Gregg Rader sustained industrial injury to the psyche and in the form of emotional stress while employed by Ticketmaster Corporation. On November 19, 2011, a WCJ approved the parties’ Stipulations with Request for Award and awarded 100 percent permanent and total disability. Applicant’s attorney requested a fee of $39,444.71, based on applicant’s life expectancy. The WCJ approved the attorney fee request and ordered that the amount of attorney fees be commuted from weekly indemnity payments by uniform weekly reduction. Accordingly, while applicant’s nominal weekly permanent disability rate was $336.00, defendant reduced each payment by $50.40, yielding a net weekly payment of $285.60.

Applicant filed a Petition Amend the Award, and argued that the amount commuted from his permanent disability award has been fully satisfied, and that his weekly permanent disability indemnity should return to the nominal rate of $336.00 without reduction for additional attorney fees. Applicant’s calculations begin with the gross amount of attorney’s fees of $39,444.71, divided by the weekly commutation amount of $50.40. Applicant adds the resulting 782.63 weeks to the initial date of payment of June 6, 2008, resulting in the date of June 5, 2023 as “the date when the commutation of attorneys fees stops.”

Applicant further contends that he is entitled to statutory interest per Labor Code § 5800 on any sums improperly withheld and to penalties pursuant to section 5814 and attorney’s fees pursuant to section 5814.5 for defendant’s unreasonable delay in the payment of the disputed benefits.

Defendant’s Answer responds that applicant’s Award is silent as to the end date of commutation and any inference otherwise is improper. SCIF further contends that the WCAB lacks jurisdiction to alter or amend the Award at this juncture pursuant to section 5804.

The WCJ found that the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) lacks jurisdiction to amend the applicant’s prior Award of permanent disability, and that applicant has not proven that additional indemnity payments are due beyond what is specified in the Award.

The WCAB granted reconsideration in the Significant Panel Decision of Gregg Rader v Ticketmaster -ADJ7138762 (January 2026) and substitute new Findings of Fact that the WCAB retains ongoing jurisdiction over the award of attorney’s fees pursuant to section 5803, and that because defendant has taken credit from applicant’s weekly payment of permanent indemnity in an amount equivalent to the dollar amount of commuted attorney’s fees, applicant is thereafter entitled to the full amount of his award without further reduction for attorney’s fees.

The panel noted that WCAB maintains exclusive jurisdiction pursuant to the California Constitution and Labor Code § 5300 to adjudicate workers’ compensation disputes.” (Dennis v. State of California (2020) 85 Cal.Comp.Cases 28 [2020 Cal. Wrk. Comp. LEXIS 1] (Appeals Board en banc).) The Appeals Board has continuing jurisdiction over all its orders, decisions, and awards made and entered. (Lab. Code, § 5803.) The Appeals Board may rescind, alter, or amend any order, decision, or award, for good cause.

However, section 5804 provides that “[n]o award of compensation shall be rescinded, altered, or amended after five years from the date of the injury.” As explained by our Supreme Court, the WCAB “is empowered with continuing jurisdictional authority over all of its orders, decisions and awards … However, this power is not unlimited … The WCAB’s authority under section 5803 to enforce its awards, including ancillary proceedings involving commutation, penalty assessment and the like, is not to be confused with its limited jurisdiction to alter prior awards by benefit augmentation at a later date. The latter action is subject to the provisions of sections 5410 and 5804.” (Nickelsberg v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1991) 54 Cal.3d 288, 297 [56 Cal.Comp.Cases 476].)

Thus, in contrast to the limitations imposed by the statute on the Appeals Board to augment previously awarded benefits or to set aside an entire award, the Appeals Board continues to have jurisdiction after five years to enforce its awards. (Barnes v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (2000) 23 Cal.4th 679, 687 [65 Cal.Comp.Cases 780].) That is, the WCAB’s jurisdiction to enforce an award extends beyond section 5804’s five-year limitations period because an order ascertaining and fixing the exact amount of liability does not rescind, alter or amend any prior award in violation of section 5804. (Id.)

In Garcia v. Industrial Acci. Com. (1958) 162 Cal.App.2d 761, the Court of Appeal concluded that the “award of compensation to the employee is not altered or amended within the intended meaning of sections 5803 and 5804 by the allowance of the attorneys’ lien after the five- year period.” (Id. at p. 767.)

In Garcia, new attorneys substituted in more than five years after the date of injury to assist the injured worker in resisting a petition to reopen the case by defendant Subsequent Injuries Fund (now Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund). (Id. at pp. 762-763.) The Garcia court reasoned, “[t]he imposition of the attorneys’ lien after the five-year period would only amount to a reallocation or redistribution of the funds to be paid under the original award of compensation, i.e., the award of compensation is the same, only its payments are ultimately redirected by the imposition of a charge upon the award as security for the reasonable fee allowed 5 by the commission for legal services performed on behalf of the employee by his attorneys.” (Id. at p. 767, italics added.) Thus, the court determined that the underlying award of compensation remained the same even if a lien for attorney’s fees was allowed. (Id. at p. 767.)

Pursuant to the above authorities, the Appeals Board retains the jurisdiction under section 5803 to make collateral changes to an award so long as the merits of the basic decision determining the worker’s right to benefits are not altered, and the amount of benefits remains unchanged.

The panel concluded that the lateral commutation of attorney’s fees from an award of lifetime benefits is limited to the specified amount of attorney’s fees approved by the WCJ or the Appeals Board in the first instance. Once defendant has deducted an aggregate amount commensurate with the specified commuted attorney’s fees, no further deduction from applicant’s weekly indemnity payment is appropriate or permissible.”