California Requires Employers To Notify Injured Workers of Right to Attorney Effective January 1st, 2025

Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som on recent­ly signed a bill into law requir­ing employ­ers to pro­vide notice to employ­ees that they can con­sult and seek the advice of an attor­ney for guid­ance about their rights under the state’s work­ers com­pen­sa­tion law.

Under A.B. 1870, employ­ers will be required to dis­play a poster for employ­ees pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion such as the name of the company’s work­ers com­pen­sa­tion insur­er or, in the case of self-insureds, who is respon­si­ble for adjust­ing claims for employ­ee injuries. The poster must also include infor­ma­tion about the rights of injured work­ers to receive med­ical care, to select a treat­ing physi­cian, to receive indem­ni­ty ben­e­fits and the time lim­its to noti­fy an employ­er of an occu­pa­tion­al injury.

The new law also requires that the posters advise injured work­ers that they can con­sult a licensed attor­ney for advice about their work comp rights. Posters must also advise employ­ees gen­er­al­ly in most instances of injury, attor­ney fees are paid from the ben­e­fits an injured work­er receives.

The new law, which had unan­i­mous sup­port in both cham­bers of the leg­is­la­ture, takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.