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How to file a workers' comp claim in California

By Richard Vaughn CPCU, ARM, AIS. Reviewed November 8, 2026. Richard is an insurance professional, not an attorney. This page explains the law; it is not legal advice.

Step 1: report the injury

Tell your supervisor as soon as you can, and in writing if possible. The Labor Code requires notice within 30 days of the injury (Labor Code §5400), though an employer who learns of the injury from any source is treated as having notice (Labor Code §5402(a)). For a cumulative injury, report it as soon as a doctor connects the condition to your work; the date of injury for a gradual condition is the first day you had disability and knew or should have known work caused it (Labor Code §5412).

If you need emergency care, get it first and tell the provider the injury is work-related. Report to your employer afterward.

Step 2: get the claim form

Once your employer knows of an injury that costs you time beyond the shift or needs more than first aid, it must give or mail you a Workers' Compensation Claim Form (DWC-1) and a Notice of Potential Eligibility within one working day (Labor Code §5401(a)). The two are a single document, in English and Spanish, and the notice explains the benefits, how to get medical care, your right to choose or change your treating physician, the role of the Information and Assistance unit, and your right to consult an attorney (Labor Code §5401(b)).

If your employer does not hand you the form, you can get it from the Division of Workers' Compensation and file it yourself. The claim is not delayed by the employer's failure to provide the form; it is delayed by the form not being filed.

Step 3: complete the employee section

You fill in the top half of the form: your name, address, date of birth and Social Security number; the date, time and place of the injury; how it happened; and the parts of the body affected. Describe the injury plainly and list every body part that hurts, including ones that seem minor. Body parts that are not on the claim form are harder to add later. Sign and date it.

Step 4: return it and keep the dated copy

Give the completed form to your employer in person or send it by first-class or certified mail. The claim is filed when the employer receives it (Labor Code §5401(c)). Your employer fills in the employer section, dates it, and must give you a dated copy and send one to its claims administrator. The dated copy is your proof of filing; keep it.

For two purposes, the form counts as filed when you mail it rather than when it arrives: the late-payment increase under Labor Code §4650(d), and tolling of the one-year filing deadline (Labor Code §5401(d)). For injuries on or after January 1, 1994, filing the form pauses the one-year statute of limitations until the claim is denied or becomes presumptively compensable.

What filing sets in motion

Three things follow from the filing date.

Treatment within one working day. Your employer must authorize all treatment for the alleged injury, consistent with the treatment guidelines, within one working day after you file, and must keep authorizing it until the claim is accepted or denied, up to $10,000 (Labor Code §5402(c)). You do not wait for acceptance to be treated.

A decision within 90 days. The claims administrator has 90 days from the filing to accept or deny the claim. If it does neither, the injury is presumed compensable and only evidence that could not reasonably have been found within the 90 days can rebut it (Labor Code §5402(b)).

Temporary disability within 14 days. If a doctor takes you off work, the first TD payment is due within 14 days of the employer learning of the injury and the disability, or a delay letter must explain why (Labor Code §4650(a), (d)). The temporary disability page covers the amount.

Delay, acceptance and denial

Inside the 90 days you will receive one of three letters. An acceptance says the claim is admitted and benefits are being paid. A delay letter says the claims administrator needs more information, names it, and says when it expects to decide; it is common and is not a denial. A denial says the claim is rejected and why. A denial is the point at which the claim becomes a dispute: you can file an Application for Adjudication of Claim with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board within the one-year period in Labor Code §5405, request a qualified medical evaluator on the question of whether the injury is work-related, and talk to an Information and Assistance officer or an attorney. The deadlines page dates each of these for your injury.

If your employer has no insurance

Every California employer with even one employee must carry workers' compensation insurance or be approved to self-insure (Labor Code §3700). If yours did not, you still have a claim. File the DWC-1 with the employer anyway, keep the dated copy, and file an Application for Adjudication with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board naming the employer and the Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund, a state fund that pays benefits when an illegally uninsured employer does not and then pursues the employer (Labor Code §3716). An uninsured employer also loses the protection that normally bars a lawsuit, so you may sue the employer in civil court in addition to the workers' comp claim (Labor Code §3706). An Information and Assistance officer can walk you through the Trust Fund filing, and uninsured employers are reported to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Your employer's side of the same form

The employer's duties mirror yours: provide the form within one working day, complete its section, give you the dated copy, forward it to the claims administrator, and separately report the injury to its insurer on the Employer's Report of Occupational Injury or Illness (Form 5020) within five days. An employer that does these things promptly is protecting its own position as much as yours; the employers' page on an employee injury lists them in order.

Questions people ask

Richard Vaughn CPCU, ARM, AIS

Richard Vaughn spent 35 years in commercial property and casualty insurance, most of it in workers' compensation: running a self-insured group, auditing premiums, and implementing claims systems for carriers and third-party administrators. He is not an attorney. dickvaughn.com