Workers' Compensation
- Overview
- What to Report
- When to Report
- How to Report
- Medical Treatment
- Temporary Disability
- Report Fraud
When to Report an Industrial Injury
An industrial injury should be reported to Workers' Compensation Administrators as soon as the employer has knowledged that an injury has occurred. Labor Code section 5402 emphasizes that knowledge of an industrial injury can come from any source on the part of the employer, not just the employee.
Under the Reynolds decision, once an employer has knowledge of an industrial injury, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the injured employee has notice of their right to workers' compesation benefits. Therefore, the sooner an injury is reported to WCA the sooner we can notify the injured employee of their benefits and start the statute of limitations running.
A simple rule of thumb is to report a work injury whenever one of the following occurs:
- Treatment is beyond first aid
- Employee is losing time from work as a result of a work injury
- Employee indicates they want to file a work injury
