Work Injury Lawyer In Beverly Hills, CA
A work injury in California can give you two separate claims: a workers’ compensation claim against your employer, and a personal injury claim against anyone else whose negligence hurt you. Comp pays medical care and part of your wages but nothing for pain and suffering. The second claim pays the rest.
Alpha Law PC represents injured workers in Beverly Hills and across Los Angeles from 9701 Wilshire Boulevard, Floor 10. We run the workers’ comp claim and the third-party personal injury case together, so nothing that adds to your recovery gets left on the table. Call (323) 515-3666 for a free case review.
Hurt at work in California? You may have two claims, not one
Most injured workers file for workers’ comp and stop there. That is the mistake that costs the most money. Workers’ comp is a no-fault system: you get medical care and wage replacement without proving anyone did anything wrong, but in exchange you cannot recover for pain and suffering from your employer, and your lost-wage benefit is capped. That trade is fixed by law (California Labor Code section 3602).
The second claim is not capped. If someone other than your employer caused your injury, you can bring a regular personal injury lawsuit against that party for full damages, including pain and suffering and the full value of your lost earnings. A defective machine, a general contractor’s crew on a shared job site, a delivery driver who hit you while you were working, a property owner who let a hazard sit: each is a third party, and each opens a claim that comp does not.
Running both at once is the part that takes a lawyer who knows both systems. Your comp carrier gets repaid out of any third-party recovery through a lien (Labor Code sections 3852 and 3856), so the two cases have to be coordinated, or the reimbursement eats money that should have been yours. Handled together, the comp claim covers your treatment and wages while the case develops, and the third-party claim delivers the damages comp will not pay.
What California workers' comp actually pays in 2026
California workers’ comp pays four things: medical treatment, temporary disability while you heal, permanent disability if the injury is lasting, and death benefits for a family that loses a wage earner. It pays no money for pain and suffering. Here is what each piece looks like now.
Medical care
The system pays for reasonable treatment tied to the injury, with no deductible and no co-pay. Your care is usually directed through the employer’s medical provider network unless you named your own physician in writing before the injury. Treatment runs through a utilization-review process that can approve, delay, or deny specific care, which is where disputes start.
Temporary disability, at the 2026 rates
Temporary total disability pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage while a doctor keeps you off work. For injuries in 2026, that runs from a minimum of $264.61 a week to a maximum of $1,764.11 a week. Those figures took effect January 1, 2026, after the State Average Weekly Wage rose 4.99% to $1,789. If you earned more than about $2,646 a week before the injury, the maximum leaves a gap that only a third-party claim can close.
Permanent disability and death benefits
If the injury leaves lasting impairment, permanent disability is paid on a rating from 0 to 100%, set by a medical evaluation and often fought over. When a worker is killed, comp pays death benefits to dependents plus burial costs. Both are worth pursuing correctly, and both are routinely undervalued when no one pushes back on the first rating.
The third-party claim that makes a work injury worth far more
A third-party claim is a personal injury lawsuit against a non-employer whose negligence caused your work injury, and it recovers the damages workers’ comp will not. The common ones on California job sites:
- Defective equipment or machinery. If a press, saw, forklift, scaffold, or power tool failed because it was built or maintained badly, the manufacturer or the maintenance company can be liable under product liability law. A blanket medical authorization is not required to start that case, and it is separate from your comp claim.
- Another company’s crew. On a construction or multi-employer site, the general contractor and every subcontractor is a potential third party. If a different company’s employee dropped a load, left an unguarded opening, or ran equipment carelessly, that company answers in a personal injury suit even though your comp claim runs against your own employer.
- A negligent driver. If you were driving for work and another motorist caused the crash, you have a comp claim and an auto injury claim at the same time. See our car accident and truck accident pages.
- A toxic or defective product. Chemical exposure, a bad batch of material, or a product that off-gassed can support a claim against the manufacturer or supplier.
In any of these, you recover pain and suffering, the full value of your lost earnings and earning capacity, and future care, none of which the comp system pays. California uses pure comparative negligence (Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 1975), so partial fault reduces your recovery but does not end it.
