Reference · Plain-English Glossary

The system speaks in acronyms. We translate.

Every term below is defined the way you'd explain it to a family member — because understanding the vocabulary is half of understanding your claim. Search, or browse by letter.

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A

Accepted claim: A claim the insurer has formally agreed is covered. Benefits flow — but check the acceptance paperwork carefully: an accepted "strain" understates a herniated disc for years.
ABC test: California's strict employee-classification test: you're presumed an employee unless the company proves you're (A) free from its control, (B) doing work outside its usual business, and (C) running your own established trade. Many "contractor" arrangements fail it.
Aggravation: When work makes an existing condition worse. In most states, an aggravated pre-existing condition is a covered injury — your spine didn't need to be perfect before the job hurt it.
AME Agreed Medical Evaluator: A doctor both sides agree to use to resolve medical disputes when you have an attorney. Their opinion usually carries decisive weight.
AOE/COE Arising Out of Employment / Course of Employment: The two-part legal test for whether an injury counts as work-related: it must be caused by work and happen while working. Most claim denials are really AOE/COE arguments.
Arbitrator Illinois: The trial-level decision-maker at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission — hears contested cases and approves settlements, functioning much like a judge.
Apportionment: Dividing responsibility for your impairment between work and other causes (age, prior injuries). More apportionment to "other causes" means a smaller permanent disability payment — which is why it's heavily fought over.
Audiogram: The hearing test that objectively measures loss by frequency — the single document occupational hearing-loss claims are built on. Noise damage even draws a recognizable "notch" pattern distinct from aging.
Attorney fee agreement: In workers' comp, fees are contingency-based, state-capped percentages of what's recovered — commonly 9–25% depending on the state — and usually require judge approval. No recovery generally means no fee.
AWW Average Weekly Wage: Your typical pre-injury weekly earnings — usually including overtime and sometimes second jobs. Almost every wage benefit is a percentage of this number, so errors here ripple through the whole claim.
ATP Authorized Treating Physician (Tennessee): The doctor you pick from Tennessee's panel of three. Their causation opinion gets a legal presumption of correctness — which makes the panel choice one of the most consequential decisions in a Tennessee claim.
Average monthly wage Arizona: Arizona computes benefits from your average monthly wage rather than weekly — set early in the claim and hard to fix later. Audit it when the first notice arrives: overtime, second jobs, and seasonal patterns belong in it.
Award agreement Virginia: The Commission-approved document that turns Virginia benefits into an enforceable legal right. Voluntary checks without one protect nothing — the insurer can stop paying at will. If you're being paid without an award in Virginia, that's the problem to fix first.

B

Bona fide job offer: A formal written offer of work within your medical restrictions — specific duties, schedule, wage, location. In many states, refusing one can suspend wage benefits; accepting one that secretly exceeds your restrictions damages you differently. The test is the paper: get the offer in writing and take it to your doctor before answering.
Benefit notice: Letters the insurer must send explaining decisions about your benefits — approvals, delays, denials, and rate changes. Keep every one.
BRC Benefit Review Conference (Texas): The informal, mediator-style first step in a Texas benefit dispute — a meeting with a state benefit review officer where many disputes settle before ever reaching a hearing.

C

C&R Compromise & Release: A settlement that ends your entire claim for one lump sum — including future medical care, which becomes your responsibility. More money now, no reopening later.
C-1 / C-4 Nevada: Nevada's two-form system: the C-1 incident report to your employer within 7 days, and the C-4 Claim for Compensation — completed and co-signed at a medical visit — within 90 days. The C-4 is the actual claim; telling your boss isn't one.
Claim number: The identifier the insurer assigns your claim — proof the claim formally exists. If weeks pass and nobody can give you one, your claim may never have been set up: ask in writing, and call your state agency if the answer is vague.
Carrier: The insurance company that actually pays (or disputes) your claim — often a different name than your employer's. The claim number and adjuster live here.
Causation: The medical-legal link between your work and your condition — the thing most disputes are really about. Established through mechanism, timing, medical opinion, and the day-one records that describe all three.
Claims adjuster: The insurance company employee managing your claim — approving treatment, sending checks, making settlement offers. Professional and often helpful, but employed by the payer, not by you.
Compensable: Legally covered by workers' comp — the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. "Compensable consequence" extends this to problems the injury causes later, like the opposite knee worn down by a limp.
Controversion Alaska: The formal notice an Alaska insurer must file to lawfully stop or deny benefits, stating its reasons. Payments stopped without one are likely improper — and carry an automatic 25% penalty. If checks stop, ask for the controversion in writing.
Contingency fee: How comp attorneys are paid: a percentage of what they recover for you, not hourly. In workers' comp the percentage is regulated by the state and often approved by a judge.
Catastrophic designation Georgia: The label that lifts Georgia's 400-week caps: severe brain/spinal injuries, amputations, severe burns, blindness — or injuries preventing both your prior work and any suitable available work. Worth fighting for early in serious cases.
Cumulative trauma: An injury built up by repeated stress over time — carpal tunnel, hearing loss, a back worn down by years of lifting — rather than one accident. Covered, but with its own deadlines that usually start when you learn the condition is work-related.

