# 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.](/locations/) **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.](/workers-compensation/uninsured-employer/) **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.](/workers-compensation/sibtf/) --- ## 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.](/workers-compensation/medical-provider-network/) **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.](/workers-compensation/qme-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.](/answers/what-is-an-ame/) **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.](/workers-compensation/utilization-review/) **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). [How.](/workers-compensation/independent-medical-review/) **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. [What it means.](/answers/my-doctor-said-im-permanent-and-stationary/) --- ## 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.](/answers/what-is-a-rating-string/) **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.** [How.](/workers-compensation/apportionment/) ***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.](/answers/what-is-almaraz-guzman/) ***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.](/resources/california-workers-comp-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.](/workers-compensation/permanent-total-disability/) **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.](/workers-compensation/job-displacement-voucher/) **4850 time** — a **year of full salary** in lieu of temporary disability, for the public safety classifications § 4850 names. [More.](/workers-compensation/public-employees/) **Industrial accident leave** — **at least 60 days at full salary** for school employees. [More.](/industries/school-employees/) --- ## 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.](/workers-compensation/cumulative-trauma/) **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.](/answers/my-other-side-started-hurting/) **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.** [The five rules.](/injuries/catastrophic/) --- ## 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 objections to proceeding on its issues are waived.** **MSC** — Mandatory Settlement Conference. **Where most cases end — and where discovery closes.** [Why that matters most.](/workers-compensation/hearings-and-trial/) **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.](/workers-compensation/settlements/) **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.](/workers-compensation/liens-and-deductions/) **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. --- ## Enforcement **§ 132a** — retaliation for filing. **+50%, capped at $10,000**, plus reinstatement and lost wages. **One year.** [Usually the smaller claim.](/workers-compensation/retaliation/) **Serious and willful — § 4553** — **+50%, and uninsurable**, so the employer pays personally. **12 months.** [How.](/workers-compensation/serious-and-willful-misconduct/) **§ 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.](/workers-compensation/third-party-claims/) --- **Also:** [The QME process](/workers-compensation/qme-process/) — every deadline in the process that decides your rating · [Utilization review](/workers-compensation/utilization-review/) — what makes a treatment denial invalid · [Common questions](/answers/) — 149 questions, organized by where you are. **(213) 380-9310** **[En español →](/es/glosario/)** — esta página en español. ### Sources § 4663 · Education Code §§ 44984 and 45192 · § 5412 · § 5502(d)(3) · § 4903