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Who Pays for My Workers’ Compensation Claim?

If you’re injured in the course and scope of your employment by a foreseeable risk of that employment, California law requires your employer to pay you benefits under its workers’ compensation laws. All California employers are required to either purchase workers’ compensation insurance coverage or obtain authorization to become self insured. Any workers’ compensation insurance policy must be purchased from a licensed insurance company that has been authorized to write policies in the State of California. In the context of self insurance, an employer must support such self insurance with a surety bond or other form of security and obtain self insurance approval from the California Office of Self Insurance Plans.

Payroll Deductions for Workers’ Compensation Insurance
California doesn’t allow an employer to make any type of a deduction from your earnings for purposes of contributing toward workers compensation insurance premiums. Workers’ compensation coverage is a cost of doing business, and it’s at the employer’s cost.

Who Pays in the Event of an Injury?
In nearly all California cases, it’s the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer that pays an injured employer benefits after an accident. If your employer turns out to be uninsured, it’s your employer who must pay your workers’ compensation benefits.

Penalties for No Workers’ Compensation Insurance
An employer’s failure to have workers’ compensation insurance or be certified as self insured is a crime that is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Other administrative civil penalties of up to $100,000 can also be assessed.

Additional Civil Liability
Ordinarily, workers’ compensation benefits are an injured employee’s sole and exclusive remedy for an injury that occurred on the job. If the employer is uninsured, the injured employee can also file a civil lawsuit against the employer along with a workers’ compensation claim.

The UEBTF
The Uninsured Employers’ Benefit Trust Fund is a special arm of the California Division of Workers’ Compensation. It might cover workers’ compensation benefits for an employee who was injured while working for an illegally uninsured employer. It might then seek reimbursement by pursuing all legal remedies directly against the employer.

We all show up at work every day, and nobody wants to suffer a serious injury there or anywhere else. The California legislature appears to have done everything that it can do to assure that we’re compensated in the event of a serious accident on the job.

Contact a Sacramento Workers’ Compensation Attorney

In almost all cases when someone is injured on the job, the worker will get the best possible outcome by hiring an experienced Sacramento workers’ compensation lawyer.

Attorney Alice A. Strömbom focuses exclusively on Workers’ Compensation Law. She is very familiar with the tactics insurance companies use to avoid providing the medical treatment and disability benefits injured workers deserve, and has a recognized track record in combating such issues.

Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation and case evaluation.