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BENEFITS & PROCESS
What the Labor Code provides, and how a claim moves
The claim, start to finish
Every deadline, in order
Denied claims
What a denial does and does not mean
Temporary disability
Two-thirds of your wage, while you cannot work
Permanent disability
Ratings, weeks, and the life pension
Medical treatment
Your doctors, utilization review, the MPN
Settlements
C&R or Stipulations, and the five years
All benefits & process
INJURIES
What your injury may mean for your claim
Low back
Ratings, surgery, return to work
Shoulder
Rotator cuff and overhead work
Knee
Meniscus, ligaments, kneeling trades
Traumatic brain injury
Concussion through catastrophic
Carpal tunnel & RSI
Cumulative trauma, and when it counts
Catastrophic injuries
240 weeks, life care, life pension
All injuries
YOUR JOB
The injuries your industry sees most
Construction
Falls, heights, third-party claims
Warehouse & logistics
Lifting, forklifts, repetitive strain
Healthcare
Patient handling, needlesticks
Restaurants & food service
Burns, slips, cumulative trauma
Janitorial
Chemicals and repetitive motion
Agriculture
Heat, machinery, pesticides
Every industry
FREE TOOLS
Calculators and guides, nothing to sign up for
Weekly benefits
What you may be owed each week
Permanent disability
Rating to weeks to dollars
Average weekly wage
The number every benefit multiplies from
Medical mileage
76¢ a mile from July 1, 2026
Deadlines
Every clock from your date of injury
Case value
A range, with the statutes
C&R or Stipulations?
Two structures, compared
Should you call a lawyer?
An honest two-minute triage
All of the free tools
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Tell us what happened.
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Reference
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Glossary
RESOURCES AND TOOLS
Every term you will encounter, in one sentence each — with the statute where one applies, and the traps stated rather than hidden. 60 terms in eight groups. Start typing and the list narrows as you go.
60
Terms
8
Groups
1
Sentence each
⌕
One sentence each, with the statute where one applies
JUMP TO
People and places 10
Doctors and medical process 10
Rating 10
Benefits 7
Types of injury 5
Procedure 8
Settlement 5
Enforcement 5
01
10 terms
WCAB
Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. The court system that decides these cases. 23 district offices statewide.
WCJ
Workers’ Compensation Judge. Decides your case. There is no jury.
DWC
Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401.
I&A
Information & Assistance officer. Free help with questions and forms at every district office. Underused.
DEU
Disability Evaluation Unit. Produces formal ratings from medical reports.
EAMS
Electronic Adjudication Management System. The Board’s case file system.
ADJ number
Your case number at the Appeals Board.
Claims administrator / adjuster
The person handling your claim for the insurer or self-insured employer.
UEBTF
Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund. Pays benefits where the employer was illegally uninsured.
SIBTF
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.
02
10 terms
MPN
Medical Provider Network. Your employer’s list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission.
PTP
Primary Treating Physician. The doctor directing your care.
QME
Qualified Medical Evaluator. A state-certified physician who resolves disputes. Unrepresented workers get a panel of three by random draw.
AME
Agreed Medical Evaluator. A physician both sides agree on. Available only to represented workers, and practically very hard to move away from.
Med-legal
An evaluation to resolve a dispute. Not treatment.
UR
Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out.
IMR
Independent Medical Review. The appeal from a UR denial. 30 days (10 if the dispute is only over drugs on the MTUS Drug List).
MTUS
Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule. California’s treatment guidelines. Four of them — shoulder, elbow, hand/wrist/forearm and traumatic brain injury — were replaced January 2, 2026.
RFA
Request for Authorization. The form your doctor uses to request treatment.
P&S / MMI
Permanent and Stationary / Maximum Medical Improvement. Your condition has plateaued — not that you are healed. Temporary disability ends here.
03
10 terms
WPI — 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.
Rating string
The row of numbers encoding your entire permanent disability calculation. Checkable arithmetic.
PDRS
The 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule.
Occupational group and variant
An adjustment for what your job demands of the injured body part. Based on what you actually did, not your job title.
FEC / DFEC
Future Earning Capacity / Diminished Future Earning Capacity. An adjustment factor applied to older injuries.
Apportionment
Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image.
Almaraz/Guzman
The doctrine permitting a physician to depart from the strict AMA rating where it does not accurately reflect the impairment, using another method inside the “four corners” of the Guides.
Escobedo
The en banc decision requiring an apportionment opinion to explain how and why. A percentage without reasoning is not substantial evidence.
LeBoeuf
The line of authority permitting a 100% finding where a worker cannot compete in the open labor market.
Substantial evidence
The standard a medical opinion must meet to support a finding.
04
7 terms
TD / TTD / TPD
Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week.
PD
Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week.
PTD
Permanent Total Disability. 100%. Paid at the temporary disability rate for life.
Life 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.
SJDB voucher
Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit. Retraining and education, generally owed where the employer does not offer regular, modified, or alternative work.
