Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

The first thing your wife needs to do is tell her employer about her injury, and ask that they send her for medical treatment. Beware however, because most employers will send the injured worker to industrial clinics where the care is half-baked, and they try to blow off the injured worker as quickly as possible.

The next step would be to contact me for a free consult at 1.818.385.0520, and/or go to my website at www.lupofflaw.com.

She has a cumulative-trauma type of injury that happended due to repetitive work. over some time She needs to be referred to an injured-worker oriented doctor who offers decent treatment and take her off work and request for temporary benefits if necessary. Feel free to call us at 213.388.7070 for a free consultation.

A PRIVATE Doctor appointment is a complete waste, because your private health insurance does NOT cover work-related injuries.

If that doctor treats her knee, his bills to your insurer will state this is "NOT" employment-related so that he can get paid (his staff will check 'not' employment-related on every claim even though she told the doctor about work causing the strain )

She needs to hand the employer (or fax, if she's shy or afraid) an Employee Claim Form for Occupational INjury. She needs to INSIST on treatment, immediately.

They can say 'wait' or 'no' but she needs to be able to tell a judge later she made crystal clear this was a work injury and she expected treatment immediately.

If she can locate that 'poster' or notice stating what to do in the event of a work injury, THAT has the Workers' Compensation Insurance company info on it. SHE SHOULD GIVE THE CLAIM FORM AND A WRITTEN NOTE REQUESTING TREATMENT to that insurance company (a fax is the best way) as soon as possible.

If the employer fails to refer her to treatment, a Certified Specialist Attorney can.

You want to choose a specialist because they charge exactly the same as non-specialists but they passed an extra bar exam just in workers' comp and they must complete education in new comp issues every year.

The attorney can find a helpful doctor on the insurer's approved list (instead of just shucking her off to a chiropractor, not too good on knees), so that when the insurance adjuster sees she has a report from a Medical Provider Network doctor finding a work injury and partial disability, she'll be much more likely to accept the claim and pay benefits than if she gets a report from an unknown chiropractor.