Claims Adjudication Tune-Up (CAT-U)
September 2025 Edition
Welcome to Self-Insurance’s (SI) Claims Adjudication Tune-Up (CAT-U) newsletter. This is where the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) shares best practices and information, as well as highlight opportunities for improvement. The focus of this month’s CAT-U is Counting Days.
Legal Corner
Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 1.12.040 Computation of Time:
“The time within which an act is to be done, as herein provided, shall be computed by
excluding the first day, and including the last, unless the last day is a holiday,
Saturday, or Sunday, and then it is also excluded.”
Unless otherwise specified, follow this statute when determining how much time is allowed to take action.
For a listing of holidays that effect computation of time, see RCW 1.16.050 “Legal Holidays”. If the last day of the period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date is the following business day.
CR (Court Rule) 6(a): Time Computation
“In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by these rules, by the local
rules of any superior court, by order of court, or by any applicable statute, the day of
the act, event, or default from which the designated period of time begins to run shall
not be included. The last day of the period so computed shall be included, unless it is
a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period runs until the end of
the next day which is neither a Saturday, a Sunday nor a legal holiday. Legal holidays
are prescribed in RCW 1.16.050. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is
less than 7 days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall be
excluded in the computation.”
While Court Rules (CR) apply to appeals rather than day-to-day claim handling, this rule follows RCW 1.12.040 above and illustrates the department’s practice of defaulting to ‘working days’ for counting periods that are less than seven days. For example WAC 296-15-425(3) states that a template letter must be sent to the worker within five days of taking action on a claim. Since it does not specify calendar or business days, it should be business days based on the rule above. The employer has 60 days to request allowance, denial, or interlocutory orders, per WAC 296-15-420. Since this is seven days or more, and the WAC does not specify, it should be counted as calendar days.
RCW 51.28.050 Time limitation for filing application or enforcing claim for injury.
“No application shall be valid or claim thereunder enforceable unless filed within one
year after the day upon which the injury occurred or the rights of dependents or
beneficiaries accrued, except as provided in RCW 51.28.055 and 51.28.025(5).”
The “one year after the [date of injury]” period starts on the day after the date of injury. See “News You Can Use” below for more information.
WAC 296-20-097 Reopenings
“… When reopening is granted, the department or self-insurer can pay time loss and
treatment benefits only for a period not to exceed 60 days prior to date the
application is received by the department or self-insurer. The 60 days may be
extended up to 120 days consistent with RCW 51.28.040….”
When counting backwards, days “prior to” or “before” are treated the same as days “after”. Don’t count the day of the event. For example, 60 days prior to a reopening application received on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025 would start Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. The reopening effective date is June 18,2025.
News You Can Use
Kovacs v. Dep’t of Labor & Industries: How to calculate the one-year limitation on injury filing.
The Washington State Supreme Court was asked to decide whether he legislature
intended to include the day of injury in calculating the time to file a worker’s
compensation claim.
John Kovacs injured his back while working for Pro Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.
on Sept. 29, 2010. Kovacs filed an application for benefits on Sept. 29, 2011. The
Department initially found Kovacs qualified for benefits, which he began to receive.
Kovacs’ employer challenged the award, arguing Kovacs’ application wasn’t timely.
The Department agreed and reversed its decision. The case made its way to the
Supreme Court where the Department argued that the statute of limitations for
workers’ compensation claims under RCW 51.28.050 begins to run from the day of
injury.
The Supreme Court held that based on the general statute for computing time,
RCW 1.12.040, the statute of limitations on filing workers’ compensation claims begins
to run on the date following injury.
The one-year statute of limitations for filing an injury claim under RCW 51.28.050 should be computed based on RCW 1.12.040 which excludes the first day, and includes the last, unless the last day is a holiday, Saturday, or Sunday, and then it’s also excluded.
Trainer Trivia
Last month’s question, “In 1859, the United States and Britain almost went to war over the northwest U.S. boundary because of what animal?”
Answer: The 1859 confrontation in the San Juan islands was triggered by an American farmer shooting a pig belonging to an employee of the British Hudson’s Bay Company. Despite military escalation on both sides, the issue was resolved with the pig being the only casualty.
September Question:
We always see the same face of the Moon. Does the Moon rotate?
More reading/resources:
RCW 1.16.050 “Legal Holidays”, for a listing of legal holidays recognized in Washington.
Self-Insurance Claim Adjudication Guidelines Miscellaneous Chapter “Computation of Time” section.
Time and Date (timeanddaate.com) Very useful tools for calculating dates, adding or subtracting days, and creating custom calendars.
Reminders/tips from the SI teams:
Date Stamping of all incoming correspondence is required under WAC 296-15-350(8). Without clear and consistent date stamping, it may be difficult to accurately count days.
For more information, email: SITrainerQuestions@Lni.wa.gov
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