Most people hurt at work are told there is one claim to make. There are often two, they pay for different things, and the second one is the one nobody mentions.
Workers’ compensation covers medical treatment and part of your lost wages, and it pays regardless of fault. It does not pay anything for pain and suffering. Where somebody other than your employer caused the injury, a separate civil claim can, and it 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. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Can I Sue My Employer, or Only Claim Compensation?
For most injuries, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer. That is the trade: you do not have to prove fault, and in exchange you give up the right to sue them.
Two situations break that.
Your employer had no compensation insurance. Under Labor Code 3706, an employer who failed to secure compensation coverage can be sued directly in a civil action. Whether they carried it is a checkable fact rather than something to take on trust.
Somebody other than your employer caused it. That is the third-party claim, and it is where most of the value sits.
Who Else Might Be Liable?
The company that injured you is frequently not the company that employs you. On a Fresno job the candidates are:
- A general contractor or another subcontractor on the same site, responsible for a hazard your employer did not create
- The owner or operator of equipment that failed
- The manufacturer of a machine that was defective or inadequately guarded
- A driver who hit you while you were working, which makes it a car accident or truck accident claim as well
- A property owner where you were working but which your employer does not control
- A public entity, where the work was on a public project or public property
Each carries its own insurance. Identifying all of them usually changes the money available far more than arguing about how the injury happened.
Was anyone on site not employed by your employer?
Then there may be a second claim that pays for pain and suffering. Compensation does not.
What Does the Second Claim Add?
Compensation pays medical treatment and a portion of lost earnings. A third-party civil claim reaches:
- Pain and suffering, which compensation does not cover at all
- Full lost earnings rather than a statutory fraction
- Loss of future earning capacity
- Loss of consortium for a spouse
- Punitive damages, in the narrow cases where conduct justifies them
Where Does a Fresno Work Injury Case Actually Go?
Two different places, which is the practical consequence of there being two claims.
The third-party case 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.
Where a public entity is a defendant, because the work was on a public project or public property, a written claim must be presented within six months rather than two years, under Government Code 911.2. For the City of Fresno that goes to the Risk Management Division, 2600 Fresno Street, Room 1030, and the city requires claims in duplicate. The city, the county, a school district and the state are separate entities, so confirm which before filing.
On the medical side, the serious injuries in this region go to Community Regional Medical Center, 2823 Fresno Street, which describes itself as the only Level I trauma center between Los Angeles and Sacramento. Work injuries add a complication 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. That does not make them unusable, and it is a reason to keep your own copies as you go.
How Long Do You Have?
Two years for the third-party claim under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim where a public entity is involved.
The workers’ compensation claim runs on its own separate and much shorter clock, and reporting the injury to your employer has a shorter timescale again. The two systems do not talk to each other. Meeting one deadline protects none of the others, and the fact that a compensation claim is open does not stop the two-year period running.
What Should You Do After a Workplace Injury?
- Report it to your employer in writing and keep a copy.
- Get medical attention, and say clearly that the injury happened at work.
- Photograph the scene and the equipment before anything is moved or repaired.
- Get the names of everyone present, including people employed by other companies.
- Write down which company each person worked for. That is the detail that identifies a third-party defendant later, and nobody remembers it after a month.
- Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer before taking advice.
Did your employer actually carry the insurance?
If not, Labor Code 3706 lets you sue them directly. It is a checkable fact, not something to take on trust.
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. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day.
Fresno Work Injury FAQs
Do I have to pay back workers’ compensation if I win the other case?
Usually some of it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is setting up an unpleasant conversation later. Where compensation benefits have been paid for the same injury, the carrier has a right to be reimbursed out of a third-party recovery. That is not a reason to skip the third-party claim. The two systems pay for different things, compensation does not pay for pain and suffering at all, and what is repayable is frequently negotiable rather than fixed. The point is that the number you keep is the recovery minus the lien, so any estimate that does not mention the lien is estimating the wrong number.
Can I bring a civil claim and a compensation claim at the same time?
Yes, and in most third-party cases you should. They are separate systems with separate deadlines and they run in parallel. The compensation claim gets treatment paid for while the civil claim is being built, which matters because the civil claim usually takes longer.
My employer says it was my own fault. Does that stop the compensation claim?
No. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, so being careless does not disqualify you from benefits. Fault matters to the third-party civil claim, and even there California reduces a recovery in proportion rather than barring it.
What if I am a contractor rather than an employee?
Then the analysis changes and it is worth checking properly, because misclassification is common. 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 who is 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 I am undocumented?
Your immigration status does not disqualify you from workers’ compensation benefits 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.
How long will the case take?
The compensation claim usually moves first because it is administrative. The third-party civil claim takes longer, and the reason is normally medical: the value turns on where you end up rather than on how the injury looked at the start, and settling before that is known means settling on a guess. Where a public entity is involved the six-month claim still has to be presented early regardless.
Contact a Culver Legal Fresno Work Injury Lawyer
Evidence on a job site has a short life. Equipment gets repaired, sites change week to week, and the people who were there move to other jobs and other employers. If you were hurt at work 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.
