Each state manages its own set of workers' compensation laws and rules, including lists of eligible and non-eligible workers or work situations. According to the California Labor Code statutes, the list of covered individuals may include salaried employees, contract workers, and apprentices engaged through written or verbal agreement.

However, California also maintains a relatively lengthy list of workers who do not generally receive workers' compensation coverage. These workers may include deputy sheriffs or clerks, workers who receive no actual pay for their efforts, and workers who officiate non-professional sporting events.

Workers' compensation in California offers several potential forms and amounts of financial compensation. For instance, if you have to take several months off due to your injury but will eventually return to work, you may qualify for temporary disability payments representing up to two-thirds of your usual wages.

Permanent disability payments generally apply to injured workers who cannot return to gainful employment, at least in their former position. Your personal disability rating, based on your age, degree of disability, and medical restrictions, will determine the size of the payments, which may extend for up to 14 years.

If your injury has left you with a permanent disability rating of 70 percent or above, you may qualify for a weekly pension alongside your permanent disability payments. These weekly pension payments continue for life.

In addition to disability payments, you may also qualify for compensation of medical costs such as doctor's visits, diagnostic exams, physical therapy, or medical equipment. You may also receive compensation (at the IRS's current mileage allowance) for trips to and from medical appointments.

California requires employers to maintain workers' compensation coverage. If your employer provides workers' compensation, this route serves as your exclusive remedy for work-injury financial compensation. Most eligible workers can receive compensation regardless of who actually caused the injury.

California workers must notify their employers of an injury (preferably in writing) within 30 days of the injury date to be eligible for workers' compensation benefits. For a slowly developing chronic injury, the worker may give this notification 30 days from the date that the injury became a known problem or first caused disability.

The next step involves filling out the State of California's Workers' Compensation Claim Form & Notice of Potential Eligibility form. Your workers' compensation attorney can review the form's instructions with you and help you fill out the form correctly. Upon submission, you will receive either an acceptance or a denial.

In California, the appeal of a denied workers' compensation claim begins at the local level, with a hearing before your Workers' Compensation Appeals Board judge. Even this relatively informal procedure involves several steps that you must complete in a correct and timely manner, ideally with the aid of a workers' compensation attorney.

You must file an Application for Adjudication of Claim before you do anything else, since this step attaches a case number to your claim. Your attorney can then file a Declaration of Readiness to Proceed in which you officially request the hearing.

Your timeline for receiving a final approval or denial partly depends on the reason for your claim rejection. If your insurer claims that your injury did not arise out of your employment activities, the judge will probably expedite your hearing date. Your Declaration of Readiness to Proceed includes provisions for specifying this point.

If your condition clearly arose out of your employment, a pre-trial conference will give you an opportunity to clarify why you filed your workers' compensation claim and why the insurer should have approved it. If this conference cannot settle the issue, you may have to take your case to trial.

Contact The Law Offices of Jeffrey M. Greenberg. Our firm has the legal experience and expertise to help you make your case as compellingly as possible.