Most people hurt at work are told the same thing on the same day: file workers compensation, that is your only option, and do not make trouble. The first part is usually right. The second part is frequently wrong, and the third is not something anybody is allowed to say to you.
The company that injured you is often not the company that employs you. On a Los Angeles job site, a warehouse floor or a delivery route there are usually several businesses in play: a general contractor, subcontractors, an equipment owner, a property owner, a maintenance company, another driver. Under Labor Code 3852 a compensation claim “does not affect” your right of action for all damages against any person other than the employer. That second claim is not a replacement for compensation. It runs alongside it, and it is where the money that actually covers a serious injury usually comes from, because compensation does not pay for pain and suffering at all.
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.
What Workers Compensation Does Not Cover
Compensation is a trade. It pays without anyone having to prove fault, and in exchange it is capped and narrow. It covers medical treatment and a portion of lost wages. It does not pay for pain and suffering, and it does not pay for loss of enjoyment of life.
A third-party claim under Labor Code 3852 does. That is the whole reason it is worth finding out whether one exists, and it is the question a compensation adjuster has no reason to ask on your behalf.
Where the Second Claim Usually Comes From
Another driver, where the injury happened on the road during work. A delivery route, a service call, a site-to-site trip.
Equipment, where a machine was defective, badly maintained, or missing a guard, and the company that owned or serviced it is not your employer.
Another contractor on site. The most common source on any construction project, and the reason site injuries are rarely a single-defendant case.
A property owner, where the hazard belonged to the building rather than to the work. A fall caused by the condition of a floor, a stairwell or a walkway is a premises claim as well as a work injury.
A vehicle you were loading or unloading, which frequently brings in a commercial carrier with its own insurance and its own records, or an ordinary car accident claim where the driver was not working for a company at all. Anyone struck while on foot in a yard or a work zone is in the same position.
The injuries follow the work. Falls and struck-by injuries produce a brain injury more often than the paperwork records; electrical, steam and chemical work produces burns valued over years; and where somebody is killed the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim rather than a compensation matter.
If Your Employer Has No Compensation Insurance
This is common enough in Los Angeles to be worth its own section, particularly in construction, warehousing, restaurants and day labor.
Under Labor Code 3706, if an employer “fails to secure the payment of compensation”, an injured employee “may bring an action at law against such employer for damages, as if this division did not apply“. In plain terms: an employer who did not carry the insurance loses the protection that insurance was supposed to buy them, and can be sued directly.
Labor Code 3600 sets the ordinary exclusive remedy rule and names 3706 as one of its own exceptions.
Was anyone on that site not your employer?
A claim against them runs alongside workers compensation, and it pays for things compensation never does.
Work Injuries We See in Los Angeles
Falls from height, on scaffolding, ladders and unguarded edges, which are the most common cause of serious construction injury.
Struck-by injuries, from falling material, swinging loads and vehicles reversing on site.
Crush injuries, from machinery, forklifts and loads that shifted.
Back and shoulder injuries from lifting, which build over months and are the most commonly disbelieved injuries on this page.
Head injuries. A hard hat prevents a fractured skull far better than it prevents a brain moving inside it, so if somebody has not been themselves since a fall that is a brain injury question.
Fatal injuries, where the claim becomes a wrongful death claim and California limits who may bring one.
Which Court Will Hear My Los Angeles Case?
The court covering the place where you were hurt, 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.
What Does It Cost, and Can I Bring Both Claims at Once?
Nothing up front, and yes, the two claims run separately rather than as alternatives.
A workers compensation claim and a civil claim against a third party are different tracks with different rules, and pursuing one does not bar the other. Compensation covers medical treatment and a portion of lost wages regardless of fault, and it does not pay for pain and suffering. The civil claim against whoever actually caused the injury does.
Both are handled on contingency, with the percentage set out in a written fee agreement and no fee if there is no recovery. Out of a civil settlement come the fee, the case costs advanced, and any liens, which in a work injury frequently includes the compensation carrier’s own right to be repaid out of the third-party recovery. That last one surprises people and it is worth understanding before settlement rather than after.
The full analysis of where the second claim comes from is in how a California work injury claim works.
Deadlines
Two years for the third-party claim, from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months where a public entity is involved, under Government Code 911.2, which catches public works, school district sites and municipal contracts.
Workers compensation has its own, shorter reporting clock, separate from either of the above. Report the injury to your employer promptly, and do not let the two systems be confused with each other.
Told your employer has no insurance?
An employer who failed to secure compensation can be sued directly for damages. The statute says so.
What to Do After Being Hurt at Work in Los Angeles
Report it in writing and keep a copy. Verbal reports disappear, and a written one dated the same week is worth more than anything you can reconstruct later.
Write down every company that was on that site, including the names on the vans, the equipment and the safety signage. That list is the third-party claim.
Photograph the equipment and the scene before it is changed. Sites get tidied after an injury, which is not sinister and is still a problem for you.
Get treated, and say it happened at work.
Do not sign anything describing how the accident happened until you have read it carefully, particularly a form that characterizes it as your own error.
Your Employer Cannot Punish You for This
Labor Code 132a declares it the policy of this state that there should be no discrimination against workers injured in the course of their employment, and it provides that an employer who discharges, threatens to discharge, or otherwise discriminates against an employee for filing or intending to file a compensation claim is guilty of a misdemeanor.
If that is the reason you have not reported an injury, it is worth a conversation before you decide.
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 shift.
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 Work Injury 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 an employer gets to raise to make a claim go away.
I already filed workers compensation. Is it too late to look at anything else?
No. Labor Code 3852 says a compensation claim does not affect your right of action against anyone other than your employer. The two run alongside each other. What matters is that the second claim has its own two-year deadline, and that nobody in the compensation system is watching it for you.
My employer says they do not have insurance. What happens now?
That changes your position for the better rather than the worse. Labor Code 3706 allows an injured employee to sue an employer directly for damages where the employer failed to secure compensation, as if the compensation rules did not apply. It is worth establishing quickly whether coverage existed.
I am afraid of losing my job if I report this. Is that a real risk?
The law is squarely against it. Labor Code 132a makes it state policy that injured workers are not to be discriminated against, and makes discharging or threatening to discharge someone for filing a claim a misdemeanor. That does not make fear irrational, but it does mean you are not choosing between your health and your job in the way it feels.
Contact a Culver Legal Los Angeles Work Injury Lawyer
If you were hurt at work anywhere in Los Angeles, call (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing, and the question we are answering is whether anyone other than your employer 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.
