Live or work in Koreatown?

Your case will be heard at 320 W. 4th Street

Koreatown’s ZIP codes all go here. Koreatown between Third Street and Olympic Boulevard is covered by four ZIP codes: 90005, 90006, 90010 and 90020. The Division of Workers’ Compensation’s ZIP code listing assigns every one of them to the Los Angeles office. That listing is the practical guide to which office handles a case.

The rule behind it is Labor Code § 5501.5. Your application can be filed in the county where you live on the date of filing, the county where the injury occurred (for cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed., where the last injurious exposure occurred), or, if you have a lawyer, the county where the lawyer maintains a principal place of business. Your written consent to the venue is filed with the application. What the neighborhood is called decides nothing.

Most of a case happens by video. Status conferences, mandatory settlement conferences, priority conferences, rating MSCs and lien conferences are held remotely by CourtCall video. Trials, expedited hearings and walk-throughs are in person. The DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. lists walk-throughWalk-through Presenting a matter directly to a judge, usually for settlement approval. hours as 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Security, parking and the rules on the 9th floor.

Getting there from Koreatown

Take the D Line. Metro’s D Line stops at Wilshire/Western, Wilshire/Normandie and Wilshire/Vermont, and its trains continue east to Pershing Square, a block from 320 W. 4th Street. Metro itself describes Wilshire/Western as “in Koreatown.” At Pershing Square, use the 4th Street stairwell.

Many people here already commute this way. About one Koreatown worker in five gets to work by public transportation, three times the citywide rate (see the table below).

Koreatown, as the City defines it

On August 20, 2010, the Los Angeles City Council adopted these boundaries for Koreatown (Council File 09-0606):

The 2009 application asked for much more. The city’s Bureau of Engineering described the proposed area as generally bounded by Melrose Avenue, Pico Boulevard, Vermont Avenue and Hoover Street, and Crenshaw Boulevard and Wilton Place. The Council adopted the smaller area. Plenty of people who say they live in Koreatown live outside the lines it drew. For your claim, that makes no difference: venue follows where you live and where you were hurt, not the neighborhood’s name.

Who lives here, by the numbers

The Census Bureau does not publish figures for “Koreatown.” It publishes them for census tracts. Sixteen tracts lie inside the boundaries above. They cover most of the neighborhood, though not the blocks just north of Olympic or the Western Avenue corridor. Added together, their 2020–2024 American Community Survey estimates show:

Korean is spoken at home here at about seven times the citywide rate, and Spanish by even more people. Of the roughly 8,300 residents who speak Korean at home, about 5,400, nearly two in three, told the Census Bureau they speak English less than “very well.” For them, a claim handled only in English is a real obstacle, and the sections below are written with them in mind.

These are survey estimates with margins of error, added across tracts, so treat them as approximate.

What the work here does

Restaurants and food service. One employed resident in five works in the Census category that includes restaurants, the largest of its thirteen industry groups in these tracts. Burns, cuts, falls on wet tile, and shoulders worn out by trays. Tips count toward the earnings your benefits are figured from, so a rate built only on the hourly wage is wrong. Restaurant and food service claims.

Garment work. Sewing, cutting and pressing wear out necks, shoulders, wrists and hands, and the dust reaches the lungs. Piece rate has been illegal in California garment manufacturing since January 2022, and you do not need pay records to have a claim. Garment worker claims.

Nail salons. Solvents, acrylics and disinfectants in small rooms, and thousands of precise grip motions a week. Neither has a moment you can point to. Both are claims. Booth rental and commission do not settle whether you are an employee. Nail salon worker claims.

Paid in cash, or worried about your status

Cash pay does not make you a contractor. Labor Code § 3357: any person rendering service for another, other than as an independent contractor or unless expressly excluded, “is presumed to be an employee.” A missing pay stub is your employer’s problem, and earnings can be proved without one. I was paid in cash.

Immigration status does not take you out of the system. The law defines an employee as every person in the service of an employer “whether lawfully or unlawfully employed,” and it expressly includes “Persons who are not citizens or nationals of the United States.” A workers’ compensation claim is a claim for benefits under the Labor Code. It is not an immigration proceeding. I’m undocumented.

And if the business had no insurance, the claim still exists. When your employer has no insurance.

Papers in English, a claim form in Korean

The claim form comes in Korean. The Division of Workers’ Compensation publishes the DWC 1 claim form in Korean, alongside English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese. The DWC’s forms page. It also publishes its fact sheets for injured workers in Korean, covering utilization reviewUR Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out., temporary disabilityTD / TTD / TPD Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week., permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week., QMEs and AMEs, the Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust FundUEBTF Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund. Pays benefits where the employer was illegally uninsured., and your rights and duties when you file at the Appeals Board. The Korean fact sheets.

The letters that start deadlines are another matter. Four kinds of document start a clock: a utilization review decision, a QMEQME Qualified Medical Evaluator. A state-certified physician who resolves disputes. Unrepresented workers get a panel of three by random draw. panel notice, a Declaration of Readiness to ProceedDOR Declaration of Readiness to Proceed. Forces the calendar. You have 10 calendar days to object, or objections to proceeding on its issues are waived., and a settlement document. If one arrives and you cannot read it, do not set it aside. How to tell which one you are holding.

An interpreter is your right, at no cost to you. At medical treatment appointments, a qualified interpreter. At an examination requested by the employer, its insurer, the Appeals Board or a judge, a qualified interpreter, meaning one certified or deemed certified. At your deposition, a certified interpreter the employer pays for on request. At hearings. Do not accept a family member or a coworker as your interpreter at a medical-legal exam. Your interpreter rights.

Korean, Spanish or English

Spanish- and Korean-language services are provided by attorneys and staff of this firm who are fluent in those languages. Ask for Korean or Spanish when you call. The consultation is free in all three languages.

¿Vive o trabaja en Koreatown? Su caso normalmente se tramita en la oficina del WCAB de Los Ángeles, en 320 W. 4th Street. Consultas gratis en español.

The deadlines

In cumulative trauma, 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. is not when the wear started. It is the date you first suffered disability and knew, or should reasonably have known, that work caused it. How it works.

Talk to us

Free consultation in English, Spanish, or Korean. No fee unless we recover. 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. What a lawyer costs.