How many attorneys do I need?

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ToniB

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I have been in the W/C system for over 3 yrs now. I had to dismiss my short-lived represented relationship w/a good for nothing, lying, manipulative atty. By doing so has made me learn how much there is to learn on everyone's part. I 1st learned today, from the Dept. Of Insurance website, that State Farm the W/C carrier, changed carriers as of 9/1/13. I have yet to be told by the ins. atty. or their new carrier, Republic Indemnity. I noticed that the employer has a new address, but the ins. carrier nor atty. has informed me or the WCAB. Since finding that out today, it makes more sense now why the insurer kept forwarding my treatment requests to their UR co. - who's been denying everything, instead of approving things in house - that's a whole norther situation, but that's also the reason why the ins. atty. is trying to force me to settle when I'm not even 1/2 way cured. To just lay it out to give an indication why I feel more than 1 attorney MIGHT be necessary;
1) I got injured on 9/29/2010 (3 yrs later in the same month they decided to change carriers) helping unpack & repack a big shipment; (2) UPS trucks worth, of hand held mirrors for the Moeshe show, or something. I & the WCAB in Riverside haven't received anything in the last few months giving us info. of the new mailing address as tthey are legally obligated to do. By not keeping everyone up to date on such info., especially one like me who is Pro Per, on some occasions, the WCAB mails court docs for me to the address on file. Just recently the atty. mailed something to the employers address on file w/the court, but I have to think that they know of the move since the change was on Sept 1st, 3 weeks prior to the 3 years, in hopes that the new carrier hasn't been informed of my injury. More about my injuries, but trying to make this short & to the point.
2) When I filed a complaint w/OSHA regarding the working conditions & no employment postings what so ever, the employers Corp atty replied by lying that no one works out of the warehouse. It's simply a storage room for merchandise, although I took pics to the contrary. Guess the employer didn't tell their atty. about my injury a few months prior. The atty stated the required safety posters should've been in just 7-10 days. That was satisfactory to OSHA. But they also believed the other legally required postings & working conditions needed to be seen 1st hand. But the case was closed. Since I was receiving W/C benefits, no one needed to do much at that pointt, so I was told. I did however, call last week to see if anyone had followed up to see a wall of posters if even by pictures sent by email. The OSHA rep. wasn't concerned until I questioned if the employer had ever reported my injuries. He said they hadn't but if I didn't stay @ least 24 hrs/overnight for care, which shows my injurues to be more than a band aide, then they should go out to investigate. I was transferred to someone else to talk to, but haven't followed thru yet. I am getting a little tired of doing other people's jobs who are supposed to be looking out for the injured workers.
3) Because the employer & carrier didn't have an MPN, I was able to see whatever Dr I wanted & the old adjuster would approve everything. W/out any employer posting any required posters or giving handouts of employee rights, the employer is considered non-insured. Meaning everything is paid out of pocket as the bills come thru. Up until Feb of this yr, I have been able to get everything done w/out any problems. There are labor codes, Gov to reference, but I'm leaving them out for now..
4) There are numerous violations according to the utilization review agency, the adjuster, both of the atty's, insurance fraud , as in underreported payroll & misclassifying employees to get a lower ex-mod, billings that aren't true yet the employer will have to pay for it, Commercial Auto by not adding drivers to their insurance.
5) Various other W/C, Ins., health & safety, QME fraud medical reports, medical malpractice, which he has many in San Bernardino Court, & if I can, I'm ready to see what recourse I have against the WCAB! I have found that I can not trust anyone working for the system & am tired of the way I get yelled at on the phone & am given very incorrect information from I & A officers
In the past 3 yrs I have endured a shouler surgery, a neck fusion in 2 levels which is worse than before surgery & nneeds repairing yet nothing is getting done, a bone scan of my neck in September that showed 2 other levels that need fusion, attempted to end it all from the pain, lies, frustration & in mobility.
Can you please let me know if I need 1 lawyer for different things I am going through? If so, I need one to act on my part because I am physically & emotionally drained!
Thank you,
ToniB.
 
