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Miguel Orellana
✦ Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — Certified by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization ✦
Serving injured workers across California. Board-certified specialist; no fee unless we win.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization
In California, Labor Code §5405 sets a one-year statute of limitations for filing a workers' compensation claim with the WCAB. The clock extends when the employer failed to provide a DWC-1 or the worker received any benefit within the year. Yazdchi Law, a Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law firm, handles §5405 disputes statewide. Request a free case review.
Under California Labor Code §5405, a California injured worker generally has one year from the date of injury to file the application for adjudication of claim with the WCAB. For a specific injury, the clock starts on the date of the accident; for a cumulative-trauma injury under California Labor Code §3208.1, the clock starts on the date the worker knew or should have known the condition was work-related.
California Labor Code §5405 can be extended in several recognized circumstances: when the employer failed to provide the DWC-1 claim form within one working day of learning of the injury under California Labor Code §5401; when the employer failed to post the required workers' compensation notice at the workplace; when the worker received any compensation (medical care paid by the insurer, indemnity payments, or wage continuation) within the one-year window; or when the worker was a minor without a guardian ad litem. Each exception independently extends the California statute of limitations.
For a cumulative-trauma injury under California Labor Code §3208.1, the §5405 one-year clock starts on the date of medical-occupational discovery — the date the California worker knew or should have known the condition was work-related. A warehouse worker whose back pain develops over years of lifting or a construction worker whose knees fail after a decade of crawling face cumulative-trauma deadlines that start at the date a doctor first attributes the injury to the job, not at the first day of symptoms.
California Labor Code §5405 is the deadline to file the original claim. California Labor Code §5410 is the separate five-year window within which a California injured worker may petition to reopen the claim for new and further disability — a worsening of the same industrial injury — after a permanent disability award has been entered. The two clocks run on different events. Missing §5405 forfeits the original claim; California Labor Code §5410 only applies after a claim has been adjudicated.
California Labor Code §5405 sets the one-year filing deadline for an indemnity claim. A separate one-year deadline applies to dependents seeking death benefits — measured from the date of death rather than the date of injury — when death results from an industrial injury or occupational disease. The death-benefit clock is independent of the underlying §5405 clock, so a dependent may have a timely death-benefit claim even when the original §5405 clock ran.
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Tap to call →Last reviewed by Eman Yazdchi, Esq., May 2026.
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