“Can I sue my employer for a work injury?”

Usually, no. But that answer is narrower than it sounds. Below: the rule, the exceptions that let you sue your own employer, two ways to get more from your employer without a lawsuit, the people you can sue, and the claims that belong to employment law instead.

The rule: workers’ comp is the remedy against your employer

Workers’ comp does not ask whose fault it was. Benefits are owed regardless of who was at fault. You do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong, and your own mistake does not defeat the claim. If you think it was your fault.

The trade is the lawsuit. In exchange, workers’ compensation is generally the exclusive remedyExclusive remedy Workers’ compensation is generally the only claim against your employer. It is not the only claim against anyone else. against your employer. You get medical treatment and disability benefits without proving fault. You give up the wider damages a lawsuit can pay. Workers’ comp pays nothing for pain and suffering.

The Division of Workers’ Compensation says it in one line: “You can’t sue your employer for a job injury (in most cases).” Its own list of the governing laws names the exceptions as Labor Code §§ 3602, 3706 and 4558.

When you can sue your own employer

The exceptions are narrow. Anyone telling you that you can sue your employer should be able to point to one of these, or to the uninsured-employer rule in the next section.

Assault means your employer. Being attacked by a customer or a coworker is a different question, with its own rules. Hurt by a customer. · Hurt by a coworker.

Concealment usually comes up in exposure cases, where an employer sat on medical monitoring results. Chemical exposure.

The power-press exception is stricter than it reads. “Specifically authorized” means an affirmative instruction given before the injury. A supervisor who saw the guard was off and said nothing has not authorized anything. The statute also requires proof that the manufacturer specified the guard and told the employer so.

If a machine hurt you, ask in writing that the machine, the manual and the purchase file be preserved. Those records decide these cases, and they are exactly what gets thrown away. No safety guards.

The broader exception: an uninsured employer

If your employer did not carry workers’ comp insurance, the law lets you sue them in civil court, as though the workers’ comp system did not apply. The Division of Workers’ Compensation puts it plainly: “You can also sue your uninsured employers in a legal action apart from the workers’ compensation case, in Superior Court.”

§ 3708 tilts that lawsuit toward you. The injury is presumed to have resulted from the employer’s negligence, and the burden is on the employer to rebut it. The employer cannot argue contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, or the negligence of a fellow worker.

You still get benefits. The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust FundUEBTF Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund. Pays benefits where the employer was illegally uninsured. pays workers’ comp benefits when an illegally uninsured employer does not. The two are usually pursued together, because an employer that skipped insurance often has little to collect. The fund’s process is demanding, and service on the employer is where these claims fail. When your employer has no insurance.

Not a lawsuit, but more from your employer: § 4553

Serious and willfulSerious and willful +50%, and uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. 12 months. misconduct raises your compensation by one-half. Labor Code § 4553: “The amount of compensation otherwise recoverable shall be increased one-half, together with costs and expenses not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250),” where the injury was caused by the serious and willful misconduct of the employer or a managing representative, a partner or general superintendent of a partnership, or an executive, managing officer or general superintendent of a corporation.

It is a petition in your workers’ comp case, not a lawsuit. The Division of Workers’ Compensation says it can be filed only if you have a pending case at the Appeals Board, and that it “must be filed within 12 months of the date of injuryDate of injury For a cumulative or occupational disease claim, the law sets it as when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the wear began. Almost every deadline runs off this..”

The employer pays it personally. The law forbids insuring against it.

The standard is high. In a 2024 decision the Appeals Board quoted the definition from what it called the seminal case, Mercer-Fraser Co. v. Industrial Accident Com. (1953) 40 Cal.2d 102: conduct that “necessarily involves deliberate, intentional or wanton conduct in doing or omitting to perform acts, with the knowledge or appreciation of the fact, on the part of the culpable person, that danger is likely to result therefrom.” Carelessness is not enough. How these petitions work.

If you were punished for the claim: § 132a

The law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to discharge, threaten to discharge, or in any manner discriminate against an employee because they filed or made known their intention to file a claim, or because they received a rating, award or settlement.

What it provides: compensation increased by one-half, but no more than $10,000, plus up to $250 in costs, reinstatement, and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits. The claim is brought at the Appeals Board, and the deadline is one year from the discriminatory act or the termination.

That cap is why § 132a is often the smaller claim. Can I be fired while on workers’ comp? · Retaliation.

Harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination are separate claims

These are employment-law claims, not workers’ comp claims. Harassment, discrimination under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and wrongful termination are brought under different laws, in a different forum, and they have their own deadlines, which are not the same as the workers’ comp deadlines.

A FEHA claim starts with an administrative complaint to the Civil Rights Department, not with the Appeals Board. A § 132a petition does not replace those claims, and nobody in the workers’ comp system will track their deadlines for you. If any of them may apply, have them looked at promptly and on their own timeline. Return to work and FEHA.

Suing someone who is not your employer

The exclusive remedy protects your employer. It does not protect anyone else. A negligent driver, another contractor on the site, the owner of the property where you were hurt, the manufacturer of a machine or product: any of them may be a defendant in a civil case that runs alongside your workers’ comp claim.

That case pays what comp does not, including pain and suffering. The trade is that you must prove someone was at fault. If you recover, your employer or its insurer generally has a lien for the benefits it paid and a credit against future benefits, though it must bear its share of the cost of the recovery. That is why the two cases have to be handled with each other in view.

Watch the public-entity deadline. If a city, county, transit agency or other public entity was involved, a government claim generally has to be filed within six months, often while the comp case is just getting started. Third-party claims. · Construction sites.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sue my employer for a work injury in California?

Generally no. Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer. The exceptions are willful physical assault by the employer, fraudulent concealment that aggravated the injury, a product the employer made and sold, the power-press guard exception, and an employer with no workers’ comp insurance.

My employer had no insurance. Can I sue?

The law permits a civil action, and the law presumes negligence and bars contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, and the fellow-worker defense. The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund is a separate route to benefits.

Is serious and willful misconduct a lawsuit?

No. It is a petition in your workers’ comp case that raises your compensation by one-half. It must be filed within 12 months of the date of injury.

I was harassed at work. Can I sue?

Harassment is an employment-law claim, handled under separate laws with its own deadlines. On its own it is not the willful physical assault that § 3602(b)(1) requires.

Can I have a comp claim and a lawsuit against someone else at the same time?

Yes. They are separate proceedings with separate rules, and they affect each other in ways that need to be managed.