Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

Permanent Disability in the highest-rated medical report (either the Treating PHysician's P&S Report or the Panel Qualified Medical Evaluator's P&S report)...

Take the dollar-value of the highest rated report, add on about $10,000-$15,000 for each significant medical procedure forecast in your future medical treatment assessment in each report (injections, surgery, lifetime therapy, lifetime pain management).

Then add to that overdue Temporary Disability payments you expected but never got (assuming the Treating Physician actually wrote to the adjuster that you were Totally Temporarily Disabled but the adjuster never paid).

Then add in about $10,000 to give up your rights to reopen for possible "New & Further Disability" should this get seriously worse in the next 4 years (you cannot re-open a case closed with a Compromise & RElease Agreement, so if you get worse, you're on your own).

If you did not go back to the pre-injury job and you lost your job, add in $5000-8000 for the Supplemental Job Displacement Voucher (unless you will really use it for a good school).

So it would look like this:

Perm Disability at 20% = $17,365

Pain Management = $15,000

Likely Surgery = $15,000

physical therapy rights = $10,000

Prescription med rights = $15,000

New & Further disabl = $10,000

Surrender Displacemnt Voucher = $4,000

DEMAND = $86,365

THEN DECIDE .... IF THE INSURER OFFERS YOU JUST $50,000, DO YOU TAKE IT?? Pick your 'bottom-line' number and stick to it, just keep saying 'no thanks' to numbers below your bottom-line number. might take you 18 months of saying 'no thanks' and you might have to go to trial... many many times, the morning of trial, the Workers Comp judge will 'advise' the defense attorney to go get more money and the offer becomes much more attractive.

Of course, you can see you would do better with an attorney...given you haven't any basis to demand any of these items and your don't know their value.