What the panel ordered
The WCAB panel granted the Petition for Reconsideration, rescinded the January 22, 2025 decision, and ordered that applicants are entitled to amend their award to include increased death benefits under Labor Code section 4707(c), deferring the calculation of benefits to the trial level.
Petition for Reconsideration of the January 22, 2025 Findings of Fact, Award, Order and Opinion on Decision was granted by the WCAB panel on March 28, 2025, rescinding the prior decision and substituting a new order.
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
The WCAB found that the amendment to Labor Code section 4707(c) applies retroactively to allow reopening of the award for increased death benefits, regardless of whether the claim was resolved before January 1, 2019 or January 1, 2024, because reopening is allowed under sections 5803 and 5804 if timely and for good cause, and a change in law constitutes good cause.
From the decision · page 4Here, the parties do not contest that decedent was a firefighter under the meaning of subdivision (c). Accordingly, we are presented with a pure question of law: whether death claims brought by eligible applicants that were resolved after January 1, 2019, but prior to January 1, 2024, may be amended to award the increased death benefits now provided for by that subdivision.