Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

You need to file a WCAB application and claim at a worker's compensation board and immediately request for benefits. If employer is not taking you back, they have to pay you temporary disability benefits and you need to continue your medical treatment. I strongly recommend you to retain an attorney to receive your benefits, continued medical treatment and a settlement for your permanent disability and future medical treatment. Feel free to call us at 213.388.7070 for a free consultation.

Your Employer is based in this other state? and you were injured in this other state? Are we dealing with CALIFORNIA Labor Code, or the code of the state in which that employer is located?

IF IT"S CALIFORNIA: you WRITE/FAX the CALIFORNIA workers comp insurance carrier (yeah, it's likely a PO box in kentucky or illinois, but they're actually here in state) and DEMAND TOTAL TEMPORARY DISABILITY payments because the employer refuses light work.

In California, when an employer fails to provide light work, the insurance carrier owes TOTAL TEMPORARY DISABILITY payments... 2/3 of your average weekly earnings.

BE CAREFUL: when its California, the only 'admissible' evidence is from the Treating Doctor on the insurer's MEDICAL PROVIDER NETWORK. The insurance adjuster gets to ignore notes and reports and findings of non-MPN doctors (like your personal physician).

That out-of-state ER Doc's findings MIGHT be followed by the insurance adjuster, ... but might not. If the adjuster sent you the notices that you are forced to choose treatment from the MPN -- medical provider network -- YOU have the responsibility to go get a report from the MPN doctor as to partial disability or total disability, and ASAP.

PROBLEM: 90% of the MPN doctors are jerks, complete jerks. THAT's why the insurer put them on the list. 90% of those jerks will send you back to full duty with no restrictions and declare you totally healed when you are not...

...SO YOU MUST SELECT AN MPN PHYSICIAN EXTREMELY CAREFULLY.

THAT's where a certified specialist attorney is essential. A certified specialist passed an extra bar exam just in workers comp laws. They complete extra education just in new workers' comp regulations, but the COST EXACTLY THE SAME AS NON-SPECIALIST.