Personal Injury

This firm has handled both workers' compensation and personal injury since 1965, and there is a specific reason the two belong together.

Workers' compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering. Nothing for loss of consortium. Nothing in punitive damages.

A personal injury claim pays for all three.

In a serious work injury, the civil case is frequently the larger of the two — and it is the one most often never investigated.

The overlap most people never hear about

Workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer. It is not the exclusive remedy against anyone else.

If someone other than your employer contributed to your injury, you have two claims running at once:

The eight we handle

Who the other defendant usually is

A driver — and their employer, if they were working. Crash while working.

A property owner — where the hazard was on premises your employer does not control. I fell at work.

A general contractor on a construction site — subject to the Privette doctrine and its retained-control and concealed-hazard exceptions. How that analysis works.

An equipment or product manufacturer, where a guard, interlock, brake, or safety device failed. Unaffected by Privette. I cut my hand.

A chemical manufacturer or distributor, on failure to warn. Chemical exposure.

Another subcontractor on the same site — the most commonly missed defendant on a jobsite.

A dog owner, in delivery and home-service work — California imposes strict liability in most circumstances.

And a government entity, where a dangerous roadway or public property condition contributed — with a six-month claim presentation deadline that is far shorter than everything else.

And the case against an uninsured employer

Where the employer failed to secure workers' compensation coverage, Labor Code § 3706 permits a civil action against the employer itself — and § 3708 presumes negligence and bars contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, and the fellow-servant defense. The full route.

The lien, and why it matters

The workers' compensation carrier will assert a lien on any civil recovery for what it paid.

But the lien is neither automatic nor absolute. Where the employer's own negligence contributed to the injury, the lien can be reduced or eliminated.

How that lien is handled is frequently worth more than the difference between two settlement offers — and it is one of the most valuable things done in a case with both claims. How third-party claims and liens work.

Preserve the evidence now

Do not let equipment be repaired, modified, or scrapped. Days, not months.

Photograph the scene and the condition before anything is cleaned up.

Send a preservation demand in a vehicle case — ELD records, dash camera footage, GPS, and engine control module data are overwritten on a cycle measured in weeks.

And note the deadlines run separately: generally two years for most personal injury claims, six months to present a claim against a government entity — and neither is the workers' compensation deadline.

Frequently asked questions

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