Hurt at work in the Inland Empire

Where we are

Our office is in Los Angeles, at 1625 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 802. We do not have an office in the Inland Empire.

What that means for you:

• The consultation is a phone call, in English, Spanish or Korean. It is free.
• If you cannot come to us, we come to you. We make home and hospital visits across the four counties we serve, Riverside and San Bernardino included. Say so when you call.
• Your hearings are not in Los Angeles unless that is where your case is venued. Most conferences are held by video, and the link is on your hearing notice. Trials, expedited hearings and walk-throughs are in person at the district office that has the case: Riverside, San Bernardino or Pomona. We appear for our clients at all three.

What “the Inland Empire” means here

Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That is how the state’s Employment Development Department defines the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area in its labor market reports, and it is the area this page covers.

4,723,509 people lived there on January 1, 2026: 2,506,824 in Riverside County and 2,216,685 in San Bernardino County (California Department of Finance; the total and the share are our calculation). That is 11.9% of California. In 2025, the year the state’s population fell 0.1%, Riverside County grew 0.4% and San Bernardino County 0.1%.

Which court hears your case

Three district offices hear Inland Empire cases, and the line between them is a ZIP code list, not the county line. The Division of Workers’ Compensation publishes the list behind its locator: “Enter the five-digit ZIP code to find the DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. office serving that location.” Here is where the list sends some of the region’s ZIP codes:

Ontario is split. On the DWC’s list, 91761 goes to San Bernardino, while 91762 and 91764 go to Pomona, across the county line.

So is the Morongo Basin. Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley are both in San Bernardino County. The list sends Twentynine Palms (92277) to Riverside and Yucca Valley (92284) to San Bernardino.

Look up your own ZIP code before you assume. As Ontario shows, two ZIP codes in the same city can go to different offices.

The rule behind the list: Labor Code § 5501.5

The statute speaks in counties. The ZIP code list is how the DWC routes an address to an office. The Application for AdjudicationApplication for Adjudication Opens your case at the Appeals Board. One year. may be filed in:

1. the county where you live on the date of filing;
2. the county where the injury allegedly occurred, or, in cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed. and industrial disease claims, where the last alleged injurious exposure occurred; or
3. if you have a lawyer, the county where your attorney maintains a principal place of business.

The law requires your written consent to the venue chosen, filed with the application.

In a two-county region, that matters. A worker who lives in Moreno Valley and was hurt at a distribution center in Fontana can file in Riverside County, where the worker lives, or San Bernardino County, where the injury happened. Both are allowed. Which is better depends on where you, your witnesses and your doctors are, and on how far you would drive on the days that are in person.

Our principal place of business is in Los Angeles County. If the attorney’s county is chosen, the employer may object within 30 days, and a timely objection sends the case to where you live or where you were hurt. After that, venue changes only on a petition showing good cause. How the offices compare.

The work, by the numbers

More than one nonfarm job in nine in the Inland Empire is in transportation and warehousing. EDD’s August 2026 report for the two counties (preliminary, not seasonally adjusted):

Warehousing and storage added 5,500 jobs in a year, from 122,800 in August 2025, an increase of 4.5%. (Shares are our calculation.)

The claims follow the work. Pick rates, totes and floor-loaded trailers wear out backs, shoulders and wrists, usually over months rather than in one accident, which is why the claim that goes unfiled here is the cumulative trauma claim. The rules for warehouse work, including the right to ask for your own quota and work-speed records, are on our warehouse page. See also truck and delivery driving, low back, shoulder, and carpal tunnel and repetitive strain.

In 2024, employers and insurers filed 81,989 first reports of occupational injury from the two counties: 41,786 in San Bernardino County and 40,203 in Riverside County, together 12.07% of California’s total (DWC, Workers’ Compensation Information System). The DWC’s own table puts San Bernardino County at 4.0 reports per 100 employees, against 3.6 statewide. Those are reports, not lawsuits; most never become an Appeals Board case.

If a staffing agency placed you

You may have two employers, and both matter. The law makes the company you were sent to share liability where the staffing agency failed to secure valid workers’ comp coverage. Report the injury to both, in writing, the same day. Reporting to only one is how these claims get delayed. Do not accept a denial that turns on which company employed you. Staffing agency workers.

Heat

In Cal/OSHA’s July 2026 heat warning for six Southern California counties, the highest forecasts were here. On July 21, 2026, it relayed National Weather Service forecasts of 100 to 107 degrees in inland Riverside and San Bernardino counties, 103 to 108 in the Apple and Lucerne valleys, and 108 to 114 in the Morongo Basin, including Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley.

The rules apply indoors, too. Outdoors, the law requires shade above 80°F. Indoors, including warehouses, 8 CCR § 3396 applies at 82°F and has since July 23, 2024. There is no heat illness presumption in California (AB 1336 was vetoed on October 13, 2025), so causation has to be proved, and a documented violation is the evidence. Heat illness claims.

The heat closed the San Bernardino courthouse. The DWC shut the office on July 22, 2024, “due to excessive heat and needed repairs to a currently inoperable air conditioning system,” and sent in-person filings and walk-throughs to Riverside or Pomona. It announced the reopening on September 10, 2024.

Languages

More than 1.5 million people in the two counties speak Spanish at home: 1,552,292, or 35.3% of residents five and older. One in three of them, 518,187 people, told the Census Bureau they speak English less than “very well.” The same survey counts 69,897 Chinese speakers, 65,889 Tagalog speakers, 27,221 Vietnamese speakers and 20,221 Korean speakers (American Community Survey, 2020–2024).

You are entitled to an interpreter at no cost: at treatment, at medical-legal exams, at depositions, and at hearings. Your interpreter rights.

Immigration status does not affect your right to benefits. If you are undocumented.

Free help in the region

Information & Assistance officers answer questions and help with forms at no cost. They do not represent you. Cal/OSHA takes complaints about unsafe work; the DWC decides benefits.

Both Inland Empire Cal/OSHA offices are in the same buildings as the district offices. The DWC’s statewide line is (800) 736-7401. Unsafe work and your rights.

What to do this week

• Get medical care, and say it happened at work. If it built up over months, say that, and name the tasks.
• Tell your employer in writing, a dated text or email, within 30 days. If an agency placed you, tell the agency and the site.
• File the DWC-1DWC-1 The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation. claim form and keep proof of the date. It starts the 90-day clock and the employer’s duty to authorize up to $10,000 in treatment while it decides.
• Write down the conditions: the rate, the weights, the temperature, and whether there was water, shade or a cool-down area.
• Look up your ZIP code on the DWC’s locator, so you know which office to expect.

The first 72 hours, in order. · Every deadline, counted from your date.