You might want to get your own attorney (WC attorney) & run your complete situation by him/her & see what the attorney says & go from there.
 
Medical malpractice is an entirely different animal. A bad result does NOT equate to malpractice unfortunately back and neck surgeries have a much larger fail rate than most other types of surgery.

Please don't take this the wrong way - but it's extremely unlikely that everyone else is at fault. Medical fraud reports? Again that is extremely unlikely.
 
Thank you for the advice, but I just can't go through the headache of another attorney. Plus where I live there aren't too many local enough for me to see. Not that I should have to see an atty once established, but I learned from the last one, who used another atty's office in town for the initial appt.,that an office environment is a reflection of the person. When I picked up my file @ his real office, let's just say there's no wonder why he asked for the deposition fee only a few weeks after. Close to $600 is a little steep for one who just sat there & learned about my claim during the depo. I'm sure there's good one's out there, but this one not realizing how much of the way a W/C claim should be handled when an employer fails to: post W/C info. (along w/every other posting & pamphlets for employees re State & Federal), give an IW the DWC form & info. of the carrier, filing the injury & illness form to inform OSHA of the injury, not submitting my pay info. from the request of the adjuster or any other legally required actions, not only makes the claim a non-insured status, but he could've made a bit more income if he "listened" & found on own what I did 3 yrs later. This is why I question if I should get different atty's for each legal claim or "class". Aren't there offices that have a plethora of atty's under 1 roof? I appreciate any input.
 
I totally understand your disbelief in what I'm writing. I too can not believe how I've treated during the whole ordeal. I've been an Office Mgr./Bookkeeper for over 20 yrs & have always tried to do my job in honest, careful, legally abiding ways. If anything were to happen to cause a co. to be found committing illegal activity, I believed that I would be the one responsible. I go a little overbooard when making sure all persons do what is required. & I make sure what I say is true & can show proof if needed. Even if I am wrong. Which is why I thought the people of the State would do the same.

I believed Dr.'s would especially conduct themselves in a manner that is required of them. They have a lot on the line, after many years & money invested in themselves, to waste it away by trying to get away with conducting fraudulent exams & reports. Although I told my atty that I didn't want to see the same QME my husband did 4 yrs prior, his name was on the list w/9ne who was on probation. So of course the defense struck him off leaving the same QME I had requested not to see. I never even got a copy of the panel prior to the choosing which was frustrating because the 2 last Dr.'s were affiliated the w/the same medical group. The QME has come up on 3 diff panels. & he's retired only doing medical-legal evals.

We experienced the Dr. to be very quick in his exams. Both of our supposed P & S exams were at the most 20 min. None of the required forms were given to us for the evaluation. One in particular showed we had very little problems doing our daily activities, although for me, 6 months prior when I was given a questionaire, I showed most activities were very hard to do. My husband's 1st pg. was forged w/someone else's writing in order to show the date was different, but the forger wrote the wrong mailing address.

With a failed fusion which he agreed it would need surgery to correct it, I can't see how 6 months later I'm good to go. Nothing had been done at all since I was getting diagnostics for my back while my neck was still in recovery. The Dr. stated in both of our reports using an inclometer 3 times as required. The only thing he did was run the pin prick tool on our numb areas. He overbilled for the time face to face, claimed he wrote a supplemental report but no one ever received a copy. The clincher is hearing 1st hand from a court rep. that she knows who the Dr. is by name because he never submits his reports as he was taught per IMC (?) standards. But instead of the court sending them back for corrections, as found by law, the court shreds them. Either he knows that, or he honestly has been thinking for the past 5 yrs his reports are done as necessary. It's clear his reports haven't been audited by the Medical Unit or CA.

