California Workers' Compensation

If you read one page, read this one:

The claim, start to finish →

Ten stages, every statutory deadline in one table, and the three moments where cases quietly die.

The process

• The claim, start to finishthe map
• Denied claimswhat a denial is and what it is not
• The QME processthe panel deadlines that decide medical development
• The medical provider networkand the exit from it nobody uses
• Utilization reviewhow to check a denial for defects
• Independent medical reviewthe 30-day appeal
• Your depositionand § 5710(b)(4), which makes the employer pay your attorney's fee for it.
• Hearings and trialwhat is remote, what is in person, and why the settlement conference matters more than the trial

The benefits

• Medical treatment
• Temporary disability
• Permanent disabilityhow to read your rating string
• Permanent total disabilitythe four-step burden
• Death benefits
• Job displacement voucher
• Return to work
• SIBTFrewritten by SB 171 in July 2026

The fights

• Apportionmentthe single largest variable in a rating
• Cumulative traumathe largest injury category in California, and the least claimed
• Psychiatric injury
• Public safety presumptions
• Public employees§ 4850, presumptions, and disability retirement running at once

The money

• Settlementsand why the structure matters more than the number
• The adjuster's mathhow a percentage becomes dollars
• What comes out of your settlementevery lien category, including the EDD reimbursement nobody expects
• Third-party claimsthe only route to pain and suffering, and frequently the larger claim.
• Working while on comp
• Already settled?

When the other side breaks the rules

• Late payments and penalties§ 4650(d) adds 10% automatically, "without application."
• Serious and willful misconduct+50%, uninsurable, twelve-month deadline.
• Retaliationand why § 132a is usually the smaller claim
• Uninsured employersUEBTF, and the civil action where negligence is presumed

Unsafe work → — what you can demand, what you can refuse, and what happens if you report it.