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. 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 San Diego County. 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.
Who Is Actually Liable on a Site?
A construction site is the clearest example of the third-party claim, because so many separate companies work 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 own 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, “if any employer fails to secure the payment of compensation, any injured employee or his dependents may bring an action at law”. Whether they carried it is checkable.
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 routinely got wrong in both directions. The statute is precise, so it is worth being precise about.
The citation itself is generally not admissible. Labor Code 6304.5 provides that “neither the issuance of, or failure to issue, a citation by the division 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.
The safety order behind it is a different matter entirely. The same section provides that the Evidence Code applies to those safety provisions “in the same manner as any other statute, ordinance, or regulation”. So the regulation that was breached can establish what the standard of care required, in the ordinary way any statute or regulation does.
In plain terms: the citation is not the evidence. The rule the citation was issued under, and the facts showing it was not followed, are.
One more practical point from the same section: the testimony of the division’s own employees is not admissible as expert opinion. So an investigator’s conclusions do not simply become your expert evidence, and the case still needs its own.
The 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.
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, showing 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.
If It Was a Public Project, the Deadline Changes
A great deal of construction in this county is public work: roads, schools, transit, 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.
Establish whose project it was rather than assuming, because they are not interchangeable:
- The City of San Diego. Risk Management Department, 1200 Third Ave., Suite 1000, on the city’s RM-9 form. Since 11 December 2023 the city no longer accepts first-notice claims by email, so it is the portal, mail, or in person.
- San Diego MTS, for transit work. MTS is a separate public agency and its claim goes to MTS at 1255 Imperial Avenue.
- The county, a school district or the state, each with its own process. Work on the interstates sits with the state.
A claim presented to the wrong entity has not been presented at all.
Where You Were Treated, and Where the Case Would Be Heard
San Diego runs a catchment area trauma system, so a seriously injured worker was taken to the trauma center for where the site is, not the nearest hospital. The adult Level I centers are Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego and UC San Diego Medical Center.
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 Hall of Justice, 330 West Broadway, and heard in San Diego County before a San Diego 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 San Diego Workers Choose Culver Legal?
We look for the second claim first, because the compensation claim is usually already running and the civil claim is the one that pays for what compensation does not.
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.
San Diego Construction Accident FAQs
What type of lawyer do I need to sue the city?
A personal injury lawyer, but the important part is the procedure rather than the label. A claim against a public entity in California is not an ordinary lawsuit: a written claim has to be presented to the entity within six months, and no lawsuit can be filed until that has happened. So the thing to look for is somebody who handles government claims routinely, because the deadline is short, the recipient differs by entity, and getting either wrong ends the claim on procedure rather than merit. In San Diego a claim against the city goes to Risk Management at 1200 Third Ave., and the city no longer accepts first-notice claims by email.
Does a Cal/OSHA citation mean I win?
No, and it does not mean you lose either. The citation itself is generally not admissible in a personal injury action, other than between an employee and their own employer. But the safety order the citation was issued under applies like any other statute or regulation, so it can establish what the standard of care required. The citation is not the evidence; the rule and the facts showing it was not followed are.
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 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.
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 San Diego Construction Accident Lawyer
The site changes, the equipment moves, and the crew disperses to other jobs. If you were hurt on a construction site anywhere in San Diego County, reach us at (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.
