This guide covers a workers compensation claim end to end, for the injured worker, the employer, and the practitioner who handles either side. It begins with who is covered and who is not, and why misclassification is the most common coverage dispute. It works through notice and filing deadlines, the two-part compensability test, and the medical architecture that decides most cases. It explains the benefit categories in detail, including how the average weekly wage is computed and why errors in it compound. It sets out the dispute process from denial through administrative hearing to judicial review, the rules governing settlement approval, and the liens and offsets that reduce a gross number to a net one. Separate parts address occupational disease, the federal compensation systems, employer compliance obligations, and retaliation. It closes with the errors that recur most often on both sides.