Start where you are
Something just happened.
They stopped something.
Something is about to be decided.
Something is wrong with my employer, or my case.
Not sure which? Take the 2-minute triage → · En español · 한국어
What California workers' comp may cover
Every benefit depends on the facts of your claim. These are the categories the Labor Code provides, each with its statute.
Medical treatment →
All treatment reasonably required to cure or relieve the injury, with no co-pay — § 4600. Including up to $10,000 while the claim is still being investigated (§ 5402(c)), and the interpreter, mileage, and second-opinion rights that go unclaimed because no one explains them.
Temporary disability →
Two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you cannot work, within the § 4453 floor and cap for your date of injury — $264.61 to $1,764.11 a week for 2026 injuries. Capped at 104 weeks, or 240 for nine listed conditions.
Permanent disability →
A rating that converts to weeks under § 4658(d), paid at a rate that has not moved since 2014. At 70% and above, a life pension follows. The rating is a string of numbers — and it is checkable.
Job displacement voucher →
$6,000 for retraining under § 4658.7 if you are not offered work within your restrictions, plus the $5,000 return-to-work supplement under § 139.48 — a separate application — yours to start, and easy to miss.
Mileage reimbursement →
Every mile to treatment, therapy, the pharmacy, and medical-legal exams — at the rate in effect on the date you traveled, not your date of injury. 76¢ a mile from July 1, 2026.
Death benefits →
Paid to the people who depended on the person who died — sized by that dependency, not by fault — § 4702. And under § 4703.5, payments to totally dependent minor children do not stop at the maximum.
Life pension →
At a rating of 70% or higher, § 4659(a) pays about 1.5% of earnings for each point above 60 — per week, for life — after the permanent disability weeks run out. Most people are never told it exists.
Settlements →
Two structures, and they treat your future medical care oppositely. A judge must approve either. What decides which is right is the § 5410 five years — which run from the date of injury, not the award.
The ten stages, in order
Every statutory deadline, in sequence — and the three moments where cases quietly die.
The injury.
A single event, or a condition that built up over years — cumulative trauma counts, and § 5412 sets its legal date. What counts.
Report it — in writing.
Written notice to your employer within 30 days (§ 5400). A text or email with a date is enough. If you didn't report right away.
The DWC-1 claim form.
Your employer must hand it to you within one working day (§ 5401). Filing it starts every clock in your favor. The form, and what it starts.
Treatment begins.
Up to $10,000 of treatment must be authorized within one working day of the claim form — while the claim is investigated (§ 5402(c)). How medical treatment works.
The insurer decides.
Accept, deny, or delay — 90 days, or the claim is presumed compensable (§ 5402(b)); 75 for public-safety presumptions. If it is denied.
Benefits flow, or don't.
Temporary disability at two-thirds of your wage, medical care through the MPN, mileage as you go. What you are owed.
Disputes.
Utilization review and IMR for treatment; the QME process for the medical questions the parties cannot agree on. The QME process.
Permanent and stationary.
The doctor declares maximum medical improvement, and the rating string that decides your money is written. Decode yours.
Settlement or trial.
Stipulations or a Compromise & Release, approved by a judge — or a hearing at one of thirteen Southern California district offices. Settlements. · Hearings.
After.
Five years from the date of injury to reopen if you get worse (§ 5410) — and the life pension, if the rating reached 70%. Already settled.
Free tools, nothing to sign up for
Every number carries its Labor Code section, and every tool tells you when your input is probably wrong — which is the part that changes outcomes. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
What am I owed? →
Temporary disability, permanent disability, the life pension, mileage, and the penalties for paying you late — with the statute beside every number.
Should you call a lawyer? →
Eight factual questions and an honest sort into three routes — including the one where the free state I&A officer can probably handle it.
Decode my rating string →
Paste 15.03.01.00 – 8 – [1.4]11 – 340G – 13 – 15 and we explain all six parts, check the arithmetic, and convert it to dollars. We built it because we could not find it published anywhere else.
What are my deadlines? →
Your date of injury in, every clock that applies to you out — sorted by urgency, including the two miscounted most often.
Your average weekly wage →
Every benefit multiplies out of this one number, and § 4453(c) gives four ways to compute it. The carrier picked one.
