Glossary

Every term you will encounter, in one sentence each.

People and places

WCAB

Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. The court system that decides these cases. 23 district offices statewide. Where yours is.

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. How.

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. What changed.

Doctors and medical process

MPN

Medical Provider Network. Your employer's list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission. How.

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. The process.

AME

Agreed Medical Evaluator. A physician both sides agree on. Available only to represented workers, and practically very hard to move away from. More.

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. How to check one.

IMR

Independent Medical Review. The appeal from a UR denial. 30 days. How.

MTUS

Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule. California's treatment guidelines. The shoulder and hand/wrist guidelines 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. What it means.

Rating

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. How to read yours.

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 under § 4663. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. How.

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. What it requires.

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.

Benefits

TD / TTD / TPD

Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week. Rates.

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. Why one point matters so much.

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. How.

4850 time

a year of full salary in lieu of temporary disability, for the public safety classifications § 4850 names. More.

Industrial accident leave

at least 60 days at full salary for school employees, under Education Code §§ 44984 and 45192. More.

Types of injury

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. How.

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. More.

Date of injury

for a cumulative or occupational disease claim, § 5412 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. The five rules.

Procedure

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 all objections are waived.

MSC

Mandatory Settlement Conference. Where most cases end — and where discovery closes under § 5502(d)(3). Why that matters most.

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.

Settlement

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. Why the structure matters more than the number.

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. More.

Lien

a claim against your recovery. § 4903 lists nine categories, (a) through (i), including EDD reimbursement, which surprises people most.

Commutation

paying future benefits as a present lump sum.

Enforcement

§ 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. How.

§ 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. Third-party claims.