If this sounds like a fun game to any of you out there, help me play. I will come back and update on the results.

Long story short. I had an injury at work almost two years ago. I had two surgeries neither fixed the problem. I have been diagnosed with RSD with a positive bone scan. I have all symptoms from just above the left knee down to my foot. I have been cut off of allbenefits. No meds, no doc, no money. I saw an Independent doc (IME), who said, "amazing! he is healed. There is nothing wrong anymore". Not necessarily like this I guess. He says nothing wrong. I know that there is something wrong. Several other doctors I have gone to know something is wrong.

So to counteract and trump the insurance IME, the attorney sends me to a IME of his own. He does exactly what we expected and agreed with my other doctors. That is were we are.

Now the issue. My lawyer is trying to settle in the letter he sent to worker's comp. I am going to meet with him tomorrow to clarify exactly what is going on. I have only spoken to his paralegal once in the last couple of months and not spoken to him at all. I need help.

Tomorrow I will go into his office with a list of questions and will expect some rather detailed answers. Obviously, he should have thought this step through in depth before attempting to get a settlement from the insurance company with informing me of the details first. Hopefully he has because I will be prepared. I am a member of other RSD groups and have compiled a list of questions to ask him. This is where you here come in to play. If you would like to help me "ATTACK THE ATTORNEY" please join in. Any questions that you think I should ask, please let me know. Anything that you may have been blindsided by in you own case. I am having trouble focussing lately. Anything will help. Thanks alot, J.

I don't have RSD, but another chronic condition that is very hard to "prove" to wc. {TOS/RSI}

Things I found out along the wc trail

Don't trust atty to do what is in your best interest for the long term {quick settlement means quick money for their % of "work" on your case but may leave you needing more help after your % is gone}

Be sure to find one that is very good and has a good staff {organized office, professional etc}

Get copies or everything for your own records and keep them organized.

Read on the WC forums and sites for other details and tips before you run into problems.

I agree with Joe55. I ran into almost the same issue as you did. I had an attorney that tried to get it over pretty fast. What I did since mine is also a work comp case is see if there was any other attorney out there that is good and thinks you have a very good case and fight for YOU. I had to search hard for my attorney but I finally found one. Refuse to sign anything unless you approve of it. If the attorney settles out without your approval then that attorney is in trouble. My last attorney that I had I turned him into the ethics group cuz he was also doing sexual harrassment on me. He would send me emails and I would print them off as well as make sure I responded if necessary and print that off as well. He got a slap on the hand but before that he ended up firing me and said he had lost my file in 3 days. He as well emailed this to me and I printed it out. I did find myself another attorney thank god he is a great one. It took me four years to settle out,but the attorney let me know everything that they were willing to give me and the biggest thing that stuck out to me is that they were going to leave my medical as far as rsd opened for the rest of my life. I didn't care about the money cuz I can't get health insurance due to my rsd so if they were willing to pay for my rsd and that includes every thing then I was willing to take the deal instead of go to trial and take the chance on losing the open file. Well guess what that settlement took place a year ago this summer and they are still not paying for every thing so we have to go back after them again. As far as the other attorney he had tried to put a lean on my settlement when he had gotten some money in the past so we are also suing him. He was trying to put ungodly amounts of money on what I supposedly owed him like triple charging me for things already paid for and almost $400 an hour that he spent on the case and there was never any hrly agreement for him. Since he did this we had to hold $5300 in a trust for about 6 months til he finally gave up cuz we kept bothering him. But we are still suing him for a ton of things. My attorney gave me a rough draft of what we are suing this other attorney for. So I think in my opinion I would try to get a new attorney and fire the old one. Who knows you might have a case against him as well. My attorney told me that he has some cases that they are going against attorneys for the exact thing you just descibed here. So what do you have to lose. Ask around your area to people you trust about a good attorney if you don't know of any. All I did was open my phone book to the yellow pages and just got lucky. I usually don't get that lucky. But check the other attorneys out just DON'T let the other attorney know until you find one you think you will like and make sure if you do have to settle out make sure it is done without prejudice. Then you can possibly be able to reopen your work comp case up and resue them as well. The one only thing I can say is HANG ON FOR A RIDE! It can pretty bumpy for a while. Hope this information helps. I am still going through tons of pain and still fighting work comp and the other attorney. Good luck in all you do and the decisions you need to make. If you ever have an questions you think I might be able to help with please just ask and I will do my best. GOOD LUCK!

Sincerely,
Tracy(screwballpookie)

I had pretty much the same thing happen to me. All wc docs are paid by them and they say whatever they're told to say. In florida there is no lifetime medical so it really didn't matter when I settled out. They weren't going to give me enough to ever last me for long anyway. The lawyer should not have started as low as he did though. First bid was 80K and after that you can only go down, not up.

I settled a year and a half after it began. They figured my case at settlement by totaling up the amount they spent on my case to that point, then figured how much money they would spend over the next year. I suppose that gave them some kind of "base" amount. *shrugs* It's all stupid if you ask me. We bantered back and forth finally settling on an amount. I was pretty desperate as we had gotten 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and had lost everything, just about, that we owned and were homeless.

If this lawyer isn't doing what's best for you though, don't hesitate to find another lawyer and fire this one! Settling is always an individual decision based on your own case factors. Is it worth fighting for? Only you can answer that one.

Since I'm not sure what kinds of questions you're all set to ask him I'm not sure what to add. Just thought I'd put out what I went through, a little.

Hugs,

Karen

Karen,

What a moving story. I am sorry that you had to go through all that/this mess. I am sorry for anyone going through this. I have been borrowing money to keep afloat. I know what you are saying.