D

Death benefits: Payments to dependents plus burial expenses when a work injury or illness causes death.
Denial: The insurer's formal refusal of your claim or a specific benefit. A position, not a verdict — denials are frequently reversed when challenged through your state's dispute process.
DIME Division Independent Medical Examination (Colorado): Colorado's neutral rating exam — the required route for challenging the treating doctor's impairment rating or MMI date. Its findings can only be overcome by "clear and convincing evidence," which makes requesting (and preparing for) the DIME one of the highest-stakes moves in a Colorado claim.
Designated doctor Texas: A neutral doctor appointed by the Texas DWC to resolve disputes about MMI, impairment ratings, or ability to work. Their opinion carries heavy — often presumptive — weight, like California's QME.
Deposition: Formal recorded testimony under oath, usually in a lawyer's office. In comp cases, typically calm and procedural — preparation with your attorney is standard.
Disfigurement award: Separate compensation many states pay for visible permanent scarring — face, neck, hands especially. Photographed, measured, and frequently forgotten at settlement time.
Dominant hand: Your writing/working hand — rated higher than the other in some states' schedules. Make sure every medical report records which hand is which.
DWC-1 California claim form: The form that officially starts a California claim. Your employer must give it to you within one working day of learning about your injury; filing it triggers the insurer's obligations.

E

EAO Employee Assistance Office (Florida): Florida's free state helpline for injured workers — explains rights, contacts carriers about problems, and helps before disputes escalate.
Exacerbation: A temporary flare-up of a pre-existing condition, versus aggravation (a lasting worsening). Insurers prefer the word that pays less; precise medical records decide which applies.
Exclusive remedy: The core trade of workers' comp: you get no-fault benefits, and in exchange you generally can't sue your employer over the injury. (Suing a negligent third party — see Third-party claim — is still allowed.)

F

FAL Final Admission of Liability (Colorado): The insurer's formal statement that your Colorado case is done — rating, benefits, everything. If you don't file a written objection (and a DIME request when you dispute the rating) within 30 days, the case closes automatically on the insurer's terms. The most dangerous "good news" letter in workers' comp.
FCE Functional Capacity Evaluation: A structured physical test measuring what you can safely lift, carry, and do — often used to set permanent restrictions.
Fee schedule: The state-set price list for medical care in comp claims — why providers bill the insurer directly and can't balance-bill you for covered treatment.
Form 30C Connecticut: Connecticut's written notice of claim — the form that formally starts your case and, done precisely (certified mail to employer and Commission), starts a 28-day clock on the employer to pay or properly contest. See Preclusion for why that clock matters so much.
FROI First Report of Injury: The employer's official report of your injury to its insurer and the state. If your employer "handled it" without one, your claim may not formally exist yet — ask, in writing.
Future medical: The treatment you're expected to need after your case resolves. In a settlement it either stays open (insurer keeps paying) or is bought out for cash — the biggest fork in settlement design.

G

Gig worker: App-based and platform workers are the classification frontier: labeled contractors by the apps, employees under some states' tests (California's ABC test most famously), with special hybrid schemes in a few states. If you were hurt driving or delivering for an app, don't assume you're excluded — run the misclassification analysis.
Going and coming rule: The general rule that ordinary commuting isn't covered — the workday starts when you arrive. The exceptions matter: traveling employees, employer-provided transport, special errands, and jobs with no fixed site are often covered door to door.