4850 time
Up to a year of full salary in lieu of temporary disability, for the public safety classifications § 4850 names.
Industrial accident leave
At least 60 days at full salary for school employees.
05
5 terms
Specific injury
One identifiable event on one date.
CT — Cumulative trauma
Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed.
Compensable consequence
A new problem caused by the original injury or its treatment. Overusing the other side, the joint above or below, a surgical complication.
Date 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.
Catastrophic injury
Under § 4660.1(c)(2)(B), “including, but not limited to, loss of a limb, paralysis, severe burn, or severe head injury.” Lifts the bar on psychiatric ratings.
06
8 terms
DWC-1
The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation.
Application for Adjudication
Opens your case at the Appeals Board. One year.
DOR
Declaration of Readiness to Proceed. Forces the calendar. You have 10 calendar days to object, or objections to proceeding on its issues are waived.
MSC
Mandatory Settlement Conference. Where most cases end — and where discovery closes.
Pretrial Conference Statement
The joint document listing issues, stipulations, proposed ratings, witnesses, and every exhibit. What is not on it does not come in.
F&A
Findings and Award. The judge’s decision.
Petition for Reconsideration
Appeal from a final order. 20 days. A non-final order takes a Petition for Removal instead.
Walk-through
Presenting a matter directly to a judge, usually for settlement approval.
07
5 terms
C&R — Compromise and Release
A lump sum that closes future medical treatment permanently.
Stips — Stipulations with Request for Award
An agreed percentage paid over time, with future medical left open, and reopening available within five years of the date of injury. These are not two prices for the same thing.
MSA — 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.
Lien
A claim against your recovery. The law lists nine categories, (a) through (i), including EDD reimbursement, which surprises people most.
Commutation
Paying future benefits as a present lump sum.
08
5 terms
§ 132a
Retaliation for filing. +50%, capped at $10,000, plus reinstatement and lost wages. One year. Usually the smaller claim.
Serious and willful — § 4553
+50%, and uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. 12 months.
§ 4650(d)
10% added automatically to any late indemnity payment, “without application.”
§ 5814
Penalty for unreasonable delay. Up to 25% or up to $10,000, whichever is less.
Exclusive remedy
Workers’ compensation is generally the only claim against your employer. It is not the only claim against anyone else.
BEFORE YOU PUT THE LETTER DOWN
If one of these words is on a letter you received, a deadline may already be running. Several run from the date a paper was served, not from the day you open the envelope.
10
days
DOR
Declaration of Readiness to Proceed. Object within 10 calendar days of service, or objections to proceeding on its issues are waived.
20
days
Petition for Reconsideration
The appeal from a final order, within 20 days of service. A non-final order takes a Petition for Removal instead.
30
days
IMR
Independent Medical Review, the appeal from a utilization review denial. 30 days (10 if the dispute is only over drugs on the MTUS Drug List).
90
days
DWC-1
The claim form. If the claim is not rejected within 90 days of filing it, the injury is presumed compensable.
1
year
Application for Adjudication
Opens your case at the Appeals Board. One year.
1
year
§ 132a
Retaliation for filing: compensation increased by half, up to $10,000, plus reinstatement and lost wages. One year.
12
months
Serious and willful
§ 4553: compensation increased by half, uninsurable, so the employer pays it personally. 12 months.
Not sure which clock your letter starts?
(213) 380-9310
The first call is free.
IF THE WORD IS ON A LETTER
Every definition here is one sentence, reviewed by a California workers’ compensation attorney. What a word means for your claim depends on the rest of the letter, and on the rest of your file.
Several of the clocks on this page run from the date a paper was served. Write that date down before anything else.
Every letter from the claims administrator, every medical report, and the envelopes they came in. Bring them to any hearing.
The first call is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and you sign nothing until we recommend it — in English, Spanish, or Korean.
(213) 380-9310
Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney. Admitted in California in 1996, with more than twenty-five years of California workers’ compensation law. Both attorneys, both State Bar records
ALSO
The QME process
Every deadline in the process that decides your rating.
ALSO
Utilization review
What makes a treatment denial invalid.
ALSO
Common questions
149 questions, organized by where you are.
IF A WORD ON YOUR LETTER IS NOT HERE
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Free case review
(213) 380-9310
Solov & Teitell
Workers’ Compensation
Los Angeles · Since 1965
Free case review
Call (213) 380-9310
1625 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 802 Los Angeles, CA 90015 (213) 380-9310
Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Free consultation. No fee unless we recover. Home & hospital visits available.
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Making a false or fraudulent workers' compensation claim is a felony subject to up to 5 years in prison or a fine of up to $50,000 or double the value of the fraud, whichever is greater, or by both imprisonment and fine.
© 2026 Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC. Attorney advertising. The information on this site is general information about California law, not legal advice about your case, and does not create an attorney–client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Spanish- and Korean-language services are provided by attorneys and staff of this firm who are fluent in those languages. 1625 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 802, Los Angeles, CA 90015.
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