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Vicc · 02-06-2007, 06:06 PM

Hi Lil,

and welcome. I know you will find this a great place to drop by. Some useful information and lots of support to get you over the rough spots. Actually, RSD is more potholes than pavement, but you know what I mean.

I was diagnosed in 1996 (but injured in 1995), so we have that in common. And I'm not in Mo, but live only 22 miles from Joplin. Lived in Carthage for a couple of years.

I wish I could offer you some useful information today, and believe I will in the next few months, but I'm going to use your post (and your experience) to try to provide something useful for some people.

There are lawyers who only represent worker's comp claimants: they come in two types, the ones that advertise on TV and only want a quick settlement for as little work as possible; and the good ones.

The good ones know the system (so do the bad ones; they use it to make a quick buck at the worker's expense).

The good ones know that they have to be in it for the long haul; that they could make more money fixing traffic tickets or getting drunk drivers off, but they care. I was lucky, I got a really great good one.

She laid out the ground rules the first time I met with her: "I can die on any hill you choose, but if you're smart you'll let me do my job". I let her do her job.

After a while, I saw that she was on my side and she knew what she was doing. That allowed me to stop thinking about what I should do. Stop worrying about doing something wrong.

My work comp ordeal lasted five years and involved a w.c. whore who wrote that I was not only faking this injury, but I had been faking a 1979 wc injury too.

We had several hearings. We had to fight for every test and treatment and fight to make them start paying me again. We won every fight. All of the facts were on our side: the MRI's, the Ct scan, the EMG; everything. But I've known others who had the facts on their side and still got screwed.

If you are fighting work comp you need a lawyer who doesn't do anything but fight work comp. The judges know them, they see them all the time, and if they know they are rigidly honest, that counts. Sometimes. Work comp judges are appointed by the governor, and if he/she is part of the party of privelege, you are still in an uphill fight.

Even these judges are not as corrupt when they are dealing with one of the good ones. They know that a fighter will take an appeal to the Appeals Court; and judges hate to be reversed. It makes them look bad.

My lawyer got everything we needed, and even more than that: they had to make it part of the settlement that they couldn't fire my neurosurgeon (I recently wrote a post describing what a great guy he is), and if he prescribed something, they have to pay for it. If they refuse, she can get another hearing, and THEY have to pay her - win or lose.

So far they've paid for a power and a manual chair; a lift for my car, and a wheelchair ramp. Plus years of prescriptions. They don't even suspect it yet, but after they pay for my intrathecal pump and my power hospital bed, they are in for a shock.

My lawyer is absolutely sure they will have to pay for that new handicapped equipped van I've been looking at. We may have to have a hearing on that one, but she's sure we'll win. She hasn't lost yet.

Get the best lawyer you possibly can. Get one of the good work comp lawyers. If you find one and he/she starts using dirty words like "settle" for less than 100%, start looking for another lawyer; you didn't get a good one...Vic