H

Horseplay: Fooling around that causes injury. The instigator often loses coverage; the innocent bystander hit by a thrown box usually keeps it. States draw the line differently — honesty about what happened, told precisely, matters more here than almost anywhere.
Healing plateau Wisconsin: Wisconsin's name for maximum medical improvement — the point where your condition has stabilized. It ends temporary benefits and starts the permanency conversation, which is why insurer doctors tend to find it early and why the date is the most-litigated moment in a Wisconsin claim.
Hearing: The comp system's version of a trial — before a workers' comp judge, arbitrator, or ALJ depending on the state. Less formal than TV court: medical records, testimony, and a written decision.

I

Impairment vs. disability: Impairment is the measured medical loss (degrees, percentages); disability is what it does to your ability to earn. The distinction drives ratings, and confusing the two is how "only 10%" gets underestimated.
Indemnity benefits: The umbrella term for the cash side of comp — wage replacement and permanent-disability money — as opposed to the medical side.
Interpreter rights: You may report, treat, and testify in your own language — interpreters are provided for exams and hearings, and reporting in Spanish (or any language) is fully valid. Language is never a reason to delay reporting.
Idiopathic injury: An injury from a purely personal cause — a knee that gives out from a prior condition, a faint from personal illness — that merely happened at work. Generally not covered unless employment increased the danger (you fainted onto machinery, off a ladder). The details of surface, height, and surroundings decide these cases.
Intoxication defense: Most states let insurers deny claims where intoxication caused the injury — often with post-accident testing and, in some states, presumptions triggered by a positive test or a refusal. If this defense appears, get a lawyer immediately: the science and the presumptions are both fightable.
IME Independent Medical Exam: An exam by a doctor chosen (in many states) by the insurer to evaluate your condition. "Independent" describes the format, not necessarily the perspective — attend, be honest, and don't exaggerate or minimize.
Impairment rating: A percentage a doctor assigns to your permanent loss of function, usually using standardized AMA Guides. It's the seed number from which permanent disability money grows.
IMR Independent Medical Review: California's appeal process when utilization review denies treatment — decided by independent physicians on paper, with a short filing deadline printed on the denial.
IIBs Impairment Income Benefits (Texas): Texas benefits paid after MMI based on your impairment rating: three weeks of benefits per percentage point, at 70% of your average weekly wage within caps. A 10% rating = 30 weeks.
IRE Impairment Rating Evaluation (Pennsylvania): An exam the insurer can request after 104 weeks of total-disability checks. A whole-body impairment score under the statutory threshold converts your status from total to partial — starting a 500-week countdown even though check amounts don't change.
Industrial disability Iowa: Iowa's measure for whole-body injuries: not the medical rating but the injury's effect on your earning capacity — age, education, restrictions, and transferable skills all count. A 10% back rating can support an industrial-disability award several times larger. Never settle an Iowa body-as-a-whole claim on the rating alone.
Independent contractor: A worker genuinely in business for themselves — and generally outside workers' comp. But the label is often applied wrongly; the law looks at how much the company controls your work, not what the paperwork calls you.

J

JCC Judge of Compensation Claims (Florida): The Florida judges who decide workers' comp disputes after mediation fails — Florida's equivalent of a workers' compensation law judge.
Job analysis: A written breakdown of a job's physical demands — lifting, standing, repetitions — used to decide whether offered work fits your restrictions. If a "light duty" offer has no job analysis, ask for one.

L

Labor market survey: A vocational report claiming jobs exist that you could do at some wage — the insurer's main weapon against wage-loss and earning-capacity benefits. Counters: your real restrictions in writing, real applications with real results, and cross-examination of whether the listed jobs actually exist and actually fit.
Lien: A claim against your case's proceeds by someone who's owed money from it — commonly medical providers who treated you while the claim was disputed.
Lump sum: Settlement money paid at once rather than over time. Bigger number, more responsibility — especially when it's buying out your future medical care.
Loss of wage-earning capacity Mississippi & others: The measure many states use for whole-body permanency: how much the injury reduces what you can earn, not just the medical rating. Wage records, restrictions, and failed job applications are all evidence — and post-injury earnings below pre-injury wages often speak for themselves unless rebutted.
Light duty / modified duty: Temporary work adjusted to fit your medical restrictions. Genuine light duty within your restrictions usually must be accepted to keep wage benefits; work that exceeds the restrictions should go straight back to your doctor.

