A workers’ compensation claim in California can stay open for five years from the date of injury for purposes of changing or adding to your benefits, but the benefits themselves can last much longer. Medical treatment can continue for life when the settlement preserves that right, and permanent disability payments routinely run past the five-year mark. The real answer to how long a workers’ comp claim can stay open in California depends on which benefit you’re asking about and how the case is resolved.
The Five-Year Jurisdictional Window
Once a claim is filed, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) has authority over the case for five years from the date of injury. Inside that window, you can request new awards, ask for increased benefits, or petition to modify an existing award. After five years, the board loses the power to change anything.1California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 5804
One timing detail matters. A petition filed before the five-year mark can still be heard after the deadline passes, so long as it was submitted in time.1California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 5804 If your condition worsens three years after the injury, you can go back to the board. If it worsens six years out, you can’t.
How Long Each Benefit Can Last
The five-year window governs when you can ask the board to do something. The benefits themselves run on their own clocks, and some of those clocks go well past five years.
Temporary Disability
Temporary disability (TD) replaces lost wages while you recover. For injuries on or after January 1, 2008, TD is capped at 104 compensable weeks, and all 104 must fall within five years of the injury date.2California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4656 – Disability Payments If you’ve only used 80 weeks when the five-year mark arrives, the remaining 24 weeks are gone. The calendar beats the week count.
Workers with certain severe injuries get 240 compensable weeks within five years instead. The expanded cap applies to amputations, severe burns, HIV infection, hepatitis B or C, high-velocity or chemical eye injuries, pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic lung disease.3California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4656
Permanent Disability
Permanent disability (PD) payments compensate for lasting impairment after you reach maximum medical improvement. The number of weekly payments is set by your disability rating under a formula that assigns more weeks per percentage point as the rating climbs. For injuries on or after January 1, 2013, the schedule runs from 3 weeks per point for the mildest ratings up to 16 weeks per point above 70%.4California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4658
PD payments routinely extend past the five-year jurisdictional deadline. The board just has to set the award within the five years; once established, the payments continue on their own schedule.
Workers rated at 70% or higher permanent disability receive a life pension after the standard PD payments run out, with annual cost-of-living increases. A 100% rating (permanent total disability) pays indemnity for life.5California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4659 For workers in that category, the claim effectively never closes.
Lifetime Medical Treatment
California employers must provide medical treatment reasonably necessary to cure or relieve the effects of a work injury.6California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4600 When the case is resolved in a way that preserves future medical rights, that obligation has no expiration. The claims administrator remains responsible for authorized treatment for the rest of your life, no matter when the five-year window closed. For many workers with serious injuries, this lifetime medical right is the most valuable part of the claim.
Supplemental Job Displacement Voucher
If your injury leaves you with permanent partial disability and your employer doesn’t offer modified or alternative work within 60 days of receiving the treating physician’s report, you’re entitled to a supplemental job displacement voucher worth up to $6,000. The voucher can be used for retraining, skill enhancement, or education at accredited schools.7California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 4658.7
Why Settlement Type Controls How Long the Claim Really Stays Open
How you resolve the case is the biggest single factor in how long it stays active. California uses two main settlement methods, and they produce very different outcomes.
Stipulations With Request for Award
A “Stipulations with Request for Award,” often called “Stips,” is an agreement where both sides accept the key facts: the permanent disability rating, the body parts affected, and the need for future medical treatment. A workers’ compensation judge approves it and issues an award.8Division of Workers’ Compensation. DWC-WCAB Form 10214a – Stipulations With Request for Award Stips almost always leave future medical treatment open. The claim stays active for that purpose, and the administrator continues to authorize care related to the injury indefinitely. Stips also preserve the right to petition for reopening inside the five-year window if your condition worsens.
Compromise and Release
A “Compromise and Release” (C&R) is a lump-sum settlement that closes the entire claim. The settlement document must specify the nature of the disability, the amount paid, and the length of time covered.9California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 5003 By signing a C&R, you give up future rights to medical treatment, additional disability payments, and the ability to reopen. Once a judge approves it, the claim is closed permanently.
The choice usually turns on how predictable your future medical needs are. If the injury is stable, a C&R gives you a clean break and money in hand. If it could worsen or require surgery years from now, Stips keep the door open.
Reopening the Claim If You Get Worse
If your condition deteriorates after a judge has issued an award, you can file a Petition to Reopen asking the WCAB for additional benefits based on “new and further disability.” The petition must set forth the specific facts establishing good cause.10Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Workers’ Compensation – How to File a Petition to Reopen11Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 10534 – Petition to Reopen
The petition must be filed within five years of the date of injury.12California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 5410 That clock runs from the original injury date, not from the date of your award and not from the date the condition changed. If you were hurt in March 2022, the petition has to be on file by March 2027, even if the deterioration only shows up in 2026.
Reopening is only available when a judge issued an award that left certain rights open, which in practice means cases resolved through Stips. A claim closed by a Compromise and Release cannot be reopened, because the settlement itself extinguished those future rights. That’s why the Stips versus C&R choice matters so much: it decides whether the five-year reopening window is available to you at all.
Filing Deadlines That Have to Be Cleared First
None of the timelines above matter if the claim was never properly filed. California law requires you to give your employer written notice within 30 days of the injury.13California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 5400 Missing that notice doesn’t automatically kill the claim, but it creates complications.
The harder deadline is the one-year statute of limitations. You have one year from the date of injury to file proceedings seeking benefits. That one-year clock can also start from the date of your last benefit payment or last medical treatment, whichever is latest.14Justia Law. California Labor Code 5400-5413 – Limitations of Proceedings Blow this deadline entirely and you lose the right to collect benefits at all. Most avoidable mistakes happen here: a worker gets hurt, thinks the injury is minor, skips the paperwork, and a year later can’t file when the condition turns serious.
SSDI and Medicare: Separate Clocks, Not Claim Lifespan
Two federal programs intersect with your workers’ comp case, and while they don’t change how long the claim stays open, they affect what you ultimately receive. If you collect SSDI at the same time as workers’ comp, the Social Security Administration caps the combined total at 80% of your average pre-disability earnings and reduces SSDI to stay under the cap. Lump-sum settlements don’t escape the offset; the SSA prorates them into monthly equivalents.15Social Security Administration. How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits
If you settle through a C&R that includes future medical costs and you’re already on Medicare or expect to enroll within 30 months, Medicare’s interests have to be protected, typically through a Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement. Those funds must be exhausted before Medicare will pay for treatment related to the injury. CMS will review a proposed set-aside when a current Medicare beneficiary’s total settlement exceeds $25,000, or when a claimant expected to enroll within 30 months has a total settlement over $250,000.16Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Arrangements Skipping a set-aside isn’t illegal, but if Medicare later decides the settlement should have covered a treatment, it can refuse to pay.