"What's my case worth?"

The five inputs

1. Your whole person impairment, from the AMA Guides. Not what hurts — what the method measures. Some injuries rate far lower than people expect, by design. Shoulder · Knee · Carpal tunnel · Hearing loss

2. Apportionment. How much of the disability is attributed to non-industrial causes. The single largest variable, and the one most often asserted without the reasoning Escobedo requires. How to attack it.

3. Your occupational group and your age, which adjust the impairment into a final percentage. How the rating string works.

4. Your average weekly earnings — which determine the weekly rate, and which get computed wrong when there is a second job, overtime, or irregular work. More.

5. What else is in the case — and this is where most of the missed value sits.

What else belongs in the number

Every injured body part, including compensable consequences. More.

A cumulative trauma claim alongside the specific injury.

The job displacement voucher, if no offer of regular, modified, or alternative work was made.

SIBTF, if you had a pre-existing disability — money from a state fund, in addition to what your employer owes, and rewritten by SB 171 in July 2026. More.

Extended temporary disability — § 4656(c)(3): 240 weeks instead of 104 for nine conditions. Up to about $240,000.

Penalties — the automatic 10% under § 4650(d), and under § 5814 up to 25% or up to $10,000, whichever is less.

A § 4553 petition — one-half of everything, paid by the employer personally. Twelve-month deadline.

And a third-party claim, which pays for pain and suffering. Workers' compensation does not, and in a serious case the civil claim is frequently the larger one. How.

What reduces it

Permanent disability advances already paid — check the credits; overstatement is a common quiet error.

Liens — medical, EDD reimbursement, child support, and any Medicare Set-Aside. The gross is not the net. Every category.

Attorney's fees, set by a judge at generally 9%–15%.

And the number is not the whole question

A Compromise and Release for $80,000 that closes future medical is not obviously better than Stipulations for $60,000 that keep it open.

In any case involving a device, a joint replacement, ongoing medication, or a progressive condition, the structure matters more than the amount. Why.

And at the top of the scale, one rating point changes everything. A life pension at 99% starts at up to $301.50/week; total disability pays up to $1,764.11/week for life. Why.

What we will tell you

A range, once we have seen the medical report and the wage records — and the reasoning behind it. Not a number on the phone before anyone has read anything.

And if the case does not have much in it, we will say that too. When you probably don't need a lawyer.