Wcab

Pursuant to the Legislature’s 2004 comprehensive reform of workers’ compensation under Senate Bill No. 899 (2003-2004 Reg. Sess.), a new schedule for rating permanent disabilities of injured workers was adopted and became effective on January 1, 2005. The Legislature also amended Labor Code section 4660, subdivision (d) (section 4660(d)), which provides that the new schedule applies prospectively to compensable injuries on or after the effective date, 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.”

Zenith Insurance Company petitions for writ of review and contends that the new schedule applies to respondent Randolph Cugini’s 2004 industrial injury, because section 4061, subdivision (a) (section 4061(a)) expressly requires the notice with the last payment of temporary disability indemnity in 2005 and not the first payment in 2004 as determined by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB).…