It is the most searched question in California workers’ compensation.
A workers’ compensation case has a part that can be calculated from a statute and a part that nobody can calculate from a form.
The calculable part is permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. indemnity, the 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., the voucher, and the return-to-work supplement. All four are below, computed the way §§ 4658, 4453, 4659, 4658.7 and 139.48 actually say.
The part that cannot be calculated is future medical care — and in a serious case it is routinely the largest single number in the settlement.
A single total would have to leave future medical out or invent it. This tool does neither. It shows you the components, tells you which questions move them, and stops where honesty requires stopping.
What moves the number, in rough order
Whether you have a rating yet. Without one, permanent disability cannot be computed at all.
Your 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.. The law sets a different weekly cap for 2014-and-later, for 2013, and for 2006 through 2012 — and the 2013 and 2006–2012 caps move with the rating band. The rates, with the statute for each.
Whether you crossed 70%. At 70% the award adds a life pension for life, which escalates annually and is routinely left out of settlement conversations entirely.
Whether your employer made a qualifying return-to-work offer. If they did not, that is $6,000 plus $5,000 — and the § 139.48 supplement has a one-year application deadline that runs from when the voucher was served, not from when your case ends.
ApportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image.. The carrier can attribute part of your disability elsewhere, and after Lindh even an asymptomatic pre-existing condition can support it. What makes an apportionment opinion hold up.
And whether anyone other than your employer was involved. That opens a civil claim under Labor Code § 3852(a) which pays for pain and suffering, loss of consortium and sometimes punitive damages — none of which exist in the compensation system at any rating. The overlap most people never hear about.
Sources
Labor Code § 4453§ 4658§ 4658.7§ 4659§ 139.48§ 3852§ 4663§ 4664
General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.
Rate figures carry the effective date that governs them. Temporary disability is set by date of injury; medical mileage by date of travel.
Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney · Last reviewed
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC · (213) 380-9310
Printed from https://www.solovteitell.com/resources/case-value-estimator/ · Last reviewed