Long Beach WCAB District Office

Parking: free, entered through the front guard station. No meters, no structure, no daily rate.

Food: there is a café in the adjacent Building Pod B. That matters more than it sounds when a trial runs through lunch.

Transit: Long Beach Transit serves the area.

Your hearing notice gives a session, not a time. Cases are set in the morning or afternoon block and called in turn. Plan on half a day for anything in person, and a full day for a trial. With no published lobby hours, arrive before your session starts rather than counting on an early door.

What to bring:

• Your notice of hearing. It carries your case number and, for a conference, the video link.
• Government photo ID. DIR’s Long Beach page describes only the guard station at the parking entrance — no check-in or screening procedure for the office itself. The San Bernardino and Riverside offices require photo ID at the door; bring it here too.
• Every letter from the claims administratorClaims administrator / adjuster The person handling your claim for the insurer or self-insured employer. and every medical report on the issue being heard.

Children: DIR’s Long Beach page says nothing, but other DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. office pages say children should not be brought to court, and there is no childcare. Plan as if the same rule applies here, and tell your attorney before the hearing date if you cannot arrange care.

Filing in person. DIR’s Long Beach page does not say where or when the counter takes filings. The DWC reopened the public counters at all district offices for in-person filing in July 2021, but call (562) 590-5001 before you bring a filing, and keep your date-stamped copy as proof of the filing date.

If you need an interpreter, you do not pay for it. The claims administrator pays for a certified interpreter at an Appeals Board hearing. If you have a lawyer, your lawyer arranges it. If you do not, the defendant must — that is the DWC’s own rule for unrepresented workers. Ask in writing, as early as you can.

If you have a disability, the DWC’s district office accommodation coordinator is at 1-866-681-1459. Ask at least five days before the hearing for an assistive listening device or computerized translation, and make a separate request for each hearing date.

Remote by video: status conferences, mandatory settlement conferences, priority conferences, rating MSCs, and lien conferences.

In person: trials, lien trials, expedited hearings, and walk-throughs.

Walk-throughWalk-through Presenting a matter directly to a judge, usually for settlement approval. hours: the standard 8:00–11:00 a.m. and 1:00–4:00 p.m. window.

The video link is on your hearing notice. Each judge has a virtual courtroom on the CourtCall platform, and every courtroom also has a call-in number. It runs in a browser; nothing to install. On a phone, turn off battery saving — it is the usual reason people drop out mid-hearing.

An in-person hearing can sometimes be heard by video, but only if the judge agrees. A party may petition for it, and the DWC says those requests are decided case by case. Ask early; do not assume.

Every DWC courtroom has public Wi-Fi, added when conferences moved to video in March 2025.

Most cases end at the mandatory settlement conferenceMSC Mandatory Settlement Conference. Where most cases end — and where discovery closes., and at this office it is held by video. It is also where discovery closes: evidence not disclosed by then is generally inadmissible at trial. Once either side files 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., these are the days that follow.

A case review is worth the most before the settlement conference, and much less afterward. After that date, what the file is missing stays missing.

Not every hearing needs a lawyer, and if yours does not, we will tell you on the phone. These are the moments at this office when one usually matters.

• A Declaration of Readiness arrived.

  The time to object is 10 calendar days from service. A party who does not object waives its objections to proceeding on the issues in it, absent extraordinary circumstances.

• Your settlement conference is set.

  Discovery closes that day, and a missing report, an un-deposed evaluator or an unclaimed body part becomes permanent at it.

• A settlement is ready to be walked through.

  A Compromise and ReleaseC&R — Compromise and Release A lump sum that closes future medical treatment permanently. can go before a judge here the same day, and it closes future medical care for a lump sum. Read it before it reaches the judge.

• Your case is set for trial.

  It is in person, at 1500 Hughes Way, so plan on a full day. Parking is free through the front guard station.

• Your work touches the port.

  The federal Longshore Act may apply instead of California workers’ compensation. Answer that before you file anything; filing in the wrong system wastes time the deadlines do not give back.