Someone on the other forum, today, found out that they had had a death in their family. I think you and I can both agree that, even though it is awful, this disease has made us stronger people and really put life itself into perspective. It makes us stronger if we are willing to see through the pain to the overall appreciation for what we do have.

Best wishes and thank you for the response.
J.

I totally agree! I know I was a strong person before this crud came into my life but I KNOW I'm stronger now. I dealt with the death of 3 different people in my first year with rsd. I didn't know them personally, in real life, just online. I met them in a couple of rsd groups I was in back then. I came to know them well enough though and cried my heart out. 2 of the 3 chose to say goodbye on their own terms because they had just had enough. We lost a great member on this board not so long ago due to illness. Yup.....life is very precious and we must know, really know life is too short so don't let anything keep you from having hope and most of all from just living. *so ends Karen's life lesson of the day*

Let your girl's success carry over into you striving to get what you deserve no matter what, even if that means firing a lawyer who only cares about $$$$$ and not you. That particular thing is the way I look at doc's too but that's another rant. LOL

Hugs,

Karen

Please see my "bio" on the introductions page

I need not say anything else

Boy oh boy. What a day I had on Wednesday. To make an hour long blah blah blah fest a short story, I will tell it like this. As many of you know, I have spent the last week or so preparing for this meeting. I am the type of person who NEEDS to be informed. I have spent time on the internet, on this page, on several forums, and on the phone with several people from this site(you know who you are and again I thank you) and elsewhere. I spent several hours typing all of my questions in an organized manner and also typing an addendum to the IME report given by the insurance company's doctor. I was prepared and I was not going to forget anything so long as I had it on paper, right?

My wife took me to meet the attorney (the list has the questions I could think of before hand and my wife has the questions I should think of while in the meeting, I can't seem to think or speak very clearly at times). We arrived at five minutes before the meeting is supposed to start and tell the receptionist about the appointment. "Wait here for just a minute. I'll go back and tell him you're here." So we wait. Ten minutes pass and she directs us to the conference room where we sit. Ten more minutes the door opens. Again the receptionist, "He wants to speak with you for a minute." I think 'this is odd, because I would like to speak to him too. That is kinda why I scheduled a meeting with him'. She picks up the phone and hands it to me.

Now I don't know what all of your impressions were, but I was under the impression that 'let me go back and get him' meant that he was back in his office. Not let me go back and get him on the phone. After a quick attempt to, 'lets just chat really quick on the phone', I averted. He tells me that he was leaving court and running late, which I later caught him contradicting himself by saying that he was at home. All on my recorder by the way. Over an hour later the meeting finally started.

To sum it all up, I will tell you what happened in the first two minutes, the rest was alot more of this. I started by handing him a copy of the list of questions that I had compiled. As he was flipping through the pages (not caring about the text on them was made rather obvious) I started with point number one.

"In the time since I hired you over a year ago, I have talked to you two times totalling less than an hour. I have made all contact with the paralegal and spoken with her for 20 minutes total. You told me the last time we spoke and I quote 'from here on out we will be walking in LOCKSTEP'".

He paused for a moment and stumbled over the papers for a second before saying, "okay, here's the problem Jeremy.... Uh, at some point in your treatment you were going to treat with a different doctor, you wanted to switch doctors. You wanted to treat with Dr. Lockstadt. (puzzled, I looked at him and told him no) You were going to treat with Dr Lockstadt! (no?) Somehow, between you and your doctor and your nurse case manager you were wanting to treat with Dr. Lackstot. (I inform him that that is the first time I had ever heard that name in my life, my wife concurs) Look, if you didn't..........well, I might be confusing you with someone else (he flips through some of his file) Well then, why did you bring up Dr. Lackstop?(I say "I didn't.") Yes, you just did bring him up and I am wondering why. (again but more harshly to get the point across this time, "NO! I DID NOT!!) Okay well let's just go on to the next question then....."

Are you thinking WOW like I was? Now I listen to this blah blah blah for nearly and hour and like this I could not get him to answer the questions that I had taken time to organize and type. fifty minutes in, he puts the list in my file and scoots back from the table. I sit in astonishment at the nerve of this guy. He says that he has another meeting and begins to bring the meeting to an end. My blood is boiling at this point and I'm trying to contain myself. I simply forced myself up out of my chair and stumble forward a little when he says, "I've got your best interest at hand (this as I stumble forward and he pats me on the shoulder) Trust me Old Man. Ha ha ha." I didn't find this too funny and figured that it was in my best interest to leave right then (before I end up in jail).

I leave and am in some pretty bad pain from all the stress of the situation. I get to my destination and kick back on the couch at my cousin's house down the road from my own. I thought the original acusations of Dr lachstadt was unreal so I decided to let my cousin hear it. We listen to the first two minutes of the recording.

I don't know if anyone reading this caught it in the text but I didn't catch it in real life. Remember his quote that I quoted to him in the first question" walking in LOCKSTEP"? Anyone want to tell me why I brought up seeing Dr Lachstadt, Dr Lochstadt, Dr Lackstot, Dr Lackstop?

Anyone know what I am financially liable for when I find a new attorney and let him know that I am no longer in need of his services?

oh man, sounds like he just is aiming for his % of the payoff!

check your state website wc section and see the rules or info on changing attys. he is a work comp atty right? not a general /personal atty.
The state website should also have a ombudsman or something for wc, you can contact them help & ask questions.

kind of like the one I had - "oh I'll do it all for you" NOT!!
unorganized, never a straight answer to the few questions I asked...

I should have wised up and got a better dr & a better atty.
But hindsight is always .. ya know how that saying goes..