum or keep my medical open?

It depends on what treatment you will need, your age, whether Medicare is involved and what your life requires. A lump sum that closes future medical is permanent; Stipulations keep care open and allow reopening within five years of the injury.

Does hiring a lawyer reduce what I get?

The fee, generally 9% to 15%, is set by a judge and comes out of the disability money, not your medical care. Whether it is worth it depends on how much is in dispute, which is why small, clean cases often do not need one.

When will I know what my case is worth?

Once a doctor finds you permanent and stationary and the report is rated. Before that, only your wage and your temporary disability rate can be checked.

Sources

Labor Code § 4453§ 4453(b)(9)§ 4453(c)(4)§ 4650(a), (b) and (d)§ 4656(c)(2) and (c)(3)§ 4658(d)(1) and (e)§ 4658.7§ 139.48§ 4659(a), (b) and (c)§ 4660.1§ 4663§ 4664§ 4553§ 5814§ 4903§ 4906§ 5001§ 5410§ 4061(e)2005 Permanent Disability Rating ScheduleEscobedo v. Marshalls (WCAB en banc, 2005)Almaraz/Guzman (WCAB en banc, 2009)Vigil v. County of Kern (WCAB en banc, June 10, 2024, 2024-EB-03)Gaines v. ABM Aviation (WCAB en banc, June 24, 2026, 2026-EB-01)Baker v. WCAB (2011) 52 Cal.4th 434CMS WCMSA Reference GuideDIR Newsline 2025-116 (2026 temporary disability rates).

General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.

Impairment values described are from the AMA Guides, 5th Edition as applied under the California rating schedule; the Guides are a copyrighted medical text and figures here are summarized rather than reproduced. Your rating depends on your own examination findings.

Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney · Last reviewed October 31, 2026

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