Blogs

October 9, 2026

Choose JET File if you file at volume and e-forms if you do not. The 100-filing figure people quote is DWC's 2011 design target and applies to no route. What matters more is proof: save every Batch ID or JET response, log confirmed processing separately from submission, and check the uniform assigned name (UAN) before sending.

October 5, 2026

DWC told the Legislature in 2025 that the e-forms California's workers' compensation community files through every day "have been out of support for over six years and are potentially at risk of becoming non-functioning soon if not upgraded." That same year, filers pushed more than seven million documents through them.

September 29, 2026

Elevate returns to the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego September 21 through 23, 2026. It is a bigger footprint than past years, and a few things about the format are worth knowing before you pack. Here is the short version first, with the reasoning behind each item below it.

September 29, 2026

The 2026 California UR regulations were filed with the Secretary of State on December 30, 2025 and took effect April 1, 2026. They amend a long list of sections in Title 8: 9767.6, 9781, 9785, 9785.6, 9786, the 9792.6 through 9792.15 series, and 9792.27.1 and 9792.27.17

September 8, 2026

If you are carrying SIBTF files, the most important thing SB 171 did is not the eligibility rewrite. It is Labor Code section 4757, which declares the changes procedural and applies them to every SIBTF claim without a final determination as of the operative date

August 18, 2026

Labor Code section 5710 has been clear for decades about who pays. When the employer or carrier takes the deposition of a represented injured worker, the applicant's counsel is entitled to a reasonable allowance for attorney's fees, and the employer or its insurer writes the check. The worker also gets travel and meal expenses, wages lost attending, one copy of the transcript at no cost, and an interpreter where one is needed.

August 18, 2026

Cumulative trauma claims are now more than a quarter of all workers' compensation filings in California, and they are the most disputed claims in the system. A specific injury has a date, a mechanism, and usually a clear story. A cumulative trauma claim has none of those handed to it. It has to be built, element by element, out of a medical and employment history that stretches across years.

August 18, 2026

California employers are getting a bigger workers' compensation bill. On July 10, 2026, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara adopted a new advisory pure premium rate of $1.65 per $100 of payroll, a 6.6% increase that takes effect September 1. It is the second straight annual increase, after a decade in which the benchmark mostly fell.

August 18, 2026

Two people are going to read the same 500 pages of medical records on this claim. Your paralegal is one. A defense reviewer is the other. They read the same file looking for opposite things. Your side reads to get organized: sort by provider, put it in date order, tab the imaging, make it easy for an attorney to find things. The defense reads to find the one line that does not fit, the contradiction that turns a solid claim into a disputed one.