"Do they even have insurance?"

The two tools

1. The public coverage database at caworkcompcoverage.com. Free, searchable by employer name. Start here.

2. A Coverage Research Service Request to the WCIRB, where the database is inconclusive — which it often is for small businesses, name changes, and dissolved entities.

What you need is verification for the date of injury, not for today.

And in a cumulative trauma claim, the relevant date is the § 5412 date of injury — when you first suffered disability and knew it was work-related — not the date you stopped working. That distinction decides which policy year applies. How.

That WCIRB verification is the document the entire uninsured-employer process is built on. Get it before anything else.

If there is coverage

The carrier handles the claim regardless of whether the employer is still operating, has dissolved, or is in bankruptcy. A policy covers the injury, not the employer's continued existence.

And if the carrier became insolvent, the California Insurance Guarantee Association exists to pay covered claims of insolvent insurers. More.

If there is no coverage

Two routes, usually pursued together.

The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund pays medical treatment, temporary disability, permanent disability, job displacement benefits, and death benefits. It is procedurally unforgiving — the employer must be personally served with a Special Notice of Lawsuit under § 3715 and properly joined, and benefits generally do not attach until that is done correctly.

And § 3706 permits a civil action against the employer, where § 3708 presumes negligence and bars contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, and the fellow-servant defense. That is a materially different legal position — and it pays for pain and suffering, which comp does not. The full route.

Three related checks worth running

Cal/OSHA citation history — public, searchable, free. A prior citation for the same condition is close to the center of a § 4553 serious and willful petition, worth one-half of everything, with a twelve-month deadline. How.

Contractor licensing, in construction. Under § 2750.5, someone doing licensed work without a license cannot be an independent contractor — and their crew is frequently deemed employees of the licensed contractor or property owner who hired them. More.

And in a staffing arrangement, § 2810.3 makes the client employer share liability where the labor contractor failed to secure coverage. How.