Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

You have an attorney...if the attorney you chose cannot address this so you understand, you picked badly.

Think about insisting IN WRITING that this current attorney explain this so that you can understand, or Dismissing that attorney and Substitution a new attorney who CAN answer these questions... this should have been thoroughly answered by the lawyer prior to you signing any representation forms.

That said, The award all comes down to what the Treating PHysician writes (or what the QME writes) was pre-existing disability and pre-existing Need for Treatment, and what stemmed from the new injury.

If the treater writes that all you problems stem from the 1997 incident and new injury wasn't actually anything new 0 --- just a flareup of the old problem -- you get nothing new, just the same ongoing treatment.

If the treater writes that you wouldn't need this new course of care and the temporary disability wouldnt exist absent the March 2012 incident, then you get Temporary Disability and care.

You get the care an MPN PHysician requests that is within the ACOEM whether it's for the 1997 or the 2012 injury... the doctor should detail which injury he is treating with each procedure, but it won't make much difference.

How you might get some money to survive? YOUR ATTORNEY NEEDED TO MAKE THAT YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY!!! an MPN PHysician must write that the Temporary Disability you have now is 100% the results of the March 2012 incident and then this new attorney gets an Expedited Hearing, and you hope the judge orders the county to pay TTD.