Every term you’ll meet in a California permanent-disability rating — defined in a sentence or two, organized the way the rating actually flows, and linked to the guide that goes deeper. Deep-link any term: ratestring.com/glossary#cvc.
The one-line formula the DEU uses to state a PD rating: apportionment% ( impairment № · WPI · [1.4] adjustment · occupational group & variant · age ) = final PD%. Every segment is a checkable step, which is what makes a rating auditable.
The PDRS’s dotted code for the rated body part or system (chapter . region . listing . sub-listing) — the first segment of the string. It selects the schedule row that everything downstream keys off, including the occupational variant.
The 0–100% impairment the evaluating physician assigns under the AMA Guides (5th Edition), expressing how the injury affects the person as a whole. It is the medical input the entire rating is built from — and it is not the same number as the final PD%.
The 2005 schedule’s eight ranks of earning-loss multipliers applied to WPI. For injuries on or after January 1, 2013, SB 863 replaced the ranks with a flat 1.4 multiplier — that is the [1.4] segment in a modern rating string.
WPI after the FEC or 1.4 adjustment but before occupation and age — the “standard” the schedule then adjusts. In the string it is the number immediately after the [1.4].
One of the 45 numbered groups every California job title maps to — 1,812 titles in the schedule’s table. Two jobs in the same group rate identically; the group decides which variant applies to each impairment.
The letter C–J the schedule assigns to each impairment × occupational-group pair. Variants below F pull the standard rating down; above F push it up. Same disc, same WPI: a 10% lumbar impairment rates 10% PD for a file clerk (group 111, variant C) but 20% for a construction laborer (group 480, variant I).
The last step of a single-impairment rating: the PDRS age table nudges the occupationally-adjusted rating down for younger workers and up for older ones, keyed to age on the date of injury.
The percentage left after every adjustment and apportionment. It fixes the number of indemnity weeks under Labor Code §4658, the weekly-rate band, and — at 70% and above — a life pension.
The table at the back of the PDRS implementing a + b(1 − a): multiple impairments combine largest-first, each new one taking its share only of what remains. That is why 18, 11, and 7 combine to 32 rather than adding to 36 — and why nobody exceeds 100%.
The share of the disability caused by something other than this injury — a prior award, pre-existing degeneration — determined by the physician under Labor Code §§4663–4664. It applies to each impairment’s own final number (the leading percentage of its rating string), not to the combined total.
Shorthand — from Athens Administrators v. WCAB (Kite) — for adding two impairments instead of CVC-combining them, where a physician substantiates that they compound each other. It is a medical-legal argument, not the schedule’s default; RateString applies the standard CVC.
The en banc decisions — affirmed in Milpitas USD v. WCAB (Guzman) (2010) 187 Cal.App.4th 808 — letting a physician rate by analogy “within the four corners” of the AMA Guides when the strict listing does not capture the real impairment. It changes the WPI input, not the rating math — RateString rates the values the report gives you.
Maximum medical improvement (the AMA term) / permanent & stationary (the California term): the point where the condition has plateaued and permanent impairment can be measured. PD is rated as of this date, and temporary disability generally ends here.
The doctor directing care. The PTP’s permanent-and-stationary report is the first word on impairment — either side can object to it and send the case to a QME or AME.
The employer’s network of physicians that controls treatment in most claims (§4616). You pick which network doctor — and may switch freely after the first visit — but treating outside a valid MPN generally goes unpaid.
The written, before-injury designation of your personal physician as your comp treater (§4600(d)) — the one clean exception to MPN control. Requires a prior treating relationship, the doctor’s agreement, and employer-sponsored group health.
The physician-level review every treatment request passes through (§4610): 5 business days for ordinary requests, 72 hours expedited, applying the MTUS evidence standards. A denial holds for 12 months absent changed facts.
The binding paper appeal from a UR denial (§4610.5): 30 days to file, decided anonymously against the same MTUS standards. Wins come from guideline errors and records UR never saw — which is why the RFA paperwork is the real leverage.
A state-certified independent examiner. After an objection the DWC issues a three-name panel in the relevant specialty; the evaluator left after strikes (or the worker’s pick in an unrepresented case) examines and reports.
An examiner both attorneys stipulate to instead of the panel process — available only in represented cases. As a practical matter the AME’s findings usually control.
The 1–100 psychiatric functioning score the 2005 PDRS converts to WPI for psychiatric claims — the higher the functioning, the lower the impairment.
Compensable consequences rated on top of the physical injury — psychiatric, sleep, sexual dysfunction, plus the Guides’ pain add-on. For injuries on or after January 1, 2013, Labor Code §4660.1(c) bars PD increases for sleep, sexual-dysfunction, and most psychiatric consequences of a physical injury (violent-crime and catastrophic psych claims excepted).
The Division of Workers’ Compensation office that turns medical-legal reports into official rating determinations. Its work product is the rating string.
The DEU’s formal rating of an evaluator’s report — one dense page of strings, math, and the final PD. Every number on it can be recomputed and checked.
An informal DEU rating a party or a judge requests in a represented case — commonly used to sanity-check a report ahead of settlement or trial.
The earnings figure benefit rates are computed from (Labor Code §4453) via four methods — regular full-time, multi-employer aggregate, irregular-pay averaging, and the earning-capacity catch-all. Indemnity pays two-thirds of AWW per week, clamped to the statutory minimum and maximum for the injury year.
What each week of PD actually pays: two-thirds of AWW, capped by the injury year’s statutory band (for older injuries the cap also varies with the PD level). The money chart computes it for any wage and year.
