Wcab

As part of its 2004 comprehensive reform of the workers’ compensation laws, the Legislature required a change in the schedule by which permanent disability is rated. Labor Code section 4660, subdivision (d) (section 4660(d)), provides the new schedule applies to all compensable claims arising on or after January 1, 2005, as well as to compensable claims arising before January 1, 2005, “when there has been either no comprehensive medical-legal report or no report by a treating physician indicating the existence of permanent disability, or when the employer is not required to provide the notice required by Section 4061 to the injured worker.”

Must a comprehensive medical-legal report or treating physician’s report state the injured worker’s condition has reached permanent and stationary status to indicate the existence of permanent disability within the meaning of section 4660(d)? Neither the plain meaning of the statutory language nor the legislative history of section 4660(d) supports that conclusion, which would be at odds with the general mandate to construe workers’ compensation statutes liberally in favor of extending benefits to injured workers. (§ 3202.)…