Workers compensation laws in California have been put in place to ensure that all employees are covered against any financial loss or physical hurt as a result of been injured at work.

In the state of California it is mandatory for all employers to take out workers compensation insurance.  There are no exceptions to this and regardless of the number of employers a company must take out the insurance.

It must be stressed at this point that it is the employers, the owners of the company, that must pay for the workers compensation insurance.  They cannot deduct the premiums from an employees pay check and nor can they ask the employee to ‘volunteer’ to pay the premiums.  This is one of the corner stones of the California workers compensation laws.

Another of these corner stones is that all workers have the right to claim compensation should their health suffer because of activities at their workplace and providing they can prove that someone – usually their employer – is culpable.

At this point it is interesting to note that the concept of workingmen’s compensation insurance differs from country to country. In both Australia and in here in the United States it is used as a tool where workers can claim damages without (hopefully) resorting to law. The situation is  somewhat different in the United Kingdom where there is no comparable worker’s scheme aimed at keeping cases out of the courts . In Britain there is an obligation on companies employing more than three people to take out employers liability insurance. That enable British employees to sue their employer directly for damages, often through a no win no fee scheme, meaning the employment of lawyers and use of the nation’s civil court system.

As we said though here in California the laws and legislation have been laid out to try and minimise the need for the injured employee to have to go to court to receive their compensation.  But, unfortunately, when an employer disputes a claim, for whatever reason, it is time to get the workers compensation lawyer involved.

A company will often contest a compensation claim by alleging that the employee is not as injured or as incapacitated as he claims.  They will do this for one of two reasons.  Firstly, they genuinely believe that the employee is making a false claim or secondly, and more cynically, that they don’t want a payout as their insurance premiums will be raised by the insurance company!

To prove an employers liability in any compensation claim for injury at work, the claimant needs to prove several things. These include that the employer failed to provide inadequate equipment in the workplace, or that the claimant had not been given adequate training to perform that task in the first place and that these things led to the employee being injured.

Many of us are sometimes reluctant to make a claim against our employers either out of loyalty or through fear of being sacked but it is important to remember that California workers compensation laws are there to protect us and to ensure we receive the settlement we deserve.