• You need an interpreter.

  The claims administrator pays for a certified interpreter at a hearing. Without a lawyer, the defendant must arrange it, so ask in writing, as early as you can.

Call the same day if the claim was denied, you were fired or punished for filing, or more than a year has passed with nothing paid. Those involve deadlines that cannot be fixed once missed.

And when you probably do not need us. If the claim was accepted, treatment is being authorized, payments are arriving every two weeks, and there is no permanent impairment, you probably do not. Information & Assistance is in this building, and it answers questions and helps with forms at no cost. We will tell you that on the phone, too.

Whatever is not on the exhibit list at the settlement conference does not come in at trial. So the work happens before it.

1. We read the file before the settlement conference. A missing supplemental report, an un-deposed evaluator, an unclaimed body part, an unraised apportionmentApportionment Dividing permanent disability between industrial and non-industrial causes. It is to disability, not to findings on an image. defect: each can be dealt with before that date, and becomes permanent at it.
2. We list every witness and every exhibit. The joint Pretrial Conference StatementPretrial Conference Statement The joint document listing issues, stipulations, proposed ratings, witnesses, and every exhibit. What is not on it does not come in. sets out the issues, the stipulations, each side’s proposed permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. rating, every witness, and every exhibit, with the author, date, and title of each document.
3. We prepare you for the day. Whether you will be on video or in this building, which session you are set in, and the address to put in your map: 1500 Hughes Way, not Oceangate. If the facts are disputed, you will testify, briefly: tell the truth, answer only what is asked, do not guess, and describe your limits accurately, including the good days.
4. We watch the clocks after the decision. A Petition for ReconsiderationPetition for Reconsideration Appeal from a final order. 20 days. A non-final order takes a Petition for Removal instead. has 20 days, and only from a final order. A non-final order is challenged by Petition for Removal instead, and filing the wrong one wastes the deadline.

A walk-through puts a document in front of a judge the same day, without a Declaration of Readiness and without waiting for a hearing to be set. The rule is 8 CCR § 10789.

What can be walked through:

• a Compromise and Release
• Stipulations with Request for AwardStips — Stipulations with Request for Award An agreed percentage paid over time, with future medical left open, and reopening available within five years of the date of injury. These are not two prices for the same thing.
• a petition for attorney’s fees for representing the worker at a deposition
• a petition to compel attendance at a medical examination or deposition
• a petition for costs

When: in DIR’s words for this office, “Walk-through settlements and other walk-through documents can be walked through Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.” First come, first served; there is no appointment system.

The one advance deadline: a settlement that opens a new case — there is no case number yet — must be submitted by noon the court day before. Every other walk-through document comes with you on the day.

In person only — DWC ended virtual walk-throughs in September 2022.

How it works: you check in with the staff member the presiding judge has designated, who assigns the document to a judge, and then you appear before that judge. If that judge is unavailable, the presiding judge may reassign it. The judge can approve it, disapprove it, or take it for later review — you will not always leave with a signed award.

Long Beach can act only on a Long Beach case. A walk-through may be acted on only by a judge at the district office that has venue. If your case is venued in Marina del Rey or Anaheim, the walk-through happens there.

Information & Assistance: (424) 450-2565, in Suite C203. I&AI&A Information & Assistance officer. Free help with questions and forms at every district office. Underused. officers help injured workers, free, with questions, forms, and the steps of a claim, and they can hold an I&A conference with the claims administrator. An interpreter at an I&A conference is paid by the claims administrator too. I&A cannot represent you. DIR publishes no I&A hours and does not say whether it takes walk-ins, so call before you go. When you don’t need a lawyer.

Disability Evaluation UnitDEU Disability Evaluation Unit. Produces formal ratings from medical reports.: (424) 450-2564, also Suite C203. The DEU turns a medical report’s impairment findings into a permanent disability rating. For an unrepresented worker, the rating on a QMEQME Qualified Medical Evaluator. A state-certified physician who resolves disputes. Unrepresented workers get a panel of three by random draw. report comes from a DEU. How to read your report.

