"Can I just get unemployment instead?"

The three programs answer different questions

Unemployment insurance asks: are you able to work, available for work, and actively looking? You must answer yes every two weeks to keep receiving it.

State Disability Insurance asks: are you unable to work because of a non-occupational illness or injury?

Workers' compensation asks: are you unable to work because of a work injury?

A person who is totally temporarily disabled from a work injury does not fit the unemployment question. That is the conflict.

Where State Disability actually helps

This is the useful answer for most people.

If your workers' compensation claim is denied or delayed and no benefits are being paid, you can generally apply for State Disability Insurance while the comp claim is pending. SDI pays while the dispute is sorted out, and it is often the difference between holding on and settling for whatever is offered.

When the comp claim is later accepted, EDD files a lien to be reimbursed from the temporary disability the carrier should have paid. That is expected and it is handled inside the case. You are not double-collecting and you are not doing anything wrong.

Note the form asks whether the condition is work-related. Answer it truthfully. SDI can still be payable while a comp claim is disputed; a false answer creates a real problem.

My claim is delayed. · I can't afford to wait.

When unemployment is the right answer

If you have been released to work — full duty or with restrictions — and your employer has no work for you, you may be both able and available, and unemployment can be appropriate.

That situation is extremely common after a workers' comp case: the doctor says you can do modified work, the employer says there is none, and you are out of a job while still having a live claim. Unemployment fits there. So does the supplemental job displacement voucher and the separate $5,000 return-to-work supplement. I can't go back to my old job.

The trap to avoid

Do not certify to EDD that you are able and available while telling a workers' comp doctor you cannot work at all. Those records are obtainable and the inconsistency will be used at your deposition and at trial.

If the honest answer is "I can do some work but not my old job," say exactly that to both. That is a coherent, common, and completely defensible position — and it is what most people in this situation are actually describing.