If you were hurt doing your job, California law entitles you to medical care and to money that replaces part of what you can no longer earn. You do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong. You do have to move quickly, file correctly, and hold your ground when the insurance carrier says no — which is where most injured workers lose ground without meaning to.
The Law Office of Scott A. Schwartz has handled California workers’ compensation matters for nearly twenty years. We know how a claim like yours gets evaluated, where the pressure points are, and what a file needs to look like before anyone takes it seriously.
What you may be entitled to
- Medical treatment — all care reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of your injury, paid by the employer’s carrier, for as long as you need it.
- Temporary disability — wage replacement while you cannot work, generally two-thirds of your average weekly wages, subject to a statutory minimum and maximum that changes each year.
- Permanent disability — payments for lasting impairment once your condition stabilizes, rated on a scale from 0 to 100 percent.
- Supplemental job displacement — a retraining voucher when your employer cannot offer you regular, modified or alternative work.
- Death benefits — payments to a spouse, children or other dependents, plus burial expenses, when a work injury is fatal.
The deadlines that quietly end claims
Report your injury to your employer as soon as you can, and within thirty days. Once you do, your employer has one working day to hand you a claim form. Filing that form matters for a reason most workers never hear: it obliges the carrier to authorize treatment while it investigates, and if the claim is not denied within the statutory window it is presumed accepted.
Separately, you generally have one year from the date of injury to file an Application for Adjudication of Claim with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. Miss it and the claim is usually gone, whatever its merits.
When the carrier says no
Denials are routine, not final. Treatment requests are screened through utilization review, and a denial there can be challenged through independent medical review. Claims are heard by a workers’ compensation judge — your day in court, though without a jury. We have tried these cases for eighteen years and we prepare every file as though it will be heard.
How cases resolve
- Stipulations with Request for Award — the parties agree on the level of disability, payments are made over time, and your right to future medical care stays open.
- Compromise and Release — a single lump sum that closes the case, including future medical care.
Which one serves you depends on your injury, your age, your work, and whether you will need treatment for years. That decision deserves a conversation, not a form.
Problems we deal with constantly
A pre-existing condition that the carrier is using to discount your claim. An injury that built up over years rather than happening in one moment. Treatment approved and then cut off. A settlement offer that arrives before anyone knows how badly you are hurt. None of these are reasons to give up on a claim; they are reasons to have a lawyer.
Where we practice
From our office at 27001 Agoura Road in Calabasas, we represent injured workers throughout the San Fernando Valley, the Conejo Valley, Santa Barbara, Oxnard and the surrounding communities. Se habla español.
A work injury is sometimes more than one case
If you were fired, demoted or written up after reporting your injury, that is a separate claim with its own deadline — see employment matters. And if someone other than your employer caused the injury — another driver, a contractor on the site, a defective machine — you may also have a personal injury claim against that party, alongside your workers’ compensation benefits. Tell us everything that happened; the second claim is the one people usually lose by not asking about it.
Free consultation. There is no fee unless we recover for you — and in California workers’ compensation, attorney’s fees are set by the judge and paid out of your award, not out of your pocket. Call 818-350-2658 or use our contact form.