Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

My case has started and I have a worker's comp lawyer for hernias. I kept getting really bsd hernias from the heavy lifting at my job. I also have shoulder pain due to a fall. I went in to see my lawyer and got sent to a QME he sided with me only for the fall and denied my case for hernias. After the QME meeting my lawyer called and told me I would have to have surgery for my shoulder in order to proceed with my case otherwise my case will be dropped. Is this true my case will be dropped if I don't go through with the surgery? What coulf be a reason my hernias were denied. I have had to have 3 hernia repairs within the last 5 years and my last repair was the riskiest?


Asked on 9/30/18, 10:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Nancy Wallace Nancy Wallace Atty at Law

WEIRD attorney!!! WHy are hernias denied?? Because the adjuster was told by the employer to deny the hernia claims then go out and find some evidence that the hernias were pre-existing or caused by events outside employment. The Labor Code lets insurers do this, your Assemblywoman and State SEnator put in the Labor Code they can do this to their voters, and the voters shrug and re-elect these losers. It appears this QME wrote that your hernias are NOT related to employment, and this attorney you hired agrees with this QME and will not object to his findings nor set his deposition and present him with questions showing the hernias ARE related to employment. YOUR CASE WILL NOT BE 'DROPPED' BY THE STATE if you decline shoulder surgery. Instead, that QME physician will write you are at Maximum Medical Improvement with almost no permanent disability, maybe 3-4 % Impairment for pain. The attorney doesn't not want to continue with a case where he gets just 15% of the 3% permanent disability finding, as it's hours of work for a few hundred dollars.

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Answered on 10/01/18, 11:52 am


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