Long Beach

If you live or were injured in Long Beach, your case will generally be heard at the Long Beach district office on Hughes Way.

And if you work on or around the port, there is a threshold question that comes before everything else — whether your claim belongs in the California system at all, or in the federal one.

Your case will be heard at 1500 Hughes Way

Long Beach WCAB District Office

Note the address. A number of directories and law firm pages still list an Oceangate address for this office. It is 1500 Hughes Way. Check anything you are relying on.

Parking: free, entered through the front guard station. This is one of the easier offices in the system to attend — no meters, no structure, no $18 day rate.

Transit. Long Beach Transit serves the area.

Food: there is a café in the adjacent Building Pod B. Only two Southern California WCAB offices have food on site, and this is one of them — which matters more than it sounds when a conference runs past noon.

Remote or in person: conferences and MSCs are remote by video; trials, expedited hearings, and walk-throughs are in person. Full detail on every office.

If you work the port, read this first

The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act is a federal system, and for many workers on and around the Port of Long Beach it applies instead of California workers' compensation.

Coverage turns on two tests — a situs test (where you were working) and a status test (what you were doing). Longshore workers, ship repairers, shipbuilders, and harbor construction workers are the core, but the boundaries reach further inland and further into support work than most people assume.

This matters enormously, because federal benefits are frequently more generous than California's — and because filing in the wrong system wastes time that the deadlines do not give back.

If you were hurt on a terminal, a dock, a pier, a marine railway, or an adjoining area used for loading, unloading, repairing, or building a vessel, get the coverage question answered before you file anything.

Port and longshore worker claims.

What the work here does

Port, terminal, and drayage. Container handling, lashing, equipment operation, and the truck work that moves freight off the terminal. Backs, shoulders, knees, hearing, and diesel exhaust exposure. Port and longshore claims. · Truck and delivery driver claims.

Warehouse and logistics. The distribution footprint behind the port. Rate-driven lifting, reaching, and walking, and — since July 23, 2024 — an indoor heat standard that finally applies to warehouses. Warehouse worker claims. · Heat illness.

Healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and long-term care, where 8 CCR § 5120 requires lift equipment and lift teams and 8 CCR § 3342 requires a violent incident log. Healthcare worker claims.

Aerospace and manufacturing, with the exposure history that comes with an older industrial base — including asbestos, which has a latency of 20 to 50 years and a set of deadline rules unlike anything else in the code. Asbestos claims.

Hospitality and food service along the waterfront and downtown. Hotel housekeepers · Restaurant and food service

The deadlines

Federal Longshore claims run on different deadlines. Another reason to answer the coverage question first.

What to do this week

1. Answer the coverage question if your work touches the port — state or federal.
2. Report it in writing, dated, and keep a copy.
3. File the DWC-1 and keep proof of the date.
4. Ask for the § 5402(c) treatment in writing if you are being delayed.
5. Identify everyone else on that site — a terminal operator, a trucking company, an equipment manufacturer, a vessel owner. Third-party claims.

Language

English, Spanish, and Korean, and a right to an interpreter at no cost — at treatment under § 4600(g), at medical-legal exams under § 4600(f), at depositions under § 5710(b)(5), and at hearings under § 5811(b)(2). Your interpreter rights.

Consultas gratis en español. · 한국어 무료 상담.

Frequently asked questions