Three Compensation Systems Operate in the District
In most states, an injured worker has one workers' compensation system to deal with. In Washington DC there are three, and they are administered by different bodies under different rules and different deadlines.
Which one governs your claim is determined by your employer, not by the location of the accident. Two people injured in the same incident on the same site can fall under entirely different systems.
- DC Workers' Compensation Act — covers most private-sector employees in the District. Administered by the DC Department of Employment Services.
- Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) — covers civilian employees of the federal government. Administered by the US Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, not by the District.
- Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and the Defense Base Act — cover certain maritime work and some contractors on federal projects abroad.
DC Deadlines — And the One That Catches People Out
Under the DC Workers' Compensation Act, notice must be given to your employer within 30 days of the injury, or within 30 days of realising that your condition is work-related. A formal claim must then be filed within one year. Where an occupational disease develops gradually, the one-year period does not start until you knew, or reasonably should have known, that the condition came from your work (DC Code § 32-1513).
The deadline people most often miss is a different one. A lawsuit against a negligent third party is governed by DC Code § 12-301(8) and must be brought within three years — two years for a wrongful death claim. That is a separate clock running alongside the compensation claim. Filing for workers' compensation does nothing to preserve it, and a worker who spends two years pursuing benefits can find the more valuable claim has quietly expired.
If your employer or their insurer has already refused the claim, see what to do when workers’ compensation is denied.
Claims Beyond Workers' Compensation
Workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against your own employer. It does not shield anyone else. DC Code § 32-1535 expressly preserves claims against third parties whose negligence caused the injury.
This matters more in the District than in most places, because of how work is organised here. A typical DC construction project involves a developer, a general contractor, and a series of specialist subcontractors sharing one congested site. The company whose negligence caused an injury is very often not the injured worker's own employer — which means a claim may be available that workers' compensation does not limit.
Third-party claims can also cover damages workers' compensation does not pay at all, including pain and suffering and the full extent of lost future earnings.
Where Serious Work Injuries Happen in DC
The District has almost no heavy manufacturing, so its pattern of serious work injury differs from a steel or refinery state. The risk here is concentrated in construction, building services and infrastructure work, on dense urban sites where several trades operate in close quarters.
- Falls from scaffolding, ladders and elevated work platforms
- Excavation and trench collapses on constrained city sites
- Crane, hoist and material-handling incidents
- Electrical injuries and arc flash during fit-out and building services work
- Struck-by incidents involving vehicles and plant on congested sites
- Utility, tunnel and underground infrastructure work
- Building maintenance, facilities and janitorial injuries
- Warehouse, loading dock and delivery operations
What Happens When You Contact Us
The first conversation is about working out which system your claim falls under, what deadlines are already running, and whether anyone other than your employer may be responsible. That is usually enough to tell you whether you have something worth pursuing.
There is no charge for that review and no obligation to instruct us afterwards. If we do not think you have a claim, we will tell you.
Before you speak to anyone, it is worth reading what to do after an industrial accident and which evidence matters most — on a construction site in particular, the things that prove a claim tend to disappear within days.
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