On a construction site the company that injured you is usually not the company that employs you, and California law already assumes as much. Under Labor Code 6400, on a multiemployer worksite responsibility is divided between the employer whose people were exposed to a hazard, the employer who actually created it, and the employer who was responsible “by contract or through actual practice” for safety conditions on the site. Three different companies, three different roles, and frequently only one of them signs your paychecks.
That matters because workers compensation is the only thing most injured workers are told about, and compensation pays nothing at all for pain and suffering. A claim against one of the other companies does. Under Labor Code 3852 a compensation claim “does not affect” your right of action for all damages against any person other than your employer.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. Contingency, costs advanced, no fee unless we win. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
The Cal/OSHA Myth, and What Actually Helps You
Almost everyone assumes that if Cal/OSHA cited the site, the case is won, and that if Cal/OSHA did not cite anyone, there is no case. Both are wrong, and it is worth knowing why before somebody uses it against you.
Labor Code 6304.5 says that neither the issuance of a citation nor the failure to issue one “shall have any application to, nor be considered in, nor be admissible into, evidence in any personal injury or wrongful death action, except as between an employee and his or her own employer.”
But the same section keeps the underlying safety orders in play. It provides that Evidence Code sections 452 and 669 apply to the division and to the occupational safety and health standards adopted under it “in the same manner as any other statute, ordinance, or regulation.”
So the piece of paper is not the evidence. The rule that was broken is. That distinction decides how these cases are actually built, and a firm that tells you the citation is your case has not read the section.
Where the Second Claim Comes From on a Los Angeles Site
Another contractor, the most common source, and exactly the “creating employer” that Labor Code 6400 describes.
The general contractor or construction manager, where they held responsibility for site safety by contract or in actual practice.
An equipment owner, lessor or maintenance company, where a machine was defective, unguarded or badly serviced.
The property owner, where the hazard belonged to the building rather than to the work. That is a premises claim in substance, and it turns on the same question of notice.
A driver, where a delivery or a site vehicle was involved, which frequently brings in a commercial carrier and its insurers, or an ordinary car accident claim where a worker was struck in a work zone.
All of this runs alongside the compensation claim rather than instead of it, and a third-party claim is what pays for what compensation does not. A fall or a struck-by frequently produces a brain injury that the site’s incident report never mentions, electrical and chemical work produces burns valued over years rather than months, and where a worker is killed the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim with its own rules on who may bring it.
Your own employer, in two narrow cases. Where they never secured compensation insurance, under Labor Code 3706 you may sue them directly for damages as if the compensation rules did not apply. And under Labor Code 4558, where a point of operation guard on a power press was removed or never installed.
How many companies were working on that site?
Every one of them that is not your employer is a possible claim that pays for what compensation does not.
Construction Injuries We See in Los Angeles
Falls from height, from scaffolding, ladders, roofs and unguarded floor openings. The most common cause of death on a construction site and the one where guarding and fall protection are usually the issue.
Struck-by injuries, from falling tools and material, swinging loads, and vehicles reversing.
Caught-in and crush injuries, in trenches, between equipment, and in machinery.
Electrocution, from unmarked live circuits, damaged cords and contact with overhead lines.
Head injuries. A hard hat protects the skull far better than it protects the brain inside it, so if somebody has not been themselves since a fall that is a brain injury question rather than a case of being shaken up.
Fatal injuries, where the claim becomes a wrongful death claim and California limits who may bring one.
How Culver Legal Values a Los Angeles Construction Accident Claim
- Medical costs already incurred, from the scene through surgery and rehabilitation
- Future care, including hardware removal and revision surgery still ahead
- Lost income, and lost earning capacity, which on a trade injury is usually the largest number because the work that is no longer possible is skilled work
- Pain and suffering, which workers compensation does not pay at all
- Scarring and disfigurement, valued separately where permanent
- Retraining, where returning to the same trade is not realistic
Which Court Will Hear My Los Angeles Case?
The court covering the place where the site is, not the one nearest your employer’s office.
Los Angeles County handles this differently from most of California, and it is set out in a standing order of the court. General Order 2024-GEN-003-00, filed 17 May 2024, records that since 10 October 2022 every newly filed personal injury case is filed in the judicial district where the incident arose.
The court is also retiring its Personal Injury Hub in favor of Independent Calendar courtrooms, where one judge manages the case throughout. Since 8 January 2024 personal injury cases in the Central District have been assigned to IC departments at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and hub departments have been closing into new IC courtrooms as that proceeds, Department 30 into Department T at the Alhambra Courthouse and Department 31 into Department B at the Van Nuys Courthouse.
That does not change whether you have a claim. It changes where it is filed and who manages it, and filing in the wrong district spends time a deadline does not give back.