The statute’s conversion of the final PD% into a number of weekly payments — from 3 weeks at 1% up to 897.25 weeks going into 99%. Weeks × weekly rate is the headline PD value.
Wage replacement while the worker is treating and unable to work — two-thirds of AWW up to its own annual cap. It comes before, and is separate from, permanent disability.
For final ratings of 70–99%: after the §4658 weeks exhaust, a smaller weekly payment continues for the rest of the worker’s life. The 69%→70% line is one of the schedule’s sharpest money cliffs.
A 100% rating. Instead of a fixed number of weeks it pays at the temporary-disability rate for life under §4659(b).
A WCAB-approved conversion of future PD or life-pension payments into a present-value lump sum using the PDRS commutation tables — how attorney fees are carved out of an award, and one path to cash now.
A retraining voucher for workers whose employer does not offer qualifying post-injury work. It sits on top of — and separate from — the PD award.
The portion of a lump-sum settlement allocated to future injury-related, Medicare-allowable care, spent before Medicare pays — required in substance because Medicare is a secondary payer. Triggered when a C&R closes medical for a Medicare-connected worker.
A claim against the comp case by someone other than the worker — chiefly doctors who treated a disputed claim on credit, plus the EDD and med-legal cost claimants. Resolved at the WCAB after the case-in-chief, usually on the defense side of a properly drafted C&R.
The one-page form that legally opens the benefits claim. The employer owes it within one working day of notice (§5401); filing starts the 90-day decision clock and up to $10,000 of treatment while the administrator decides (§5402).
The filing that opens a case at the WCAB — the forum where disputes get decided. Distinct from the DWC-1 (which opens the benefits claim), and subject to the one-year §5405 clock.
The settle-or-frame hearing where most litigated claims end. If no deal, the parties file the pretrial statement and discovery closes (§5502) — evidence not obtained by the MSC is generally out at trial.
The form (DWC-CA 10250.1) that asks the board to set a hearing — nothing gets on a judge’s calendar without one. Filing a DOR for an MSC starts the path to §5502 discovery closure, so it should follow a complete record, not precede one.
DWC’s case-management system: every filing rides on its cover sheets, body-part codes, and ADJ case numbers. The 3-digit EAMS body codes say where the injury is for filing — a different code set from the AMA impairment numbers that say how it rates.
Same-day judicial review of a settlement: counsel brings the signed C&R or Stips to the district office during its walk-through window and leaves with an approved order. Each office keeps its own window — most run 8–11 and 1–4.
The $6,000 retraining voucher (2013+ injuries) for workers with permanent partial disability whose employer makes no qualifying work offer within 60 days of the PPD report reaching the administrator. Non-settleable under §4658.7(g); expires two years from issuance or five from injury, whichever is later.
A one-time $5,000 DIR-administered payment for workers who received an SJDB voucher. Not automatic — the application window is one year from the date the voucher was served.
The parties agree on the PD percentage and an award issues on it. It pays out over the §4658 weeks at the weekly rate, normally leaves future medical care open, and preserves the five-year §5410 reopening right.
Everything — indemnity and future medical — settles for a single lump sum, subject to a judge’s adequacy review (§5001). The usual vehicle when the worker wants a clean break from the claim; the voucher alone survives it.
The Permanent Disability Rating Schedule effective January 1, 2005 — the document that defines impairment numbers, FEC ranks, occupational groups and variants, the age table, and the CVC. Still the operative schedule today, as modified by SB 863.
An injury from repetitive work over time rather than one event — carpal tunnel is the signature example. The date of injury comes from Labor Code §5412: when disability and knowledge of work-causation converge. That date sets the rate year, the era rules, and the limitations clocks.
California’s workers’-comp anti-discrimination statute: an employer may not fire, threaten, or penalize a worker because they filed or intend to file a claim. Remedy is increased compensation of one-half the award up to $10,000, plus reinstatement and lost wages — uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. Proceedings must commence within one year of the discriminatory act.
The §3600(a)(10) bar on claims filed after notice of termination or layoff — with express exceptions for prior employer knowledge, pre-notice medical records, and §5412 injury dates landing after separation, where most CT cases live.
The three-prong employment test (§2775): free from control, outside the hirer’s usual course of business, and an independently established trade — the hirer must prove all three to defeat the employee presumption. Prong B decides most cases.
For qualifying firefighters, peace officers, and allied classes: heart trouble, hernia, pneumonia, and related conditions developing during service are presumed industrial, with §4663(e) barring apportionment of the presumed injury.
The state fund paying the delta when a new industrial injury combines with pre-existing disability of any origin to 70%+ overall (§4751, as rewritten by SB 171 eff. July 13, 2026) — entered via 35% standalone WPI, or 5% WPI to the opposite hand/arm/foot/leg/eye, each measured after apportionment. New hard filing deadline: 5 years from injury or 6 months from PD resolution, whichever is later (§4754.2).
The offer that ends TD and forecloses the voucher — if it fits the restrictions, sits within reasonable commuting distance, lasts 12+ months, and pays at least 85% of wages. An offer failing those elements cuts off nothing.
The 2012 reform (effective 2013 for rating purposes): replaced the FEC ranks with a flat 1.4 multiplier, raised PD weekly maximums, and barred most psych, sleep, and sexual-dysfunction add-ons to physical injuries.
The medical text Labor Code §4660 locks California impairment ratings to. WPI is measured under the 5th Edition specifically — later AMA editions do not apply here.