The DWC’s free workshops for injured workers run online, by Zoom, at 3 p.m. — the first Friday of each month in English and the third Friday in Spanish. Registration is required; the DWC publishes the dates.

Cal/OSHA is in the same complex: its Long Beach District Office, Suite C-201, (424) 450-2630. The DWC decides benefits; Cal/OSHA enforces safety. DIR’s lookup matches your job site’s city or ZIP code to the Cal/OSHA office that covers it, which may not be this one. Unsafe work and your rights.

Long Beach serves Long Beach, Wilmington, San Pedro, Carson, Compton, Lakewood, Signal Hill, and the surrounding area, by ZIP code.

If your work touches the port, answer this before you file anything.

The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act is a federal system, and for many workers on and around the Port of Long Beach it applies instead of California workers’ compensation. Coverage turns on a situs test (where you were working) and a status test (what you were doing).

Federal benefits are frequently more generous than California’s — and filing in the wrong system wastes time the deadlines do not give back.

Port and longshore worker claims.

The rest of the docket: warehouse and logistics, drayage and trucking, healthcare, manufacturing and aerospace, construction, and asbestos claims from an older industrial base.

More on Long Beach claims.

For port work, the Longshore question above comes first. WCAB venue matters only once the claim is in the state system.

The ZIP code locator is a convenience; the statute is county-based. The law lets an Application for Adjudication be filed in the county where you live, the county where the injury happened (in a cumulative trauma case, where the last injurious exposure was), or — if you have a lawyer — the county of your attorney’s principal place of business. The law requires your written consent to the venue chosen.

A county line can open a second option. Take a worker who lives in Long Beach and was hurt at a warehouse in Orange County: the case may be filed in Los Angeles County, where they live, or in Orange County, where the injury happened — Orange County’s offices are in Anaheim and Santa Ana. For a back or shoulder worn down over years of loading and driving, the county that counts is where the last injurious exposure happened. Choose knowingly; trials are held in person at whichever office has the case.

If the attorney’s county is the one chosen, the employer can undo it. It has 30 days from receiving notice of the case number and venue to object, and a timely objection moves the case to where you live or where you were hurt.

After that, venue moves only for good cause. A petition must set out the reasons specifically — and, if it is for the convenience of witnesses, their names, addresses, and what they would say. It is filed at the office that currently has venue; objections are due within 10 days, and the presiding judge rules, or sets a conference, within 30 days.

Long Beach is a Los Angeles County office. In the county as a whole, 37.6% of residents five and older speak Spanish at home, 156,737 speak Korean, and 23.4% speak English less than “very well” (American Community Survey, 2020–2024). That is why the interpreter rules above matter so much here — and why we take calls in English, Spanish, and Korean.

Heat reaches the warehouse floor. When Cal/OSHA warned of triple-digit temperatures for July 22–27, 2026, heat advisories covered portions of Los Angeles County. Outdoors, the law requires shade above 80°F. Indoors — warehouses included — 8 CCR § 3396 applies from 82°F, and has since July 23, 2024. Heat illness claims.

All of Los Angeles County.

By bus: DIR’s page links to Long Beach Transit but names no route, and Long Beach Transit publishes no stop we could tie to Hughes Way. Check the route with Long Beach Transit before the day of a trial.

By car: parking is free, through the front guard station at the building.

The address: 1500 Hughes Way, Suite C203 — not Oceangate.

The firm appears at district offices throughout Southern California, and our own office is in Los Angeles, at 1625 W. Olympic Blvd. If your case is set here, ask on the call — the answer will be specific.

A case review is worth the most before the settlement conference, and much less afterward. Tell us when your case is set at this office, and we will tell you what to expect here, and whether the port question comes first. The first call is free and takes about fifteen minutes, in English, Spanish, or Korean. There is no fee unless we recover, and you are not responsible for costs we advance if there is no recovery.