The company that injured you on a construction site is very often not the company that employs you. Where that is true, there are two claims rather than one, and most injured workers only ever hear about the first.
Workers’ compensation covers medical treatment and a portion of lost wages, and it applies regardless of fault. What it does not pay is anything for pain and suffering. A separate civil claim against a third party who caused the injury covers what workers’ compensation does not, and the two run alongside each other.
Culver Legal, LLP acts for injured workers across Long Beach on contingency, with case costs advanced. Nothing to pay up front, no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Who the Third Party Usually Is
A construction site is a stack of separate companies working in the same place, and any of them can be the one responsible.
- Another subcontractor, whose crew created the hazard your employer’s crew walked into.
- The general contractor, on the basis of site control and coordination of safety.
- The property owner, depending on the arrangement and on what they retained control over.
- An equipment manufacturer or supplier, where a machine, tool or component failed.
- A maintenance or rental company responsible for equipment on site.
- A public entity, where the work was on a public project or public land, which changes the deadline. See below.
Establishing who is who takes documents. Subcontractor agreements, site safety plans, daily logs, sign-in sheets, toolbox talk records and equipment maintenance files. They belong to the companies involved rather than to you, which is the reason to start early rather than the reason to give up.
Hurt on a site by someone else’s crew?
Workers’ compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering. A third-party claim can.
What Cal/OSHA Findings Can and Cannot Do
This is easy to get backwards, and the difference is worth understanding before you rely on it.
Labor Code 6304.5 provides that neither the issuance of, nor the failure to issue, a citation by the division has any application to, or is admissible in evidence in, a personal injury or wrongful death action, except as between an employee and their own employer.
So a citation against another contractor on the site is generally not something a third-party claim can put in front of a jury, whatever a website tells you.
What does carry across is the safety standards themselves. The same section provides that Evidence Code sections 452 and 669 apply to the occupational safety and health standards in the same manner as any other statute, ordinance or regulation. Evidence Code 669 is the provision under which the violation of a statute or regulation can establish a presumption of negligence. So the standard a company failed to meet can matter a great deal, even though the citation for failing to meet it does not come in.
One further limit in the same section: the testimony of division employees is not admissible as expert opinion or on the application of those standards.
The practical version. Do not assume a Cal/OSHA investigation will prove your case, and do not assume the absence of a citation sinks it. What matters is what the applicable safety standard required and whether it was met, which is established by evidence gathered for the civil claim.
If a Public Entity Is One of the Responsible Parties
Where a public entity is among the parties responsible, the deadline changes completely.
Six months to present a written claim under Government Code 911.2, rather than two years. Separately, Government Code 945.4 bars a lawsuit for money damages until the claim has been presented and the entity has either acted on it or is treated as having rejected it, which happens automatically after 45 days of no decision, and a claim is deemed rejected if the entity takes no action for 45 days under Government Code 912.4.
And presenting the claim is not the last deadline. Once the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, Government Code 945.6 gives you six months from the date of that notice to file suit. If the entity never sends a written rejection, the period is two years from when the cause of action accrued instead. A claim that is ignored therefore leaves more time than one that is formally rejected, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
Which public entity it is decides where the claim goes, and getting that wrong loses the claim. Where the City of Long Beach is the responsible entity, the claim is filed with the City Clerk at 411 West Ocean Blvd. But a public project here may belong to a school district, a state agency, a transit agency or a water district, and each of those has its own claims process and its own address. Do not assume the city counter is the right counter.
Note the distinction that catches people. It is not about where the work was happening. Work carried out on public land for a private general contractor is an ordinary private claim on the ordinary two-year deadline. What triggers the six months is a public entity being one of the responsible parties, which is a different question from who owns the ground.
The Ordinary Deadline
Two years from the date of injury for a third-party civil claim, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Workers’ compensation is a separate system with its own deadlines and its own process, and the two tracks are not interchangeable. We handle the civil claim against the responsible third party; where a workers’ compensation matter also needs handling we will tell you plainly rather than leave it unsaid.
What to Do
Report the injury to your employer, in writing where possible, and keep a copy. A dated report is the anchor for everything that follows.
Photograph the site and the equipment before anything is moved. Sites are cleared, scaffolding is struck and machinery is repaired, often within a day.
Write down who else was working nearby and which company they worked for. Crews rotate off sites and become hard to find.
Get medical attention and be accurate about how it happened. The mechanism recorded in the first medical note is quoted back for the life of the claim.
Do not sign anything from another company’s insurer without advice.
Where Would the Case Be Heard?
At the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia. Since October 2022 the Los Angeles Superior Court has assigned newly filed personal injury cases to the judicial district where the incident arose, so a Long Beach site injury is heard in Long Beach. A claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case.
Injured on a Long Beach site?
The review costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Site conditions change within a day.
Long Beach Construction Accident FAQs
I am getting workers’ compensation. Can I still bring a claim?
Often yes, and they are different things. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system covering treatment and a portion of lost wages, and it pays nothing for pain and suffering. A third-party civil claim is brought against somebody other than your employer who caused the injury, such as another subcontractor, the general contractor, a property owner or an equipment manufacturer, and it covers what workers’ compensation does not. Receiving benefits does not remove that right.
How much do accident attorneys charge in California?
These claims are handled on contingency, so there is no fee unless we win. Case costs, which on a construction claim can include site investigation and engineering analysis, are advanced rather than billed to you as they arise.
Will a Cal/OSHA citation prove my case?
Not in the way most people expect, and this is worth knowing before you rely on it. Labor Code 6304.5 provides that the issuance or non-issuance of a citation is not admissible in a personal injury or wrongful death action, except as between an employee and their own employer. What does apply are the safety standards themselves, which under the same section operate through Evidence Code 452 and 669 like any other regulation, so a violated standard can still matter a great deal. The absence of a citation does not defeat a claim either.
What if I am an independent contractor rather than an employee?
It changes which route is available rather than whether you have one. Somebody without workers’ compensation coverage may have only the civil claim, which makes identifying the responsible party more important rather than less. Worker classification on construction sites is frequently disputed and is not something to concede on the basis of what a contract says.
What should I not tell an attorney?
Nothing. The conversation is confidential, and the facts that feel damaging, a prior injury, a missed safety step, a gap before seeking treatment, are the ones most in need of proper handling. They surface later regardless, and they are much easier to deal with when raised early. Be far more careful about what you say to another company’s insurer.
Does my immigration status affect my claim?
No, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand.
Contact a Culver Legal Long Beach Construction Accident Lawyer
If another company on the site caused your injury, there is a claim that workers’ compensation does not cover. If the project was public, the deadline is six months rather than two years. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
