Williams & Gasparian Law represents injured construction workers, including day laborers and undocumented workers, across Los Angeles County as well as the rest of California.
Workers' compensation covers your medical care and part of your wages. It does not pay for pain, for the full amount of lost income, or for what the injury does to the rest of your life. When someone other than your employer caused the injury, a separate personal injury claim can. Finding that party is the first thing we do.
How Construction Injuries Happen
Most construction injuries involve a safety rule that someone ignored, and often that someone was not your employer.
- Falls. From scaffolds, ladders, roofs, and unguarded openings. Falls cause more construction deaths than anything else.
- Struck by objects. Falling tools, materials, or debris from work above.
- Equipment failures. Cranes, lifts, power tools, and heavy machinery that were defective or badly maintained.
- Electrocution. Live wires, unmarked underground lines, or contact with overhead power.
- Trench and excavation collapses. Unshored trenches bury workers in seconds.
- Vehicles and forklifts. Struck by or caught between moving equipment on a crowded site.
- Exposure. Chemicals, silica dust, or asbestos, with illnesses that appear years later.
What a Third-Party Claim Can Recover
A personal injury claim against a responsible party other than your employer can recover losses that workers' compensation leaves out.
Economic losses
- Medical care beyond what workers' compensation approves
- The full amount of lost wages, not a percentage
- Reduced ability to earn for the rest of your working life
- Retraining if you cannot return to the trade
- Home modifications or equipment for a permanent injury
Non-economic losses
- Physical pain
- Emotional distress
- Loss of the activities you used to enjoy
- Permanent disability or disfigurement
Workers' compensation may have a right to be repaid from a third-party recovery. We account for that when we evaluate the claim. We do not quote case values on this site.
California Rules That Affect Construction Injury Cases
- Your employer
- Workers' compensation is generally the only claim you can bring against your own employer, under Labor Code section 3602, with narrow exceptions.
- Everyone else
- Labor Code section 3852 preserves your right to sue any other party whose negligence caused the injury: a general contractor, a subcontractor, the property owner, an equipment manufacturer, a rental company, or a driver. You can pursue that claim at the same time as workers' compensation.
- General contractors and owners
- Under the Privette line of cases, a party that hires a contractor is generally not responsible for injuries to the contractor's employees. There are exceptions. One is when the hirer kept control over safety, actually exercised that control, and did so in a way that contributed to the injury. Another is a hidden hazard the hirer knew about, or reasonably should have known about, that the contractor could not reasonably have found, where the hirer gave no warning.
- Cal/OSHA
- Cal/OSHA investigates serious injuries. Its findings, along with any citations, are evidence of what went wrong and who was responsible.
- Immigration status
- Under Civil Code section 3339, immigration status does not affect the right to recover for an injury, and it may not be raised in the case. Workers' compensation covers undocumented workers as well.
- Retaliation
- It is illegal for an employer to fire or punish a worker for filing a workers' compensation claim or reporting a safety violation.
- Deadlines
- Two years from the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. Six months to file a government claim if a public agency is responsible. For workers' compensation, you generally must tell your employer about the injury within 30 days, and the claim itself generally must be filed within one year.
What Happens After You Call
Five stages, from the first phone call to the day the case closes.
A free consultation
You tell us what happened. We tell you whether you have a case and what we would do first. No charge, no obligation to hire us.
Investigation
We gather the police or incident report, photos, witness statements, medical records, and video. When a case calls for it we bring in accident reconstructionists or treating physicians.
Dealing with the insurance companies
Once you hire us, insurers deal with us instead of you. We handle the calls, the letters, and the requests for recorded statements. You focus on treatment.
Negotiation or a lawsuit
When your treatment has gone far enough to know what your losses are, we send a demand. If the insurer will not pay a fair amount, we file a lawsuit and prepare the case as if it will be tried.
Resolution
Most cases settle. Some go to trial. Either way, we explain every offer to you in plain terms, and the decision to accept or reject it is yours.
Questions People Ask Us
Yes. Under California law, whether you have immigration papers makes no difference to your right to recover for an injury, and the other side is not allowed to bring it up. We represent undocumented workers regularly, and we will explain how the process protects you.
Yes, if someone other than your employer caused the injury. The two claims run at the same time. Workers' compensation may be entitled to repayment out of the second recovery, which we factor in from the start.
The general contractor, another subcontractor, the property owner, the company that made or rented the equipment, a safety consultant, or a driver, depending on what happened. We identify every party with a role in the injury.
Retaliation for a workers' compensation claim or a safety complaint is illegal in California, and it creates a separate claim of its own. We can handle the communication with the employer so you do not have to.
Workers' compensation provides death benefits to dependents. A wrongful death claim against a responsible third party may also be available. We handle both, and we will explain them at your pace.
We work on a contingency fee. You pay no fee up front, and our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you. If we recover nothing, you owe no attorney fee. You owe nothing for case costs either.
Talk to a Construction Accident Lawyer in Glendale
If you were hurt on a job site anywhere in California, call us or send the form. We will review what happened at no charge, whatever your immigration status.
