The first 72 hours

Today

• Get medical care, and say it happened at work — Make sure the note says so. A record that says “injured lifting at work on [date]” is worth more than any argument you will make later. Ask them to correct it if it does not.
• Tell your employer — in writing — Text or email. Dated. Keep a copy. You have 30 days, but the law makes knowledge by any supervisor, foreman, or person in authority — from any source — equivalent to notice. Written proof beats a memory.
• Name every body part that hurts — Not just the worst one. A body part not mentioned early becomes a fight later.
• Photograph everything — The scene. The equipment. The condition. Your injury. Do it before anything is cleaned up, repaired, or moved.
• Write down who saw it — Names and phone numbers. Crews disperse.

Within 72 hours

• File the DWC-1DWC-1 The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation. claim form — Your employer must give you one within one working day. If they will not, get it from the DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. and file it yourself. Complete the employee section, sign it, date it, deliver it by certified mail or by hand — and keep a copy showing the date.
• Ask for the $10,000 treatment in writing — If anything is being delayed. Cite the section.
• Write the timeline while it is fresh — Dates, names, exact words. You will not remember this in two years and the transcript will.
• Ask who else was involved — A driver. A property owner. A general contractor. An equipment manufacturer. A staffing agency’s client. Anyone other than your employer opens a claim that pays for pain and suffering — which workers’ compensation does not, and which is frequently the larger claim.
• Do not let the equipment be repaired, modified, or scrapped — In a machine, vehicle, or scaffold case this is the difference between a product claim and no product claim, and it has to happen in days.

That filing date starts two clocks that protect you. § 5402(c) — the employer must authorize up to $10,000 in medical treatment from the day the claim form is filed until liability is accepted or rejected. The duty runs through the investigation; a rejection ends it. § 5402(b) — if liability is not rejected within 90 days, the injury is presumed compensable, rebuttable only by evidence discovered after the 90 days.

How third-party claims work The forms

This week

• Request the records — Safety Data Sheets if chemicals were involved — your employer must maintain them and retain exposure records for 30 years. Your personnel file, in writing. Any air monitoring or hearing conservation audiograms — the employer has to keep audiograms only while you work there, so ask early.
• Check the Cal/OSHA citation history — Public, searchable, free. A prior citation for the same condition supports a § 4553 petition worth one-half of everything — and that has a 12-month deadline.
• If an assault was involved, ask for the Violent Incident Log — Since July 1, 2024, the law requires nearly every California employer to keep one and make it available to employees.
• Verify there is insurance — caworkcompcoverage.com, and the WCIRB if that is inconclusive.
• Start the payment ledger — One page. Every payment: date issued, date received, period covered, amount. Most delay claims are won or lost on whether this exists, and only you can build it.

Serious and willful misconduct Late payments and penalties

Do not

• Do not say “I’m fine” — It is a reflex and it ends up in the report as a finding.
• Do not exaggerate either — Describe your limits accurately including the good days — “on a good day I can do X, and then I’m down the rest of the day.” Truthful, useful to your doctor, and surveillance-proof.
• Do not give a recorded statement without understanding what it is for — You are generally not required to.
• Do not sign a severance or general release — It may waive employment claims worth more than your comp case.
• Do not use only your own health insurance — Medical treatment for a work injury is the employer’s obligation.
• Do not decide on your own that it is too late, or that it was your fault — California workers’ compensation is a no-fault system — the law requires only that the injury be caused by the employment “either with or without negligence.”

Retaliation and termination Every deadline in one place

Two things that are always true