San Bernardino WCAB District Office

Parking — $5, or free a block away. The state structure north of the building is $5 a day, and there is a free public lot one block away.

Security: photo ID is mandatory. All visitors sign in and show identification. Do not arrive without it.

Transit: Omnitrans serves the area.

Food: a first-floor café, take-out only, plus Subway and Jack in the Box nearby.

Your notice gives a session, not a time. Cases are set in blocks — the morning session or the afternoon session — and called in turn. Allow half a day for anything in person, and a full day for a trial, even if the trial itself is shorter.

Security is the first stop. The DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401.’s page for this office says: “All visitors are required to check in at the security desk upon entry into the building. Visitors are required to sign in and show a picture I.D.” “All visitors” includes a spouse, a relative, or a witness who comes with you. Build the sign-in into your arrival time.

What to bring:

• Your notice of hearing. It carries your case number and, for a conference, the video link.
• A picture ID — for you and for everyone coming with you.
• 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 — the only thing to eat or drink in the waiting room or hearing rooms. The office’s rule: “No food, gum or drink (other than bottled water) is allowed in the waiting room or hearing rooms.” The first-floor café has no seating.

Children should not be brought to court — the office says so directly, and there is no childcare. If you cannot arrange care, tell your attorney before the hearing date. Smoking is allowed only in designated outdoor areas.

Filing in person. The DWC confirmed that parties may file documents in person here, walk-throughs included, when the office reopened in September 2024. The office page does not name the counter, so ask at check-in, and ask for a date-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, early.

If you have a disability, call the DWC’s district office accommodation coordinator at 1-866-681-1459. Requests for an assistive listening device or computerized translation are due at least five days before the hearing, and each hearing date needs its own request.

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 printed 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, with nothing to install. On a phone, turn off battery saving — the usual reason people drop out mid-hearing.

An in-person hearing can sometimes be held by video — only if the judge agrees. The DWC said so in the same September 2024 notice that announced this office’s reopening: a party may petition the judge for a virtual hearing, and requests are decided case by case. Ask early.

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 the Rosa Parks Building, so plan on a full day and build the security sign-in into your arrival: photo ID for you and for everyone who comes with you.

• The heat made you sick at work.

  Outdoors, the law requires shade above 80°F, and warehouses have been covered by the indoor heat rule since July 23, 2024.

• 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, early.

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. For an accepted claim with a procedural question, Information & Assistance at this court is often the right first call, 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 security sign-in: photo ID for you and for everyone who comes with you. 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, with no Declaration of Readiness and no wait for a hearing date. It is the usual route for getting a settlement approved quickly. 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: San Bernardino’s page gives 8:00–11:00 a.m. and 1:00–4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. It is first come, first served; there is no appointment system.

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

How it works: you check in with the staff member the presiding judge has designated, who assigns the document to a judge; 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, so you may not leave with a signed award.

Only a San Bernardino case can be walked through here. A walk-through may be acted on only by a judge at the district office that has venue. A case venued in Riverside or Pomona is walked through there.

Information & Assistance: (909) 383-4522. 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 does not represent you, but for an accepted claim with a procedural question it is often the right first call. DIR does not publish I&A hours or say whether it takes walk-ins — call before you go. When you don’t need a lawyer.

Disability Evaluation UnitDEU Disability Evaluation Unit. Produces formal ratings from medical reports.: (909) 383-4522 — the same number as I&A. 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 here. How to read your report.

One number, two meanings. Older DWC notices call (909) 383-4522 a DWC call center. For the statewide line, use 1-800-736-7401.

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

Cal/OSHA is in this building. Its San Bernardino District Office is in Suite 332, (909) 383-4321. The DWC decides benefits; Cal/OSHA enforces workplace safety — the agency to call about an unsafe job site. Unsafe work and your rights.

San Bernardino serves San Bernardino County and the western Inland Empire by ZIP code — San Bernardino, Fontana, Rialto, Colton, Redlands, Highland, Rancho Cucamonga, Victorville, the eastern half of Ontario (ZIP 91761), and the surrounding communities. Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Upland and western Ontario (91762, 91764) are San Bernardino County too, but the DWC’s ZIP code list sends them to Pomona.

Transportation and warehousing employ 11.0% of San Bernardino County’s working residents (American Community Survey, 2020–2024), and the docket shows it: warehouse and distribution, truck and delivery driving, staffing agency placements — which raise the § 2810.3 client-employer question constantly — food processing and packing, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and landscaping.