Permanent disability: weeks and dollars →
Your final percentage becomes weeks, each week pays a rate capped at $290 since 2014, and the tool says when the rating itself looks wrong.
The things most people are never told
§ 5402(c)
$10,000 in medical treatment
Your employer must authorize within one working day of your claim form, while your claim is being investigated or denied. More.
§ 4650(d)
An automatic 10%
Added to any late indemnity payment, "without application." You do not have to ask. It is routinely not added. More.
§ 4656(c)(3)
240 weeks instead of 104
Of temporary disability for nine listed conditions. 136 extra weeks. Up to about $240,000. More.
§ 4553
One-half more, paid by the employer personally
Where the employer knew about the danger. Twelve-month deadline. More.
And the third-party claim.
Workers' compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering. A case against anyone other than your employer does, and it is frequently the larger of the two. More.
And sometimes you don't need a lawyer at all.
The state's Information & Assistance officers are free, and our triage sorts honestly — including the route where you handle it yourself. When you probably don't need one.
Recoveries that changed lives
Four representative recoveries, as published by the firm. Every case is decided on its own facts and law. Nothing here predicts what will happen in yours.
- $3,500,000Roofer · traumatic brain injury. Our client fell from a height on a Southern California residential roofing project and lived through a traumatic brain injury and a full year of inpatient rehabilitation.
- $1,800,000Catastrophic injury · lifetime home care. Our client's industrial injuries left them needing twelve hours a day of in-home care, for life.
- $850,000Failed back syndrome · upper-extremity surgeries. Our client developed failed back syndrome and went through two unsuccessful upper-extremity surgeries.
- $725,000Back surgery complications. Our client's back surgery resulted in an incisional hernia and progressive deterioration.
Required disclosure — Business and Professions Code § 6158.3. The result portrayed in this advertisement was dependent on the facts of that case, and the results will differ if based on different facts.
Every case starts the same way: tell us what happened → — free, no obligation — or call (213) 380-9310. All five results, with the facts that produced them →
Who we are
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC. Lessing Solov came home from the U.S. Army, took his law degree at Hastings, and opened this firm in 1965. Sixty years later it is still built for the same person — the injured Californian — in English, Spanish and Korean, with home and hospital visits when you cannot come to us.
Lessing Solov →
UCLA, the U.S. Army, then Hastings College of the Law. Founded this firm in 1965.
Jamey Teitell →
Partner and Trial Attorney. USC, then a J.D. in 1996. Selected to Super Lawyers, 2026.
Where your case is heard
Representing injured workers in Southern California since 1965. Venue is assigned by ZIP code, and we publish a practical guide to every district office — parking, transit, security, and the local rules that catch people.
Los Angeles County →
Our office is here. Five district offices — Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Marina del Rey, Long Beach, Pomona — and the largest workers' comp court in California.
Orange County →
Santa Ana and Anaheim. Santa Ana has the most expensive parking in the system; Anaheim is free, with Metrolink behind the building.
Riverside County →
The Riverside office, and the Inland Empire's warehouse and logistics workforce.
San Bernardino County →
San Bernardino — the cheapest parking in the system — and the trucking, logistics, and manufacturing injuries of the Inland Empire.
Ventura County →
The Oxnard office, and one of California's most significant agricultural regions alongside a coastal and industrial economy.
Kern County →
Bakersfield: no calendar on Mondays, and an unrepresented worker cannot get past the lobby without an escort.
Not sure what to do next?
Free case review. No fee unless we recover. You are not responsible for costs we advance if there is no recovery. English, Spanish, and Korean.
Or tell us what happened — seven questions, no obligation, and a person calls you back within one business day.
Consultas gratis en español. · 한국어 무료 상담.
We make home and hospital visits. If you cannot come to us, say so when you call.
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC
1625 W. Olympic Boulevard, Suite 802
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. · Outside those hours, leave a message — it is heard the next business morning.
General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.
Impairment values described are from the AMA Guides, 5th Edition as applied under the California rating schedule; the Guides are a copyrighted medical text and figures here are summarized rather than reproduced. Your rating depends on your own examination findings.
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC · (213) 380-9310
Printed from https://www.solovteitell.com/