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Members of the public may search the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s database for information on active disputed workers’ compensation cases using the Electronic Adjudication Management System’s (EAMS) public search tool.
The first thing to know about using this tool is that EAMS does not contain information on all workers’ compensation claims in the state. That’s because California’s workers’ compensation system is basically privately run: an employer either purchases a policy for workers’ compensation insurance or becomes certified to be self-insured. In approximately 80 percent of all workers’ compensation claims the injured employee receives the benefits to which they are entitled from the employer’s claims administrator with no problems. The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) and the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) never see those claims. In approximately 20 percent of the state’s workers’ compensation claims, the injured worker and the employer disagree over some aspect of the claim and cannot independently resolve their disagreement. Those cases come before the DWC and the WCAB, which assist the parties in resolving the dispute. The records in those cases become public information. A portion of those records—those cases that are currently active—are searchable using the EAMS public search tool.
Members of the general public may search for active DWC/WCAB cases using the following criteria:
- Case number (the new EAMS reference number)
- Injured worker last name
- Injured worker first name
- Injured worker date of birth
- Date of injury
- Injured worker address
- Injured worker city
- Injured worker ZIP Code
- Employer name
Members of the general public only have access to view information on active cases displayed in the search result page. Active cases are cases on which hearings are currently scheduled or cases on which a judge is actively working (i.e responding to petitions, hearing a case, etc). The information returned from a search includes:
- Injured worker last name
- Injured worker first name
- Case number
- Date of injury
- Employer name
- Case status (only active cases displayed)
- Next hearing date
Searching for case information using this tool does not provide access to the case file. Access to the case file must be requested by contacting the Public Records Act coordinator at the local district office. The DWC has written instructions and created a form to facilitate this process, which can be found on the Public Records Act request page. If you do not know which district office is handling the case file you want to review, contact the DWC Call Center at (888) 771-3267 (888-771-EAMS).
Have a legacy case number but not an EAMS case number and want to use this search tool? Use the EAMS and legacy case number tool to find the EAMS case number that corresponds to the legacy case number you have.
The general public search tool works on an “exact match” basis. That is, if searching for a case using the case number, the number must match exactly. For example, if the case number is ADJ0123456 you must enter it exactly that way. If you enter ADJ 0123456 you will not get a match. If you enter 0123456 you will not get a match.
This exact match also applies to injured worker name and employer name. The spelling must be exactly the same as what is in the database to find a match. If you are looking for injured worker Robert Smyth and that is how Robert Smyth’s name was entered in the database, searching for Robert Smith, Robert Sm or any abbreviation or variation of the name will not yield a match. Searching for just Robert will likely yield more than 50 matches, in which case you will be asked to refine your search.
If you are searching for employer records, be aware that many employer names could have been entered into the database in a variety of ways that will affect your ability to find a match—or the complete set of records in the database—for that employer. For example, if you are looking for Robert Smyth Industries, Incorporated you may need to search for Robert Smyth Industries, Robert Smyth, Robert Smyth Industries, Inc., Robert Smyth Industries INC, Robert Smyth Ind. Inc, etc. This is because the information could have been entered into the system in a variety of ways. Currently, only claims administrators and representatives have uniform assigned names.
This exact matching also partially applies to date of injury and date of birth, which must be in this format: 01/02/2009. If you search for 1/2/2009 you will get a match, but if you search for 1/2/09 you will not. To search by date of birth or date of injury it’s best to select the date using the calendar tool provided next to the date field.
BE AWARE THAT DIFFERENT EMPLOYERS AND INJURED WORKERS MAY HAVE SIMILAR NAMES AND CLOSE ATTENTION TO OTHER SEARCH CRITERIA MAY BE NECESSARY TO AVOID MISINTERPRETATION OF THE DATA. The more exactly the information you have matches what is in the database, the easier it will be to search for a case.
October 2008