What Is California Labor Code §3715: Claim Against an Uninsured Employer?

In any claim in which it is alleged that the employer has failed to secure the payment of compensation, the director, only for purposes of this section and Section 3720, shall determine, on the basis of the evidence available to him or her, whether the employer was prima facie illegally uninsured.

What does Labor Code 3715 do?

It lets you bring your injury claim straight to the appeals board even though your employer carried no insurance.

Normally, an insurance company stands behind a work injury claim. When an employer skips that duty, set out in Labor Code 3700, an injured worker still needs a real path to benefits. This law supplies that path inside the workers' compensation system itself. You file an application with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, often shortened to the WCAB or the appeals board. The board hears your claim the same way it hears any other injury claim. It can order an award exactly as if your employer had carried a policy the whole time. Your employer then has to pay that award directly or post a bond with the board to cover it.

Who can use this right?

Most employees of an illegally uninsured employer qualify, along with a few household and casual workers who meet specific limits.

Most workers hurt on the job for an employer with no coverage can use this process, and so can their dependents if the worker died from the injury. A small group of household and personal employees, defined under Labor Code 3351, are normally left out of this particular right. This law brings three of them back in: a household worker who serves one employer more than 52 hours a week, a part-time gardener whose hours regularly top 44 a month, and a casual worker on a job lasting at least 10 working days with at least $100 in labor cost. Outside those three situations, a household or personal employee still has other options, including a civil lawsuit under Section 3706.

How does a claim under this law move forward?

You file an application with the appeals board, and the director first looks at whether your employer was prima facie illegally uninsured.

Prima facie illegally uninsured is a specific finding. The director looks at the evidence on file to decide whether there is enough to support it. Four kinds of proof can carry this on their own: your employer's failure to answer a written demand for coverage information within 10 days, as required under Labor Code 3711; a written denial from the insurer your employer named; no record of coverage at the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau; or your own written, signed statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you worked for the employer and were hurt on the job. You do not need all four. Any one of them can support the finding.

What happens once the director finds your employer was illegally uninsured?

Your employer gets formal notice and 20 days to appeal before the finding becomes final.

The director mails the employer written notice of the finding. That notice has to warn the employer that it can appeal, and that a lien may reach the employer's property, a parent company's property, or a major shareholder's property under Labor Code 3717. An employer who disagrees has 20 days to file a petition with the appeals board, which must hold a hearing within 20 days after that. The appeals board alone decides these appeals. No other California court can review, cancel, or pause the finding or the liens it creates, outside one narrow exception for extraordinary writs.

Can your claim still be settled or resolved early?

Yes, once the board has authority over your employer, the director can approve a compromise and release or a stipulated award.

The director can resolve your claim this way once the appeals board has jurisdiction over your employer and your employer has had notice and a chance to object. Your employer gets 20 days after that notice to object and show good cause, but the settlement can still move forward either way: when there is no good cause, when your employer raises none, or when the board finds good cause yet the director still chooses to proceed because doing so serves the interest of the state fund described below. A settlement handled this way can open the door for that fund to step in if your employer still will not pay.

What if your employer still will not pay the award?

Labor Code 3716 can let the director pay your award from a state fund if your employer misses its deadline.

Your employer has 10 days after notice of the award to pay it or post a bond. If that deadline passes, Labor Code 3716 explains how the Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund can pay the award instead, and what it will and will not cover. That page also explains the Labor Code 3706 civil lawsuit option in more depth, including the proof rules in Labor Code 3708 that apply only inside that separate lawsuit, not inside a claim under this law.

What should you save if your employer had no insurance?

Keep proof of your job, your injury, and anything that shows your employer lacked coverage.

Save pay stubs, schedules, texts or emails about your work, and the names of coworkers who can confirm you worked there. Write down the date, time, and how the injury happened while it is fresh. Keep any letter from an insurer denying that it covered your employer. Ask your employer, in writing, for proof of coverage, and keep a copy of that request along with any response, or the lack of one.

If your employer had no workers' compensation insurance when you were hurt, you still have real options, and the clock on appeal rights can move fast once the director rules. Yazdchi Law P.C. reviews each matter individually and can help you weigh a claim under this law against the Labor Code 3706 civil case. Call (661) 273-1780 or use the contact form to talk through your situation.