M

MCO Managed Care Organization (Ohio): The company that processes medical paperwork in Ohio's state-fund claims. It routes treatment requests; the BWC makes the decisions.
Mental-mental claim: A psychological injury with no physical injury — PTSD from a robbery, trauma from witnessing a death. The most state-variable claim type in comp: covered (often with extra requirements) in some states, sharply limited in others.
Monopolistic state fund: The four states (Ohio, Washington, North Dakota, Wyoming) where the state itself is the workers' comp insurer — no private carriers. You deal with an agency (BWC, L&I), and its orders carry strict appeal clocks.
Malingering: The clinical term for faking or exaggerating symptoms — and the accusation exaggeration invites. The defense is boring and total: report symptoms honestly in both directions, every time. One caught exaggeration outweighs ten honest reports.
Maximum / minimum weekly rate: Every state caps (and floors) weekly wage benefits, adjusting the numbers annually. High earners hit the cap; the current figures live on your state agency's site.
Medical-legal report: A report written to answer legal questions (causation, MMI, rating, apportionment) rather than to treat you — the QME/AME/IME/designated-doctor product that usually decides disputed claims.
Mileage reimbursement: Most states reimburse travel to injury-related medical appointments at a per-mile rate (some add parking and tolls). Small per trip, real over a claim — keep a simple log: date, destination, miles. It's also the benefit insurers most often simply don't mention.
MMI Maximum Medical Improvement: The point where your condition has stabilized — as good as it's medically expected to get. MMI ends the "healing" phase, triggers permanent disability evaluation, and usually starts settlement season.
Multipliers Kentucky: The statutory factors that convert a Kentucky impairment rating into an award — most powerfully the three-multiplier: if you lack the physical capacity to return to the type of work you did at injury, your permanency benefit is generally tripled. The return-to-work question is worth more than the rating itself.
MPN Medical Provider Network: The insurer's network of approved doctors (a California term; other states have equivalents). You generally treat within it — but you can change doctors inside the network.
MSA Medicare Set-Aside: Money from a settlement earmarked for future injury treatment so Medicare doesn't pay bills the settlement was meant to cover. Appears mostly in larger settlements involving Medicare-eligible workers.

N

Notice of Acceptance Oregon: The document listing the exact medical conditions an Oregon insurer accepts — and benefits flow only for what's on the list. When your diagnoses outgrow it (a "strain" that's really a herniated disc), file a written new/omitted medical condition claim to force a decision on the real diagnosis.
Notice of Claim Status Arizona: The document Arizona insurers use for every important decision — accepting, denying, closing, or changing benefits. Each one starts a 90-day window to request a hearing; unprotested, it becomes final. Read every notice the day it arrives and calendar the deadline.
Nurse case manager: A nurse assigned by the insurer to "coordinate" your care — helpful with scheduling, but employed by the payer. They may attend appointments with your consent rules varying by state; you're generally entitled to private time with your doctor. Be polite, be honest, and remember who they report to.
No-fault system: You don't have to prove your employer did anything wrong — and your own ordinary carelessness doesn't disqualify you. The trade-off is defined benefits instead of pain-and-suffering damages.
NCP / Temporary NCP Pennsylvania: Notice of Compensation Payable — Pennsylvania's formal acceptance of your claim (check the injury description carefully). The Temporary NCP pays for up to 90 days while investigating and can be revoked: payment under a TNCP is not acceptance.
Non-subscriber Texas: A Texas employer that legally opted out of workers' comp insurance. No comp benefits — but injured workers can sue the employer for negligence, and the employer loses its classic legal defenses.

