Workplace Assault by a Customer: Rights and Risks

Attorney Answer

Yes — workers' compensation is very likely the route for your injuries, and there may be a separate claim against the two people who beat you. But because you struck someone, speak with a criminal-defense lawyer before you describe the fight to anyone.

An injury a worker suffers on the job, from a customer, is generally a work injury. California Labor Code § 3602(a) makes workers' compensation the sole and exclusive remedy an employee has against the employer where the conditions of compensation are met. That is not a door closing on you. It is the reason your route runs through the workers' compensation system rather than a lawsuit against the store, and that system pays for medical treatment and lost wages without your having to prove anyone was negligent.

Exclusivity protects your employer. It does not protect the customer or his friend. They are third parties, and a claim against them for the beating sits outside the workers' compensation system entirely. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 provides: "Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another."

The fact that you hit him cuts in two directions. Civil Code § 50 provides: "Any necessary force may be used to protect from wrongful injury the person or property of oneself, or of a spouse, child, parent, or other relative, or member of one's family, or of a ward, servant, master, or guest." Being blocked from leaving and having someone reach for your phone is the kind of fact self-defense turns on. But whether the force used was necessary gets decided afterward by people who were not there, and the same punch can be looked at by police as well as by a claims adjuster. Nothing you say to an adjuster, an investigator or a manager is off the record. Who started the physical part of the fight can also be raised against the workers' compensation claim itself — a separate question, and one to put to a workers' compensation attorney.

What you can do

1. Get medical care now, and tell the provider the injuries happened at work. Treatment records made at the time carry weight later.

2. Tell your employer you were injured at work and need care. You can do that without narrating the fight.

3. Preserve what already exists — store video, the incident report, your damaged property, text messages, and the names of coworkers who saw it. Ask in writing that the store video be saved; those systems overwrite themselves quickly. Do not write out your own account of the fight.

4. Before you give any statement to police, to the customer, or to any insurer or investigator, talk to a local criminal-defense attorney. This is the step to take first if anyone contacts you about what happened.

5. Ask a local workers' compensation attorney to open the claim and to check the reporting and filing deadlines, which are separate from and shorter than the two-year period above.

6. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. A claim against the people who assaulted you runs under Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 and its two-year period. The workers' compensation system runs on its own, shorter deadlines, including a duty to report the injury to your employer promptly (Cal. Lab. Code § 5400). When each clock started depends on your facts — the date of the injury, when you knew the injury was work-related, and what you have already told your employer. Have a local attorney look at the dates now rather than later.