Where You Are Taken Matters, and in Los Angeles It Varies
Los Angeles County has fifteen designated trauma centers, and which one receives you depends on where the incident happened rather than on where you live.
Verified against the California EMS Authority’s designated and ACS-verified trauma center list, the Level I centers in and around the city are Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles General Medical Center, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for children. Level II centers including California Hospital Medical Center, Northridge, Providence Holy Cross, St. Francis and Huntington Memorial cover the rest of the county.
Why that belongs in a legal claim rather than a medical one. The records that prove the injury sit with whichever facility received you, and across a county this size that is frequently not the hospital nearest home. A serious injury also generates records at more than one facility as somebody is transferred, and gathering all of them rather than the first set to arrive is a large part of what an early demand gets wrong.
What Is a Construction Injury Claim Worth, and What Does It Cost to Bring?
Nothing up front, and the value depends heavily on whether a second claim exists beyond workers compensation.
Compensation pays medical treatment and part of lost wages regardless of fault, and pays nothing for pain and suffering. The civil claim against a third party is where the rest of it lives: a general contractor, a subcontractor, a property owner, an equipment manufacturer or a supplier. On a Los Angeles site there are usually several companies present and only one of them employs you.
Both tracks are handled on contingency with the percentage in a written fee agreement. Out of a civil recovery come the fee, the case costs advanced, and any liens, which on a work injury usually includes the compensation carrier’s right to be repaid out of the third-party settlement.
Deadlines to File a Los Angeles Construction Accident Claim
Two years for the third-party claim, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months where a public entity is involved, under Government Code 911.2. On construction this catches more work than people expect: schools, transit projects, municipal buildings and street works are all public jobs.
Up to a year by application if six months was missed, under Government Code 911.4 and Government Code 911.6, which the entity shall grant on grounds including that the injured person was physically or mentally incapacitated.
Two further grounds matter here and are easy to miss, because they are the ones most people actually fall under. Government Code 911.6(b) also requires the application to be granted where the injured person was a minor for any part of the six months, or was physically or mentally incapacitated for any part of it, provided the application is made within six months of them turning eighteen or of the incapacity ending, or a year after the claim accrued, whichever comes first.
Workers compensation runs on its own, shorter reporting clock. Report the injury to your employer promptly and do not let anyone tell you that doing so is instead of everything else.
Was it a school, a transit project or a street job?
Public works put you on a six-month clock rather than two years. That is worth establishing in week one.
What to Do After a Construction Accident in Los Angeles
Report it in writing and keep a copy, dated.
Write down every company on that site. The names on the vans, the equipment, the site board, the safety signage and the subcontractor boards. That list is the third-party claim and nobody will reconstruct it for you later.
Photograph the equipment, the guarding, the fall protection and the scene before anything is changed. Sites are tidied after an injury, which is normal and is still a problem for you.
Note whether anyone from Cal/OSHA attended, but do not rely on it. What matters is which safety rule was not followed, not whether a citation was issued.
Get treated, and say it happened at work.
What does it cost, and what comes out of a settlement? Nothing up front. The fee is a percentage of the recovery under a written fee agreement, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Out of a settlement come the fee, the case costs advanced, and any medical liens, which is why the headline figure and the amount received are different numbers. The full breakdown is in how a California work injury claim works.
Why Los Angeles Workers Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. In the hospital, at home, or on a schedule that does not cost you a day’s pay.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean.
Nothing up front. Contingency, costs advanced by the firm, no fee unless we win. Culver Legal was founded in 2020, has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Los Angeles Construction Accident FAQs
I am undocumented. Can I still bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, 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. So it cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand. It is not a question we ask you, it is not a question the other side gets to ask, and it is not something a contractor gets to raise to make a claim go away.
Cal/OSHA never cited anybody. Does that mean there was no violation?
No. Labor Code 6304.5 says the failure to issue a citation is not admissible in a personal injury action, except as between an employee and their own employer, precisely because a citation decision is not a finding about your case. What matters is which safety order applies and whether it was followed, and that is established independently of anything Cal/OSHA did or did not do.
I am already on workers compensation. Can I really claim against another company too?
Yes. Labor Code 3852 says a compensation claim does not affect your right of action against anyone other than your employer. They run alongside each other. The third-party claim is also the one that pays for pain and suffering, which compensation never does.
I am a subcontractor’s employee and the general contractor ran the site. Are they responsible?
Possibly, and Labor Code 6400 is why the question is worth asking. It recognizes the employer who was responsible for safety conditions on the worksite by contract or through actual practice as a distinct role from the one that employs you. Establishing who actually controlled site safety is usually the first piece of work in these cases.
Contact a Culver Legal Los Angeles Construction Accident Lawyer
If you were hurt on a construction site anywhere in Los Angeles, call (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing, and the question we are answering is which of the companies on that site is responsible.
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.