O

OIEC Office of Injured Employee Counsel (Texas): A Texas state agency whose only job is helping unrepresented injured workers — free. Its ombudsmen explain rights, help with paperwork, and can assist at conferences and hearings.
Occupational disease: An illness caused by work exposure over time — lung disease, poisoning, some cancers and infections. Covered in every state, but on separate (often discovery-based) deadlines and sometimes separate statutes. The clock usually starts when a doctor connects the condition to work — get that connection in writing the day you hear it.
Odd-lot doctrine: The rule in several states that a worker who can technically do “some” work — but whose age, education, and restrictions make real employment unrealistic — can be found permanently and totally disabled. The evidence is vocational: failed job searches and honest expert testimony.
Offset Social Security: Receiving workers' comp can reduce SSDI payments (or vice versa, depending on the state) — and settlement language can manage the math. If you're on or near SSDI, raise the offset before structuring any settlement, not after.
Objective findings Arkansas: Arkansas's strict evidence rule: a compensable injury must be established by findings that don't depend on what you report — imaging, observed spasm, swelling, EMG results. Pain alone doesn't satisfy the statute, which is why early testing and precise charting matter more in Arkansas than almost anywhere.
Ombudsman: A neutral state employee who helps unrepresented injured workers navigate the system free — Texas's OIEC is the gold standard, and most states have some version. Use them; it's what they're for.
One-time change Florida: Florida's rule giving you exactly one request to change carrier-authorized treating physicians per claim. Real leverage — use it in writing, and strategically.

P

Permanent disability (PD): Compensation for lasting impairment after MMI — usually the largest dollar component of a settled claim. Driven by your impairment rating, age, occupation, and apportionment.
PPD / PTD Permanent Partial / Permanent Total Disability: The two flavors of permanent disability: partial (you can still work, with limits — most cases) and total (you can't return to any substantial work — rare, and paid differently).
PPI degrees Indiana: Indiana's permanency currency: your impairment converts to "degrees" (whole body = 100), and statute assigns escalating dollar values per degree. Because the dollars are fixed by law, the rating itself is the entire fight — which is why an independent rating before settling is standard practice.
Panel of physicians Georgia / Pennsylvania: The employer's posted list of doctors that controls early treatment — six-plus physicians in Georgia (with one free change), and Pennsylvania's list governing your first 90 days. Improperly posted panels may not bind you.
Panel of four Alabama: Alabama's statutory escape from a failing company doctor: a dissatisfied worker can demand a panel of four physicians and pick a replacement from it. The employer builds the panel, so it's an imperfect lever — but demanding it in writing also documents that authorized care wasn't working.
Pay-without-prejudice period Massachusetts: The up-to-180-day window in which a Massachusetts insurer can pay benefits without accepting liability — and stop with just 7 days' written notice. Checks arriving does not mean your claim is accepted. Calendar day 180, and treat any extension form as a decision worth advice first.
Peer review: A paper review of your treatment by a doctor who never examines you, used to dispute care or bills. Its weakness is its distance from you — treating-doctor rebuttals and exam-based opinions usually outweigh it when actually contested.
Personal comfort doctrine: The rule that short breaks for ordinary human needs — water, restroom, coffee, warming up — stay within the course of employment. An injury during them is generally covered; leaving the premises for personal errands usually is not.
Preclusion Connecticut: Connecticut's clock that runs against the insurer: after a proper Form 30C, the employer has 28 days to start paying or file a specific disclaimer (Form 43). Miss both and it can be barred — precluded — from contesting that your injury is compensable at all. One of the most worker-favorable rules in American workers' comp.
Petition for Benefits Florida: Florida's formal request that takes a benefits dispute to a Judge of Compensation Claims — generally due within two years of the injury.
Permanent restrictions: Work limits that survive MMI — the bridge between your medical rating and your real-world earning future. They belong in writing, in your file, and in any settlement valuation.
Presumption: A legal head start: certain facts are assumed true unless disproven. Example: in California, a claim not denied within 90 days of the DWC-1 is presumed covered.
Prescription Louisiana: Louisiana's civil-law word for a statute of limitations — and when a claim "prescribes," it's extinguished, not just weakened. The core number is one year, with payments interrupting the clock from the last check. Stopped benefits in Louisiana start a countdown; file the Form 1008 long before it ends.
Presumption of compensability Hawaii: Hawaii's statutory rule that a claim is presumed to be a covered work injury — the insurer must produce substantial evidence to defeat it, and doubts resolve in the worker's favor. The most worker-friendly causation rule in America, reaching even psychological stress claims.
Prevailing factor Missouri: Missouri's strict causation standard: work must be the primary cause of your condition, not just a contributing one. It makes the precise wording of your first report and first medical visit matter more in Missouri than almost anywhere.