What to do in the first days after a work injury
The most useful thing you can do early is get the injury on paper and get evidence preserved before it disappears. The order that protects both claims:
- Report it in writing, now. A verbal mention to a supervisor is not a report. Put it in writing and keep a copy. Your employer must give you a DWC-1 claim form after you report.
- Get medical care and say how it happened. Tell the treating doctor it was a work injury and describe the mechanism. Gaps and vague histories are what carriers use to argue the injury is not work-related.
- Photograph the scene and the equipment. If a machine, tool, vehicle, or hazard caused it, photograph it before it is repaired, replaced, or cleaned up. That evidence is the third-party case, and it vanishes fast.
- Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer’s investigator without advice. Comp carriers and third-party insurers both take recorded statements early, and both use them later.
- Write down who else was on site. Other contractors, the equipment involved, and witnesses are how a third-party claim gets built. Names fade in days.
The Beverly Hills work injuries we handle
Beverly Hills work injuries are not just construction falls. The 90210 and 90212 workforce is heavy on hospitality, retail, personal care, and office work, and the injury mix follows: repetitive strain from years on a sales floor or in a salon, slip-and-falls in hotels and restaurants, crashes by delivery and rideshare drivers on Wilshire and Santa Monica, and construction and renovation injuries across the commercial corridor. We handle the comp claim and check every one for a third-party case.
Where your case is heard matters too. A Beverly Hills comp claim is typically venued at the Division of Workers’ Compensation district office in downtown Los Angeles at 320 West 4th Street, not the Westside offices. California lets the worker choose venue among the county of residence, the county where the injury happened, and the county where the attorney’s office sits (Labor Code section 5501.5), and that choice affects how fast a congested calendar moves. We also handle pedestrian claims and the rest of our personal injury practice across Los Angeles.
Your attorney: Alexander Khoubian
Every case is handled by founder Alexander Khoubian, licensed in California since 2020 (State Bar #330918, verifiable on the State Bar site). He studied at UC San Diego and Southwestern Law School, where he won the CALI and Witkin awards and finished in the top 20% of his class.
The part that matters on a work-injury page: before he represented injured people, he worked defense-side workers’ compensation, which is where you learn how carriers decide to deny a claim, set a low reserve, and value an injury. He later trained at Carpenter, Zuckerman & Rowley, an established plaintiff’s trial firm. Super Lawyers has named him a Rising Star every year from 2022 through 2026. Read more about the firm.
Consultations are free, and you speak with the attorney, not a case manager. Workers’ comp attorney fees in California are set and approved by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and paid out of your award, not up front. Third-party personal injury cases run on contingency: the fee is a percentage of the recovery, with no fee if there is no recovery.
Work injury questions Beverly Hills workers ask
No. Retaliating against you for filing a workers’ comp claim is illegal in California (Labor Code section 132a), and it can add a penalty on top of your claim. Being fired for another documented reason is different, which is where the facts matter.
Not always. If your employer accepted the claim, the treatment is approved, and there is no dispute, you may be fine handling it yourself at first. Get advice the moment the claim is denied, the treatment is cut off, a permanent-disability rating comes back low, or you spot a possible third-party claim.
It is still covered. Repetitive-strain and cumulative-trauma injuries are compensable, but they are the most-denied category in the state and the clock can be disputed. These are worth having reviewed early rather than filed alone.
That label is often wrong, and it does not automatically decide the question. California uses strict tests for employee status, and misclassified workers are frequently entitled to comp anyway. Do not accept the label at face value.
Yes. California workers’ compensation covers employees regardless of immigration status, and filing a claim does not turn on it. Your right to benefits and to a third-party claim does not depend on documentation.
Report the injury to your employer, yes. Give a recorded statement to a claims investigator, not before you get advice. Their questions are built to lock in answers that reduce what they pay.
Nothing up front. Comp fees are set by the Appeals Board and come out of the award; third-party cases are contingency, so the fee comes from the recovery and there is none without one.
Related practice areas
Talk to a Beverly Hills work injury lawyer
If you were hurt at work in Beverly Hills or anywhere in Los Angeles, the first consultation is free. The sooner the injury is documented and the equipment or scene is preserved, the more room there is to build both claims.