Workers’ comp guides
Plain answers about California workers’ compensation, each one sourced to the Labor Code or the Division of Workers’ Compensation.
- · 6 min read Do repetitive strain and cumulative trauma injuries qualify for workers’ comp in California? How California law defines a cumulative trauma injury, how the date of injury is set when there was no single accident, and the deadlines and rating rules that follow. Read the article
- · 7 min read Can I be fired for filing a workers’ comp claim in California? Labor Code 132a bars firing or discriminating against a worker because of a comp claim. A 132a petition at the WCAB has a one-year limit, and civil employment claims are heard elsewhere. Read the article
- · 7 min read What happens at the WCAB? Hearings, conferences and the Southern California district offices The steps of a case at the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, what happens at a conference and at trial, and the district offices in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties. Read the article
- · 6 min read Stipulations vs. Compromise and Release: how California workers’ comp settlements work California workers’ comp cases settle by Stipulations with Request for Award or a Compromise and Release. Each treats future medical care differently, and neither is valid until a judge approves it. Read the article
- · 6 min read Workers’ comp, state disability (SDI) and Social Security disability: can you receive more than one? How workers’ comp temporary disability, EDD’s State Disability Insurance and federal Social Security disability fit together, when more than one can pay, and how overlapping payments are recovered. Read the article
- · 7 min read Can I choose my own doctor for a work injury in California? When you can see your own doctor after a work injury, how predesignation works, what a medical provider network allows after the first visit, how second and third opinions work, and the situations that open treatment outside the network. Read the article
- · 7 min read How much does a workers’ comp lawyer cost in California? How attorney fees work in a California workers’ compensation case: a judge sets the fee, Labor Code 4906 controls when it can be paid, the DWC fee disclosure form explains it at the first meeting, and the employer pays some costs by law. Read the article
- · 8 min read What is a permanent disability rating and how is it calculated? How California turns a doctor’s impairment number into a permanent disability percentage, how that percentage becomes weeks of payments, and the 2026 weekly rates from the DIR table, with a worked example that uses made-up numbers. Read the article
- · 7 min read Can I get job retraining after a work injury? The SJDB voucher and the Return-to-Work Supplement Who receives the supplemental job displacement voucher, what its $6,000 can pay for, when it expires, and how to apply for the state’s one-time $5,000 Return-to-Work Supplement within a year of receiving the voucher. Read the article
- · 8 min read What is a QME and what happens at the exam? What a qualified medical evaluator is, how a panel of three is requested and struck, how records reach the doctor before the exam, what the report must cover and when it is due, and who pays for the exam and the mileage. Read the article
- · 8 min read How long do I have to report a work injury and file a claim in California? Thirty days to report, one year to start proceedings, five years for new and further disability, and a special date-of-injury rule for cumulative trauma. The main California workers’ comp deadlines, each with the Labor Code section behind it. Read the article
- · 8 min read How much does workers’ comp pay in California? Temporary disability explained Temporary disability pays two-thirds of average weekly earnings within yearly limits: $264.61 to $1,764.11 a week for 2026 injuries. When payments start, how partial and total TD differ, and how long TD lasts. Read the article
- · 9 min read Utilization review denied my treatment. How does independent medical review work? When utilization review turns down a treatment request, the challenge is independent medical review: the IMR form that must come with the denial, the 30-day window, the reviewer at Maximus and the narrow appeal to the WCAB. Read the article
- · 8 min read What should I do after a work injury in California? The first days after a work injury start several legal clocks: written notice within 30 days, a claim form from the employer within one working day, treatment authorized within one working day of filing, and a presumption of coverage if the claim is not denied within 90 days. Read the article
- · 8 min read My workers’ comp claim was denied in California. What now? A denial is the claims administrator’s decision, not a judge’s. How the 90-day presumption, the QME process and the Application for Adjudication of Claim work, with the deadlines and the Orange County I&A offices. Read the article
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