Q

QME Qualified Medical Evaluator: A state-certified neutral doctor who evaluates disputed medical questions — usually chosen from a state-issued panel. The QME report often becomes the most important document in the claim.
QRC Qualified Rehabilitation Consultant (Minnesota): Minnesota's state-registered vocational rehab professional who builds and manages your return-to-work plan — job modifications, retraining, placement. You can request a change of QRC, most freely early on. A QRC chosen by the insurer isn't always working your side of the plan.

R

Rating: The percentage that expresses your permanent disability after adjustments for age and occupation. Small rating differences move real money, which is why ratings get disputed.
Redemption Michigan / Clincher North Carolina: Regional names for the full-and-final lump-sum settlement — magistrate- or Commission-approved, and typically closing future medical. Same stakes as any C&R; same checklist before signing.
Recorded statement: A taped interview the insurer may request early — which you're generally not required to give on demand, and which is risky while you're hurt, medicated, or undiagnosed. Offer facts; put anything more in writing instead.
Reopening: Reviving a resolved claim because you got worse — possible within time limits after some awards (state-specific), and essentially impossible after a full-and-final settlement. The asymmetry is the argument for not rushing signatures.
Retaliation: Firing, demoting, or punishing a worker for filing a comp claim — illegal in essentially every state, with separate lawsuits and damages available. Document timing (a termination shortly after filing speaks loudly), save everything in writing, and see an employment lawyer as well as a comp lawyer.
Return to work: The process of resuming your job — full duty, modified duty, or a different role. How it goes affects wage benefits, retraining vouchers, and settlement posture.

S

Serious disability Maryland: Maryland's higher permanency tier: awards of 175+ weeks pay a substantially higher weekly rate — for every week — plus bonus weeks. It's why Maryland permanency hearings are fought at the rating margins: a few points can move an award across the line and change its whole value.
Self-insured employer: A large employer that pays claims directly (under state oversight) instead of buying insurance. Same law applies — but the "insurer" you're dealing with is your employer's claims department.
SEB Supplemental Earnings Benefits (Louisiana): Louisiana's signature wage benefit: when you can work but can't earn 90% of your pre-injury wages, SEB pays two-thirds of the difference for up to 520 weeks. Insurers attack it with vocational "labor market surveys" — your counters are real restrictions, real applications, and honest testimony.
Second opinion: Your check on any consequential medical conclusion — a rating, a surgery recommendation, an MMI call. Some states fund one by statute (North Carolina on ratings, Kansas via its $500 allowance); everywhere, one well-documented independent opinion is the cheapest leverage in a disputed claim.
Second injury fund: State funds that share costs when a new work injury combines with a pre-existing condition — historically designed to encourage hiring workers with prior injuries. Mostly invisible to you, occasionally decisive in settlement math.
Settlement conference: A judge-supervised negotiation session many states require before trial — where a large share of contested cases actually resolve.
Spendable weekly wage Alaska / Iowa / Michigan: Your after-tax earnings — the base some states use instead of gross wages. Alaska pays 80% of it (America's richest formula), Michigan 80%, Iowa roughly the same for temporary benefits. Because comp checks are tax-free, spendable-based formulas often land close to your true take-home.
Sixty-day doctor swap New Mexico: New Mexico's one-of-a-kind rule: whoever selects the initial health care provider (usually the employer) controls the choice for only 60 days — from day 61, the other party may change providers via the WCA's notice form. Calendar day 60 the week you're hurt.
Surveillance: Insurers legally film claimants in public — parking lots, yards, gyms — hunting for footage that contradicts reported limitations. The defense isn't hiding; it's honesty: never exaggerate, follow restrictions everywhere, and surveillance has nothing to find.
Statute of limitations: The final deadline to file a formal claim or case — commonly one to three years depending on the state, with separate (shorter) deadlines for telling your employer. The single most dangerous date in workers' comp.
Stipulations Stipulated award: A settlement where you receive permanent disability payments over time and your injury-related medical care stays open, still paid by the insurer. The main alternative to a C&R.
Schedule Loss of Use SLU · New York: New York's signature award: permanent loss of use in an extremity (arm, hand, leg, foot, eye, hearing) pays a scheduled number of weeks by body part and percentage — often as a lump sum, even after returning to full-pay work.
Section 20 / Section 22 New Jersey: New Jersey's two settlement paths. Section 22: an approved percentage-of-disability award that keeps reopener rights alive. Section 20: a one-time lump sum that closes the claim completely — full, final, no reopening. Knowing which one is on the table is the whole negotiation.
Section 32 New York: New York's full-settlement agreement: a negotiated lump sum that can permanently close cash benefits, medical care, or both once the Board approves it. Treat with the same seriousness as a C&R.
SIBs Supplemental Income Benefits (Texas): Quarterly Texas benefits after impairment benefits end, for workers rated 15%+ who still have significant wage loss and document an ongoing work search. Reapplied for every quarter.
Structured settlement: Settlement money paid as scheduled payments over time (sometimes via an annuity) instead of one lump sum — common in large cases and MSA arrangements. Compare the real value against the lump sum, and get independent advice: structures serve some workers brilliantly and others mainly serve the seller.
Suitable employment: The standard many states use for what work you can be expected to take — gauged against your restrictions, skills, and often your wages and locale. “Any job” is not the test; a bona fide offer of genuinely suitable work is. The word carries whole disputes on its back.
Subrogation: The insurer's right to recover what it paid on your claim from a third party who caused your injury — the flip side of a third-party claim.

