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The law

The statutes, regulations, agencies, forms and rate tables the rest of the site is built on. Reference pages, not narrative.

• The law in plain EnglishA plain-English guide to how California workers' compensation law is built - the no-fault bargain in the Constitution and Labor Code §3600, who is covered, the five benefits, how a claim moves from injury to resolution, who decides disputes, and where the rules live.
• Labor Code sectionsEvery Labor Code, Insurance Code, Business and Professions Code and Title 8 regulation section this site relies on, with a one-line summary, a link to the official text on the Legislature's site, and the pages that cite it.
• The agenciesThe bodies that run California workers' comp - the Division of Workers' Compensation, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau and the Insurance Commissioner - plus EDD, Cal/OSHA, the Labor Commissioner and the Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund. What each does and when you deal with it.
• FormsThe California workers' comp forms a worker or employer will meet - DWC-1 claim form, Form 5020 employer's report, DWC-7 poster, time-of-hire notice, Request for Authorization, QME panel request forms 105 and 106, the Application for Adjudication and the settlement forms - who files each, when, and under what authority, with links to the official copies.
• Benefit rates by yearTemporary disability minimums and maximums, permanent disability rates, SJDB voucher, SAWW and mileage for every year of injury from 2013 to 2026, from the DWC schedule.
• GlossaryPlain-English definitions of the terms used in California workers' compensation - from AOE/COE and apportionment to utilization review and the X-mod - paraphrased from the Division of Workers' Compensation glossary and the WCIRB's rating guide.