If you were hurt on a site, you have probably been told there is one claim to make. There are usually two, and the second one is where most of the money is.
Workers’ compensation covers treatment and part of your lost wages, and it pays regardless of fault. It pays nothing for pain and suffering. The company that injured you is very often not the company that employs you, and where that is true a separate civil claim runs alongside the compensation claim rather than instead of it.
Culver Legal, LLP represents injured workers across the Central Valley from an office at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220 in Fresno. We work on contingency and advance the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Who Is Actually Liable on a Site?
A construction site is the clearest example of the third-party claim, because so many different companies are working in the same place at the same time.
- The general contractor, for site-wide conditions and coordination
- Another subcontractor, whose work created the hazard your employer did not create
- The owner or lessor of equipment that failed
- The manufacturer of a machine that was defective or inadequately guarded
- The property owner, where they retained control over the conditions
- A public entity, where the work was on a public project, which changes the deadline
Each carries its own policy. Identifying all of them changes the money available far more than arguing about how the injury happened.
Your employer is usually not on that list, because workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against them. The exception is real and worth checking: under Labor Code 3706, an employer who failed to carry compensation insurance can be sued directly.
Was anyone on that site not employed by your employer?
Then there may be a second claim that pays for pain and suffering. Compensation does not.
Does a Cal/OSHA Citation Prove the Case?
Not directly, and the distinction is worth understanding because it is routinely got wrong in both directions.
A Cal/OSHA citation itself is generally not admissible in a civil action to prove negligence. Labor Code 6304.5 governs how these provisions apply in civil proceedings, and a defendant will rely on it hard.
The underlying safety order is a different matter. The regulation that was breached establishes what the standard of care required, and that can be put before a jury. So the citation is not the evidence. The rule the citation was issued under, and the facts showing it was not followed, are.
In practical terms: a Cal/OSHA investigation is still worth having, because it produces witness statements, photographs and findings gathered close to the event by somebody with authority to demand them. Those are useful whether or not the citation itself ever goes in front of a jury.
What Gets Lost in the First Two Weeks
Site evidence has a shorter life than almost any other kind, because the site keeps being built.
- Daily reports and toolbox talk sign-in sheets, which show who was on site and what was briefed
- Equipment inspection and maintenance logs
- The subcontractor agreements, which allocate responsibility for the area you were hurt in
- The site safety plan, and whether it was being followed that day
- Photographs of the scene before it was cleared or rebuilt
These sit with different companies, are not produced voluntarily, and several are routinely overwritten or discarded within weeks. The scaffold you fell from may not exist in the same configuration a month later. That is the reason to have somebody asking early rather than after the medical picture settles.
If It Was a Public Project, the Deadline Changes
A great deal of construction in this county is public work: roads, schools, county and city facilities.
Where a public entity is a defendant, a written claim must be presented within six months under Government Code 911.2, rather than the ordinary two years, and no lawsuit can be filed until it has been.
A claim against the City of Fresno goes to the Risk Management Division, 2600 Fresno Street, Room 1030, and the city requires claims in duplicate.
Establish whose project it was rather than assuming. The city, the county, a school district and the state are four separate entities with four separate processes. Roadway work on Highway 99, Interstate 5 or State Route 41 sits with the state rather than with the city.
Where Will You Be Treated, and Where Would the Case Be Heard?
Community Regional Medical Center, 2823 Fresno Street, describes itself as the only Level I trauma center between Los Angeles and Sacramento, verified at that level by the American College of Surgeons. A serious site injury in this region goes there, which means one hospital holds the imaging, the trauma activation record and the first responder narrative.
Work injuries add a wrinkle other cases do not have: treatment is often directed through the employer’s medical provider network, so those records sit with a provider the insurer chose rather than one you did. Keep your own copies as you go.
A construction injury claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case, filed at the B. F. Sisk Courthouse, 1130 O Street, and heard in Fresno County before a Fresno County jury. The compensation claim does not go there at all; it runs through the state’s own administrative system on a separate track.
Is the site already being rebuilt?
Site evidence disappears in weeks, not months. A preservation request has to go out now.
Why Do Fresno Workers Choose Culver Legal?
We are in Fresno, at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220, and where you cannot travel we come to you.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean.
The economics are simple. Contingency, costs advanced, nothing up front and no fee unless we win. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day.
Fresno Construction Accident FAQs
What kind of lawyer do I need to sue a contractor?
For an injury on a site, a personal injury lawyer who handles third-party construction claims, which is different from a construction defect or contract lawyer. A defect case is about work that was done badly. Your case is about a person who was hurt, and it turns on who controlled the hazard. If you were working at the time it normally runs alongside a workers’ compensation claim rather than instead of one, and the two are handled together.
What is the most common cause of construction injuries?
Falls from height are consistently the largest single category, with being struck by objects or equipment, caught-in and crush injuries, and electrical contact accounting for most of the rest. The legally useful point is that each maps onto a specific safety requirement, so each comes with a documented obligation that somebody held. Establishing which safety order applied and who was responsible for meeting it is usually more productive than arguing about what the injured worker was doing at the moment it happened.
Does a Cal/OSHA citation mean I win?
No, and it does not mean you lose either. The citation itself is generally not admissible to prove negligence, but the safety order it was issued under can establish what the standard of care required. The investigation is still valuable because of the evidence it gathers early: statements, photographs and findings collected by somebody with authority to demand them.
Can I claim if I am an undocumented worker?
Yes. Immigration status does not disqualify you from workers’ compensation in California, and it is protected in the civil claim. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It is not a question we ask you, and it is not a question the other side gets to ask.
Can I claim if I am a subcontractor rather than an employee?
Often yes, and the analysis is different rather than worse. A genuinely independent contractor is usually outside the compensation system, which removes the exclusive-remedy bar and can open a direct claim against the hiring party. Somebody labeled a contractor but treated as an employee in practice may be entitled to compensation anyway. The label on the paperwork is not the end of the question.
What if my employer says reporting it will cost me my job?
Retaliating against a worker for reporting an injury or filing a claim is unlawful in California. That is not much comfort in the moment, and the practical answer is that reporting in writing and keeping a copy protects both the claim and you. It is also worth taking advice before deciding not to report, because an unreported injury is the hardest kind to pursue later.
Contact a Culver Legal Fresno Construction Accident Lawyer
The site changes, the equipment moves, and the crew disperses to other jobs and other employers. If you were hurt on a construction site anywhere in Fresno or the surrounding Central Valley, reach us at (310) 600-7881 at any hour, or at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220. 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.