T

Third-party claim: A separate lawsuit against someone other than your employer who caused your injury — a negligent driver, an equipment maker, another contractor on site. Can add damages (like pain and suffering) that workers' comp never pays.
Time-loss compensation Washington: Washington's wage-replacement checks: 60% of your wage plus increments for a spouse and each dependent child (up to 75%) — benefits literally sized to your family.
TIBs Temporary Income Benefits (Texas): Texas wage-replacement checks while you recover: generally 70% of lost wages (75% for some lower-wage workers), after a one-week waiting period, within annually adjusted caps.
TTD Temporary Total Disability: Wage-replacement checks while a doctor keeps you fully off work — typically two-thirds of your average weekly wage, tax-free, within state caps.
TPD Temporary Partial Disability: Partial wage replacement when you can work reduced hours or lighter duty at lower pay while recovering.

U

UR Utilization Review: The insurer's process for checking treatment requests against medical guidelines before approving them. UR denials can usually be appealed — and often should be.
UEBTF Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund: California's safety-net fund that pays benefits when an employer illegally carried no workers' comp insurance. Most states have an equivalent.

V

Vocational expert: A specialist who testifies about what work you can realistically get with your restrictions, age, and skills — central in permanent-total and wage-differential disputes.
Vocational rehabilitation: Retraining help — counseling, education vouchers, job placement — when your injury prevents returning to your old work. In California this includes the $6,000 supplemental job displacement voucher.

W

Wage differential Illinois: An Illinois permanent-disability option paying two-thirds of the earnings gap when your injury forces you into lower-paying work — often more valuable than a body-part percentage, and often overlooked in settlements.
Wage statement: The insurer's calculation of your average weekly wage, built from payroll records — the foundation every check is computed from. Errors here (missing overtime, second jobs, bonuses) quietly shrink every benefit. Request the wage statement and the payroll records behind it; auditing it is the highest-return hour in a claim.
Waiting period: The first days of disability that wage benefits don't initially cover (one week in many states) — often paid retroactively if your disability lasts long enough. Medical care has no waiting period.
Work conditioning / hardening: Structured programs rebuilding job-specific strength and stamina near the end of recovery — often the bridge between therapy and full duty, and evidence of good-faith recovery effort.
Work restrictions: The doctor's written limits on what you can do — lifting caps, no ladders, seated work only. They define your job duties and your benefits, and they apply everywhere, not just at work.
Worker Advocate Maine: Maine's remarkable institution: state-employed representatives who take an unrepresented worker's side in disputed claims — preparing the case, negotiating, and appearing at mediation and hearings, free. Ask the Board to connect you the moment a dispute appears.
WSI Workforce Safety & Insurance (North Dakota): North Dakota's monopoly state fund — the only workers' comp insurer in the state, deciding and paying every claim. Its decision letters each carry a 30-day reconsideration window, and its free Decision Review Office helps workers challenge adverse decisions.
WCAB Workers' Compensation Appeals Board: California's court system for workers' comp — where judges resolve disputes and approve settlements. Every state has an equivalent board or commission.

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