“How do I choose a workers’ comp lawyer?”

The State Bar does not refer people to particular lawyers, and a search result cannot tell you who will actually do the work on your file. What you can do is check a few public facts, ask a few direct questions, and know the handful of things that should send you out the door. None of it costs anything.

Start with the fee, because the lawyer does not set it

Your lawyer does not set the fee. A judge does. The law prohibits an attorney from demanding or accepting a fee until the amount “has been approved or set by the appeals board.” The fee comes out of what is recovered, typically 9% to 15%, and the Appeals Board’s own guidance puts a case of average complexity at 9% to 12%. What a lawyer costs, in full.

The judge looks at the work. The law lists what the judge weighs: the responsibility assumed, the care exercised, the time involved, and the results obtained. Medical treatment benefits are generally not subject to the fee.

So the percentage is not the thing to shop on. What differs from one lawyer to the next is the work, and who does it.

Talking costs nothing. Consultations in workers’ compensation are free, and there is no obligation. At this firm there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The attorney fee in a workers’ compensation case is set by a workers’ compensation judgeWCJ Workers’ Compensation Judge. Decides your case. There is no jury. and paid from the recovery. You are not responsible for costs we advance if there is no recovery.

Check the license first

By statute, the State Bar keeps certain information about California attorneys, and its Attorney Search is where the public looks it up. Three things to look at:

• Current status. The public profile displays the lawyer’s current status. Some statuses mean the lawyer is not eligible to practice law.
• Discipline. The State Bar says official discipline information can be found on an attorney’s profile and in the State Bar Court case search.
• What the page leaves out. Under a policy the State Bar adopted in November 2024, some administrative suspensions, which are not discipline, are removed from the public profile after they end. The current status still displays, and the State Bar says the full profile is available through a public records request.

Our own State Bar records are linked from our attorneys page. Check them the same way.

What State Bar certification means

The State Bar certifies lawyers in 11 areas of law, and Workers’ Compensation Law is one of them. The State Bar describes a certified legal specialist as an attorney who has demonstrated proficiency in a specific area of law.

The requirements are set by the State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization. To be certified, a lawyer must:

• pass a written examination in the specialty area;
• have practiced law continuously for at least five years, with at least 25 percent of their working time spent in the specialty area;
• complete more continuing education in the specialty than general licensees must;
• show extensive and varied experience in the field;
• receive favorable evaluations from other attorneys and judges familiar with their work in it;
• recertify every five years.

Only lawyers who hold that certification, from the Board or from an organization the State Bar has accredited, may identify themselves in California as certified in a specialty. To look it up, open Attorney Search, choose Advanced Search, and pick from the “Cert. Legal Specialty” menu. How the State Bar explains it.

Like the license record, it is a fact you can check for yourself.

Four questions to ask any lawyer, including us

Who will actually handle my file, and who will appear at my hearings? The person you meet first and the person who reads your medical reports, tracks your deadlines and stands in front of the judge may not be the same person. Ask for names. Ask who you call when something arrives in the mail.

Which language will we speak? If you do not speak or understand English well, you are entitled to an interpreter at no cost at medical treatment appointments, medical-legal examinations, depositions and Appeals Board hearings. Your interpreter rights. The calls, letters and explanations from your own lawyer’s office are a separate matter. Ask who on your file speaks your language.

How will you keep me updated? Ask how often, by what means, and by whom. You will want to know the next step, what it is waiting on, and what deadlines are pending. Some waiting is medicine, not effort: a case cannot resolve on permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. until you are permanent and stationaryP&S / MMI Permanent and Stationary / Maximum Medical Improvement. Your condition has plateaued — not that you are healed. Temporary disability ends here.. How long cases take.

How often do you appear at my district office? Each workers’ comp court has its own building, security, parking and routine. The Los Angeles office, for one, is on the 9th floor of 320 W. 4th Street, behind metal detectors and x-ray screening. The Southern California offices. Since March 3, 2025, most conferences run on CourtCall video, but trials and expedited hearings are in person, and settlement walk-throughs are in person only.

Red flags

Anyone who guarantees how your case will turn out. A workers’ comp case turns on medical reports, the impairment rating, apportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. and, if it comes to it, a judge. Nobody can tell you what a case is worth from the injury alone. What the number is built from.

Anyone who offers you money or a gift to sign up. In this system the lawyer is paid from the recovery, in an amount a judge approves. Cash, a gift card or a “signing bonus” has no place in that. Treat the offer as your answer and keep looking.

Anyone who was sent to find you. The law makes it unlawful to act as a “runner or capper” for a lawyer, or to solicit business for a lawyer, in a list of places that runs from hospitals, jails and courts to public streets and private property of any kind. Capping is the practice of using people who are not lawyers to solicit business for a lawyer.

Labor Code § 3215 is the workers’ comp counterpart. Except where the law otherwise permits it, the law makes it a crime for anyone who “offers, delivers, receives, or accepts any rebate, refund, commission” or other consideration, “whether in the form of money or otherwise,” as “compensation or inducement for referring clients or patients” to obtain workers’ compensation services or benefits. The person who pays and the person who is paid are both covered.

So if a stranger at the clinic, the hospital or the job site presses you toward one particular lawyer, slow down. Look that lawyer up on Attorney Search, and talk to someone else before you sign anything.

If you choose and later want to change

You can. You file a Substitution of Attorney with the Appeals Board, and the new attorney typically handles it. The judge approves one fee for the case and divides it between the lawyers. It is not doubled.

Your case does not restart. The ADJ numberADJ number Your case number at the Appeals Board., the medical record, the panel and every deadline carry over. Before you switch, ask for a status update in writing. Changing lawyers, step by step.

When you may not need a lawyer at all

Sometimes the honest answer is that you do not need one. If the claim was accepted, treatment is being authorized, payments are arriving, and there is no permanent impairment, you probably do not.

The state provides free help. Every DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. district office has an Information & Assistance officer who answers questions and helps with forms at no cost and is not affiliated with any firm or insurer.

A free consultation is worth it once there has been surgery or a permanent disability rating, a settlement is on the table, or treatment is being delayed or denied. And if the claim was denied, you were fired or punished for filing, or more than a year has passed with nothing paid, call the same day: those involve deadlines that cannot be fixed once missed. When you don’t need a lawyer. · Do I need a lawyer?

Frequently asked questions

Can the State Bar recommend a workers’ comp lawyer?

No. The State Bar says it does not refer clients to lawyers or provide legal advice. It publishes a directory of certified lawyer referral services, and its Attorney Search lets you check a lawyer you are considering.

Do I have to hire the first lawyer I talk to?

No. Consultations in workers’ compensation are free, and there is no obligation. You are free to talk to more than one lawyer before you decide.

I already signed with someone and I regret it. Am I stuck?

No. You can change attorneys, and it does not cost you more: the judge divides one fee between them. How it works.

We handle claims in English, Spanish, and Korean. If you would like to talk it through, the consultation is free and commits you to nothing. Ask us every question on this page. If there is nothing worth doing, we will tell you that.