Workers’ Compensation · Primary-source case analysis

Hawkins: The Temporary-Disability Cap Began When Payment Was First Made

By Aneeta Mishra and Timothy Chan

Published April 25, 2026 · Updated October 17, 2026

Decision: Hawkins v. Amberwood Prods., No. SAL 0107814 (WCAB June 13, 2007) (en banc).

Hawkins interpreted the statutory phrase date of commencement of temporary disability payment for an injury governed by the former two-year cap. The decision distinguishes when benefits were owed from when the insurer actually paid them. It is a historical ruling on the statutory language then in force, not a rule that every current claim receives two years after its first check.

Benefits were paid retroactively

Valeri Hawkins became temporarily disabled in July 2004, but the employer’s first payment was issued in May 2005 and covered the earlier period as well as current benefits.

The statute focused on payment

The Board distinguished the date indemnity became owed from the date payment actually commenced. It read the statutory language to start the two-year period on the first payment date.

The payment record fixed the endpoint

Because payment first occurred on May 3, 2005, the cap ran from that date under the version of section 4656(c)(1) before the Board. The retroactive period covered by the check did not move the start backward.

Disposition

The WCAB affirmed the judge’s use of the actual first-payment date. Later statutory amendments and injury dates require separate analysis.

Key takeaways

• Identify the injury date and governing statutory version.
• Reconstruct when indemnity was owed and when it was first paid.
• Preserve check, notice, and benefit-ledger evidence.
• Do not apply this former-language holding without checking amendments.