I'm not sure if it's a court problem w/the Medical Unit or the CA, maybe even a judge, who admittedly signed off on a rating by the DEU w/out looking at the reports they supposedly verified the rating was correct. Maybe the judges are so busy that by the time they are asked for a signature, they hope all the people prior did their job so all he/she needs to do is sign. The look on one judges face @ a status conv. when he saw his signature on the DEU form for my husbands claim (I'm his non-attorney rep) was of disbelief when he tried to pull up the medical reports & they were no where to be found. The I & A officer said the same thing when I asked her to see if she could find them. The defense abruptly ended the meeting when that time came. I told him they weren't going to be found on the way to her office. The settlement for my husband's claim is being disputed because the QME lied in a report stating he saw x-rays. But they are no where to be found. By law he is to retain the x-rays for an amt. of time, but for some reason, since he saw them last year when he made his last report, he not only ignored my request to get a copy or loan them to me so I can let the other Dr.'s who disagree w/his findings look at them, but even the defense atty. has now become very quiet since seeing why my husband is not going forward until the QME raises the causation to match the other 2 Dr.'s in agreement that his employment caused his injury more than a minor preexisting back condition.

So is the reason for my distrust of the system & now don't know how to handle the situation at hand that the employer has switched insurers 2 months ago, hasn't told me, isn't paying my Dr.'s so I can't see them, no contact with the old insurer what so ever & there's an MSC in 6 weeks. While I'm lying in bed for the past 2 days since I can barely walk. No one @ WCAB took the time to investigate the workers comp coverage I had asked for in my Objection to the MSC in which I did in 5 min & found the info. & up in arms in stress by being neglected physically, mentally & financially.

Thank you Proserpena for your reply. Any suggestions or comments are welcomed.
 
I think you're misunderstanding a lot of things.

You can request that your medical records reflect an addition (made by you, or another physician) - but legally they cannot remove the erroneous information completely.

A mistake does not equate to malpractice necessary; the burden of proof is very very high and it's up to the patient to prove their case, not the doctors to defend the allegation. It appears that you don't have a med-mal case.

The expectation that a physician must spend a certain amount of time during a visit is just not reasonable; if the physician believes that the issue is addressed s/he can terminate the appointment at any stage.

You're entitled to see your records of course; but the x-ray films themselves are not your property. For this reason alone they can charge you for an actual copy.

A judge doesn't have to read the entire case from page to page; I'd guess that the judge does not have anything approaching medical knowledge so reading medical records would typically be the job of the attorney/s and/or their medical experts.

I strongly recommend you speak with other attorneys; we cannot provide the in-depth investigation needed, on a message board.
 
If you want to continue to pursue, about your only option would be to talk to another attorney/attorneys. Don't be surprised if they don't see a case. You can certainly see what they say.
 
cbg said:
If you want to pay for multiple attorneys, it's your money.
Click to expand...
Good point! Never thought of that. Does this Forum or website allow users to refer attorney's? I'd feel better being referred by someone who's hired an attorney w/a great or close to great outcome. & since the defense attorney & adjuster don't know that I know what they did & still doing, how do I wisely get treatment or see my Dr since no one wants to reply at this point? I have my own ins. which has an open acct. for my claims when I need to use them for the W/C medications or ER visits but I can't fully grasp the whole picture of both sides. The I & A officer said I can request an expedited hearing for medical treatment. Or do I tell everyone I know what's up & since the employer isn't a self-insured co., the new carrier is now the insurer right? I can't even find a law or regulation pertaining to the situation to see how the process of switching insurance co.'s while still under the "care" of the old one is supposed to be processed. But I'm pretty sure since the employer isn't self-insured that the way they did things weren't the right way. Also, it's been over 2 months since I requested the IMR for help w/a denial of benefits & past 15 days for the adjuster to send them & me a copy of the past yr of medical records. Can a defense atty call the IMR agency & tell them not to process my request? As long as they can't say they've come to a conclusion which is when they have a certain time to let me know, it appears that they can sit on it. But for 3 medications that have already been approved by both the adjuster & QME & it's just for refills? I've seen on the DIR website the other decisions processed & not only w/out any past medical reports, but also within 3 weeks! Crazy I tell ya!
 
You might call your local or state bar assoc. for a referral to an appropriate attorney (or attorneys).
 
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