Irvine sits in Orange County, but its ZIP codes do not all lead to the same state workers’ comp office. Of the Irvine ZIP codes we entered in the locator of the state Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) in October 2026, eight returned the Santa Ana district office at 2 MacArthur Place (92602, 92603, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92618 and 92620), and one returned Riverside.
Our office is in Newport Beach, which borders Irvine, at 4695 MacArthur Court, and the firm takes only workers’ compensation cases for injured workers.
The Santa Ana office for Irvine cases
Irvine cases filed in Santa Ana go to the Santa Ana district office at 2 MacArthur Place, Suite 600, Santa Ana, CA 92707-7704. The main line is 714-558-4121.
The office’s Information and Assistance (I&A) unit, at 714-942-7576, mainly serves workers who do not have a lawyer. By train, the DWC points to Metrolink’s Santa Ana Station, on the Inland Empire-Orange County and Orange County lines, about four miles from the office.
One Irvine ZIP code returns Riverside
The same locator returned the Riverside district office, at 3737 Main Street in Riverside, for Irvine’s 92617, and the DWC’s downloadable ZIP list shows the same assignment as of October 2026.
For a worker who lives in 92617 and was hurt in Irvine, the Labor Code’s first two venue tests both point to Orange County. We check the filing office against the statute, not only the ZIP list, before an application goes in.
Live in one county, work in Irvine?
Labor Code section 5501.5 lets a commuter file the Application for Adjudication of Claim, the form that starts a case before a workers’ comp judge, in the home county on the filing date or in the county of the injury, which for an injury that built up over time means the county of the last injurious exposure. A worker who lives in San Bernardino County and was hurt at an Irvine job could file in either county on those two tests alone. A lawyer adds a third option, the county of the lawyer’s principal place of business, and that is the one choice the employer may object to within 30 days.
A university at the top of Irvine’s employer list
With 28,546 employees, the University of California, Irvine is the largest employer in the City of Irvine’s financial report for the year ended June 30, 2024. Peraton State and Local and the Irvine Unified School District come next, followed by Edwards Lifesciences, Blizzard Entertainment, Olsson, B. Braun Medical, The Haskell Company, Western Digital Technologies and Panasonic Avionics.
Whichever of them a worker is employed by, the DWC’s guidebook says the employer pays for medical care for a work injury, through an insurance policy or by being self-insured, and the claims administrator pays the medical bills.
How we handle Irvine cases
The first look is at what the worker already has: the DWC-1 claim form, the claims administrator’s letters and the medical reports, including any utilization review (UR) decision on a treatment request.
If the firm takes the case and the client lives in 92617, the first decision is which office the application names, since the ZIP list and the statute point different ways. From there the work is the deadlines, the qualified medical evaluator (QME) process when the medical findings are disputed, and the conferences and trials, where we appear for the client.
What we handle
- Denied workers’ comp claim, for a claim turned down or left undecided
- UR and IMR denials, including a challenge through independent medical review (IMR)
- Temporary disability, the weekly checks while recovering
- Permanent disability
- QME evaluations
- SJDB voucher and return to work, the retraining voucher for a worker who does not go back to the employer
- Medical treatment and MPN doctors, including a personal physician predesignated before the injury
