Marina del Rey WCAB District Office

In-building parking is $15.50 a day — among the more expensive in the system.

And do not park in the retail-only area. It is enforced.

The cheaper option: Marina parking lot #4 on Mindanao Way, $6 to $8 a day. It is a short walk and it saves $7.50 to $9.50 a day.

Transit: Metro bus only. There is no rail service here. If you do not drive, plan the trip in advance rather than on the morning of a hearing — this is one of the harder Southern California venues to reach without a car.

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.

Which floor? DIR gives the address as the 2nd floor, but its food rule on the same page refers to the 3rd floor, and DIR does not explain the difference. Follow the building’s signs and do not assume a floor. Leave a few minutes to find the right one.

What to bring:

• Your notice of hearing. It carries your case number and, for a conference, the video link.
• Government photo ID. DIR publishes no screening or check-in procedure for this building, but the San Bernardino and Riverside offices require photo ID at the door. Bring it.
• 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.
• Bottled water only. DIR bans food, gum, and every drink except bottled water in the 3rd-floor hallways, lobbies, and courtrooms, and says violators may be sanctioned.

Food is on the first floor. DIR lists several restaurants on the building’s first floor and more within a block. Eat there, not in the hallway.

Children should not be brought to court — the office’s own page says so, and there is no childcare. If you cannot arrange care, tell your attorney before the hearing date, not at the door.

Filing in person. The information desk in the lobby date-stamps and files documents. Keep your stamped copy — it is your 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. A conference by video also means no $15.50 parking.

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, in this building, so plan on a full day. Park in the paid area or Marina lot #4, never the retail-only area.

• 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.

• You live in another county, and your case is here.

  Before filing, the county is a choice: where you live or where you were hurt. After filing, venue moves only for good cause.

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 where to park so the retail-only area does not cost you your car. 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 hours are 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.” First come, first served; there is no appointment system.

One citation on DIR’s page is out of date. The page says walk-through documents “are expected to comply with 8 CCR section 10417(c).” That rule is now § 10789 — it was renumbered effective January 1, 2020. If you look the rule up, look up § 10789.

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.

Marina del Rey can act only on a Marina del Rey 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 Van Nuys or Long Beach, the walk-through happens there.

Information & Assistance: (310) 482-3820 — the office’s main number; DIR lists I&AI&A Information & Assistance officer. Free help with questions and forms at every district office. Underused. on the 2nd floor. I&A 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.: (310) 482-3868. 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 not in this building. The DWC decides benefits; Cal/OSHA enforces safety. DIR lists four Cal/OSHA enforcement offices in Los Angeles County: Los Angeles, 320 West 4th Street, Suite 820, (213) 576-7451; Van Nuys, (818) 901-5403; Long Beach, (424) 450-2630; and Monrovia, (626) 239-0369. DIR’s lookup matches your job site’s city or ZIP code to the one that covers it. Unsafe work and your rights.

Marina del Rey serves the Westside and South Bay coastal communities, by ZIP code — Marina del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, Culver City, Playa del Rey, Westchester, Mar Vista, and the surrounding area, including the Los Angeles International Airport vicinity.

Which shapes the docket: airport and airline ground work, hotel and hospitality, film and television production, healthcare, restaurants, construction, and office and remote work.

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.

Los Angeles County has several district offices, and inside the county the locator is what sends a Westside or airport-area address here. A commute can put a second county in play. Take a worker who lives in Orange County and was hurt on the job near the airport: the case may be filed in Orange County, where they live — its offices are in Anaheim and Santa Ana — or in Los Angeles County, where the injury happened. Either is allowed. Choose knowingly, because a trial means a day in person at that office.

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.

Marina del Rey 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.

The January 2025 fires also left cleanup work with its own rule. Cal/OSHA issued a smoke alert as the Palisades Fire affected air quality, then warned that fires were affecting air quality throughout Los Angeles County. For the cleanup, DIR said fire debris removal must follow 8 CCR § 5192, the hazardous waste operations standard. If you were hurt or made sick clearing burned sites, that is the standard DIR says the work had to meet.

All of Los Angeles County.

No rail. Neither DIR nor Metro names a train station for this office. Under the heading “By train:”, DIR’s page offers only a “Metro bus routes” link — and it goes to Houston’s transit agency. LA Metro is metro.net.

By bus: Metro Line 108 (Marina Del Rey – Pico Rivera via Slauson Av) has a timepoint at Mindanao & Lincoln. Metro does not publish how far that is from 4720 Lincoln Blvd, so check the stop before the day of a trial.

Parking: in the building, DIR says court visitors must park in the paid area, $15.50 a day — not the “retail only” area. Marina lot #4 on Mindanao Way is $6–$8.

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, down to where to park. 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.