A worker gets hurt on the job, reports it, and is written up three weeks later for something nobody mentioned before. Or a worker complains about unpaid overtime and is suddenly scheduled out of every shift. Or the injury itself is the harassment — months of it, until the stress becomes a medical problem.
Each of those is an employment case and a workers’ compensation case at the same time. Firms that only do one usually spot only one, and the other claim quietly expires.
Where the two overlap
- Fired or punished for filing a comp claim. California law makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee for filing or intending to file a workers’ compensation claim. That is a separate claim with its own remedy and its own deadline — one that runs alongside the injury claim, not inside it.
- Disability discrimination and failure to accommodate. A work injury frequently produces a disability under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. The employer’s obligation to engage in the interactive process and accommodate you is entirely separate from anything the comp carrier owes you.
- Psychiatric injury from workplace conduct. Sustained harassment or extraordinary working conditions can produce a compensable psychiatric injury — and, on the same facts, a harassment claim.
- Wage claims by injured workers. Unpaid wages, missed meal and rest breaks and unreimbursed expenses do not go away because someone got hurt, and they are often the clearest part of a file.
- Termination during a leave. Being let go while out on a work injury raises questions the comp system alone will never ask.
Claims we handle
- Wrongful termination — including firing that violates public policy.
- Retaliation — for reporting an injury, a safety problem, unpaid wages, or unlawful conduct.
- Harassment and discrimination — including on the basis of disability arising from a workplace injury.
- Wage and hour violations — unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest periods, unreimbursed business expenses, final-pay failures.
- Leave and accommodation disputes — refusal to engage in the interactive process, or to accommodate restrictions.
Why the double perspective matters
We handle workers’ compensation and employment matters, and we also advise businesses as outside general counsel. That means we know how the other side of the table evaluates a claim before it is filed — where an employer’s file is strong, where it is thin, and what makes a matter worth resolving rather than litigating. That knowledge does not soften how we handle your case. It sharpens it.
Deadlines are short and they differ
Employment deadlines are not the one-year comp deadline, and they are not all the same as each other. A discrimination or harassment claim runs through California’s Civil Rights Department before it can go to court, and the clock on that administrative step is separate from the clock on the lawsuit that follows. Wage claims, retaliation claims and wrongful termination claims each run on their own schedule. The practical consequence is simple: an employment problem is worth a phone call early, not once you have worked out which claim it is.
Free consultation. If you were injured at work and something happened to your job, tell us both halves — they are usually one case. Call 818-350-2658 or use our contact form. 27001 Agoura Road, Suite 350, Calabasas. Se habla español.