Legal Question in Workers Comp in California
I am an injured worker from California. The courts ordered future medical treatment. The county I worked for has not covered any medical bills for 8 years. My attorney would like me to settle case for $40,000.00 and release the county of any future medical bills. My husband is retired military and has full medical benefits. They have covered my medical bills for the last 8 years. However, if I decide to take the money the federal government would like $6,000.00 to cover prior medical bills. I believe my attorney started the negotiating process to low. Also, we almost lost our medical coverage because my attorney wanted to ignore the federal government. I am scheduled for a partial knee replacement in two weeks. My husbands insurance will cover it. I will have major medical bills in the future. I may have to have to a full knee replacement in 10-20 years. My attorney refuses to return my calls. I am looking for another attorney that will help negotiate a better settlement? Should I go through the partial knee replacement or have to wait ?
2 Answers from Attorneys
When you have the knee replacement seems to be a question of the degree of your pain and your physician's opinion of when it should be done. I do not know that it would have any effect on the settlement of your medical treatment or rights.
You must determine for sure that your husband's medical plan will definitely cover you for any future medical treatment even though this is a WC injury. What if he dies, you divorce, etc.? only if you are positive that you can get treatment for the injury elsewhere should you settle the WC case. You need a Dr. to estimate, considering medical treatment cost inflation [much greater than normal inflation] and your own life expectancy, what the likely cost of future medical care will be reduced by a conservative rate of return on the invested sum. That is the figure you should use as a settlement goal. Not knowing what that figure is, I have no idea if your attorney started too low or not. My guess would be that it is to low as you will likely need another replacement i 10-15 years.
Write an e-mail to your attorney stating you demand to know the thinking behind his demand, his failure to return your calls shakes your confidence in him, why should you not fire him and get another attorney?
I forgot to add that your employer should be subject to a penalty for delay in medical payments.
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