Workers' Compensation Benefits in California Workers' Compensation FAQs

Workers' compensation is a type of insurance that your employer carries to ensure you receive benefits such as total temporary disability payments and medical care in the event that you are injured while working. Workers' compensation laws are extremely complex and vary from state to state. In the most basic terms, workers' compensation benefits typically provide the injured workers with the following:

  • Total temporary disability payments
  • Medical treatment
  • Permanent disability payments
  • Future medical treatment
  • Supplemental job voucher
  • Payment of mileage to and from medical treatment facility

Workers' compensation benefits in California do not include payment for pain and suffering.

If you have been injured while working in the state of California, you should do the following:

  • Report your injury to your employer immediately and ask for a claim form
  • For repetitive stress injuries that develop over time, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, report those injuries to your employer as soon as you are diagnosed or as soon as you notice the symptoms
  • Ask your employer to provide you with the name of a medical doctor
  • Although your employer will refer you to a healthcare professional, you are also free to see your own physician at your own expense

Due to the complicated nature of workers’ compensation laws in California, it is important to immediately speak with an attorney who is knowledgeable about workers' compensation. You can find an experienced California workers’ compensation lawyer at Lombardi & Perry, LLP. Our attorneys have been successfully representing injured workers in California for more than 20 years.

Facts about California's Workers' Compensation Laws

Workers’ compensation laws in California define three basic elements:

  • The benefit structure, defining what workers are entitled to when they are injured on the job. Legal entitlements include medical care, compensation for temporary or permanent disabilities, compensation for rehabilitation and/or death benefits for families who have lost a loved one to a fatal work-related injury.
  • The benefit delivery system, appointing who distributes the financial compensation to injured employees. The state of California does NOT pay workers' compensation benefits. Instead, this money is paid out by private insurance companies hired by employers or self-insured employers (who are authorized to insure employees themselves). The state simply oversees that the laws are followed and steps in when disputes arise.
  • The benefit financing system, stipulating how employers finance workers' compensation insurance so their employees are covered in the event of an accident on the job. As previously stated, employers can hire private insurance companies, may be authorized to self-insure or they may be eligible for state insurance. Large, stable companies are usually authorized by the Department of Industrial Relations to insure their own employees. Alternately, non-authorized companies can hire one of about 300 private insurance organizations, or they may buy into the California State Compensation Insurance Fund.

Following a Work-Related Injury

It's important that you focus on recovering. Let us help you navigate the complex California State workers' compensation laws so that you recover the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries and losses. Sadly, insurance companies rarely put injured workers’ interest first. At Lombardi & Perry, LLP, we will fight to make sure you recover not some, but all the compensation you are entitled to.