JOSEPH MCELVOGUE vs. CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Permissibly Self-Insured

This case concerns a dispute over the weekly rate of Vocational Rehabilitation Maintenance Allowance (VRMA). The defendant sought reconsideration of a WCJ's order that retroactively increased the VRMA rate, arguing it was an untimely judicial change rather than a clerical correction. The Appeals Board granted reconsideration, rescinded the WCJ's order, and reinstated the earlier, unchallenged VRMA rate. The Board found that the applicant's failure to timely seek reconsideration of the July 28, 2008 order, which set the rate at $840.00, made it final. Any attempt to substantively change that rate thereafter, including the claimed "clerical error" correction, was beyond the WCJ's jurisdiction.