And heat is a first-order issue here. Inland summers put outdoor work squarely against 8 CCR § 3395 — shade above 80°F, high-heat procedures at 95°F — and warehouses have been covered by 8 CCR § 3396 since July 23, 2024. Heat illness claims.

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.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties share one metro area, so the county line matters here. Take a worker who lives in Moreno Valley, in Riverside County, and was hurt at a distribution center in Fontana, in San Bernardino County. The application can be filed in Riverside County, where the worker lives, or in San Bernardino County, where the injury happened. Both are allowed, and the choice deserves thought — trials and expedited hearings will be in person at whichever office ends up with the case.

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

After that, venue changes only for good cause. A petition must state its 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 has venue now; objections are due within 10 days, and the presiding judge rules, or sets a conference, within 30 days.

Our office is at 1625 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 802, Los Angeles. We do not have an office in San Bernardino. Here is what that means if you are deciding whether to call a lawyer in another county.

The consultation is a phone call, free, in English, Spanish or Korean. After that the case runs by phone, mail and electronic filing with the DWC. Your hearings are not in Los Angeles. Conferences are mostly by video, with the link on your notice; trials, expedited hearings and walk-throughs are in person at the Rosa Parks Building, the court on this page, and we appear there for our clients. If you cannot come to us, we come to you, at home or in the hospital. Say so when you call.

Where a San Bernardino case is filed. If you live in the city and were hurt in it, both of § 5501.5’s first two choices point to San Bernardino County, and the county has one district office: this one. The DWC’s ZIP code list sends every ZIP code that begins 924, from 92400 through 92427, here. The list does not follow the county line to the west. Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Upland, and Ontario’s 91762 and 91764 go to Pomona, in Los Angeles County; Ontario 91761 stays here. So if you live in San Bernardino but were hurt at a warehouse in Chino, the locator may point to Pomona for the injury address while your home address keeps the case here. Either is allowed, with your written consent; the third option, our county, is the one the employer can undo, as “How a case lands” explains above. Which court hears an Inland Empire case.

The city, by the numbers (American Community Survey 2020–2024, for the City of San Bernardino, not the county):

One working resident in seven is in transportation and warehousing, a higher share than the county’s. The pages for the work that fills this docket: warehouse and distribution, truck and delivery driving, staffing agency placements, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, and grocery and retail.

Half the city speaks Spanish at home, and one resident in five speaks English less than “very well.” You do not pay for an interpreter at a hearing, an exam or a deposition. Your interpreter rights. Consultas gratis en español · 한국어 무료 상담

Free help, and the safety agency, in this building. Information & Assistance for this office is (909) 383-4522. For a workplace in ZIP code 92401, Cal/OSHA’s locator names its San Bernardino District Office, Suite 332, (909) 383-4321, in the same building as the hearing rooms.

Getting here without a car. Omnitrans’ sbX Green Line runs along E Street through downtown and has a station at E Street and Court Street; on weekdays it runs every 10 minutes at peak, and a single ride is $2. The DWC names no stop for the building, so walk it once before a trial day.

This is a San Bernardino County office. Across the county, 35.8% of residents five and older speak Spanish at home, 11,847 speak Korean, and 15.3% speak English less than “very well” (American Community Survey, 2020–2024). Those are the workers the interpreter rules above protect — and the reason we take calls in English, Spanish, and Korean.

Logistics shows up in the census, too. By our calculation from the same survey, 11.0% of the county’s employed residents work in transportation and warehousing, against 7.0% in Riverside County.

This building has closed for heat. The DWC shut the office on July 22, 2024, for about six to eight weeks, “due to excessive heat and needed repairs to a currently inoperable air conditioning system.” In-person filings and walk-throughs went to Riverside or Pomona until it reopened in September 2024. A courthouse closed by heat is a fair measure of what a warehouse floor here is up against — and why § 3396 exists.

All of San Bernardino County.

Parking: the state structure north of the Rosa Parks building, $5 a day, or the free public lot one block from the building. A trial day costs no more than $5 either way.

By bus: the DWC links to Omnitrans for routes and fares but names no line, and we could not find an Omnitrans page that ties a stop to 464 W. Fourth Street. Plan the walk from your stop before the day of a trial.

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 the security desk. 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.