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Division of Workers' Compensation - Claims Adjudication Unit

At the 24 Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) district offices located around the state, sometimes called WCABs, employers, injured workers and others receive judicial services to assist in the prompt and fair resolution of disputes that sometimes arise from workers' compensation claims. Local district offices are a major part of the workers' compensation court system, where judges make decisions about cases. This process is the focus of the Claims Adjudication Unit, but other services for injured workers and employers are available at district offices. Most offices have information and assistance (I&A) officers on staff, who provide a variety of services to injured workers, employers and others. A primary duty of I&A officers is to help injured workers who don't have attorneys navigate the workers’ compensation system. Call 1-800-736-7401 for recorded information from I&A staff 24 hours a day, or contact a local office during business hours to reach a live person.

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Anaheim - AHM Los Angeles - LAO
Riverside - RIV San Jose - SJO
Bakersfield - BAK
Marina del Rey - MDR Sacramento - SAC San Luis Obispo - SLO
Eureka - EUR
Oakland - OAK Salinas - SAL Santa Ana - ANA
Fresno - FRE
Oxnard - OXN San Bernardino - SBR Santa Rosa - SRO
Goleta - GOL
Pomona - POM San Diego - SDO Stockton - STK
Long Beach - LBO Redding - RDG San Francisco - SFO Van Nuys - VNO

Claims adjudication activity at district offices

In August of 2008 the district offices converted from paper-based files to an electronic case management system called EAMS. Because the conversion to EAMS required changes in the way case documents are processed and how data is collected, the data on claims adjudication for 2008 is incomplete.

Category 2006 2007 1st & 2nd quarter 2008**
Total opening documents* 143,194 138,615 69,590
Declarations of readiness** 302,175 335,599 164,711
Hearings held 357,945 333,421 161,575
Decisions issued 148,537 139,785 64,080

* Includes received applications for adjudication and settlement documents
** Data for claims adjudication activity in 2008 is for six months only - Jan. 1 through June 30. DWC migrated to EAMS during the 3rd quarter 2008 and data for the 3rd and 4th quarters is unavailable. There has been a break in the data series due to changes in document processing and calendaring in the new system and how data is now collected.

Claims adjudication activity 1997 - 2005

Forms may be obtained from the forms page of the DWC Web site or at local DWC district offices. Many forms needed to adjudicate a workers’ compensation claim are now submitted in optical character recognition (OCR) format so they may be scanned into EAMS. Injured workers who need assistance completing the forms can use the DWC injured worker guides. OCR forms samples for other filers are posted on the OCR forms page. Information about filing electronically is also available on the e-forms page.

Los Angeles district office information

April 2011