Workers’ comp reference

• The first 72 hours

  — A printable checklist. Report it in writing, file the DWC-1DWC-1 The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation. and keep the date, ask for the § 5402(c) $10,000, and photograph the equipment before anyone repairs it. También en español.

• Rates

  — Every figure with its effective date and its source. 2026 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.: $264.61 minimum, $1,764.11 maximum. Permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week., 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., death benefits, mileage, and penalties.

• Every deadline in one place

  — Twenty deadlines, each with its statute — and the two miscounted most often, both of which run from the date of injuryDate of injury For a cumulative or occupational disease claim, the law sets it as when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the wear began. Almost every deadline runs off this. rather than from anything that feels like a starting point.

• Every DWC form, and what it starts

  — Which form you are holding and what clock it starts. The DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. 1 starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation. The DWC 9783 predesignation form only works before you are injured.

Note which date sets the rate: temporary disability uses the rate on your date of injury; mileage uses the rate on the date you traveled.

• What changed in 2026

  — § 5909’s sunset was deleted on July 13 and its transmittal trigger is now permanent. 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. was rewritten in July. The URUR Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out. regulations restructured on April 1. Four treatment guidelines were replaced on January 2.

• Glossary

  — Every acronym and term in one sentence each, with the statute where one applies — and the traps stated rather than hidden. Extremity percent is not whole person percent.

• The IMR overturn tracker

  — What actually gets overturned on independent medical reviewIMR Independent Medical Review. The appeal from a UR denial. 30 days (10 if the dispute is only over drugs on the MTUS Drug List)., and what does not.

• Who is handling your claim

  — The company on your letters is usually not your employer and often not even the insurer: a claims administratorClaims administrator / adjuster The person handling your claim for the insurer or self-insured employer. runs the file. What that means, how to reach the adjuster, where the MPNMPN Medical Provider Network. Your employer’s list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission. notice is, and a page for each administrator people name.

• How to read your medical-legal report

  — Ten things to check in the document your entire permanent disability is built from — and the one paragraph, usually four sentences long, that decides more of your case than any other. And apportionment.

• How to read your rating string

  — The explainer behind the decoder.

• The adjuster’s math

  — How a percentage becomes dollars.

• For treating physicians

  — What California requires of a workers’ compensation report: the UR pathway, what makes an apportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. opinion substantial evidenceSubstantial evidence The standard a medical opinion must meet to support a finding., and the measurements that are routinely omitted and routinely matter.

• The Southern California WCAB offices

  — The addresses, parking, transit, security, and local rules for each.

• All of the free tools

  — Free, nothing to sign up for, and every result with the Labor Code section next to it.

Rates are re-verified on every DWC newsline. Office pages are re-verified quarterly against the DWC directory. The 2026 tracker is maintained continuously.

And when we get something wrong, we say so.

• Corrections

  — Every correction, dated, in public.

• Our editorial standard

  — The five commitments this site is held to.