You don't have a lot of time.

I found my first lawyer by referral - a neighbor and fellow parishioner in our church who is a partner in a well known firm called a friend for me. The gentleman he referred me to represented me through 2 surgeries (about 2 years) until the "probable" RSD diagnosis popped up. WC started giving me a hard time and then all of a sudden this guy wasn't on top of things at all, and as a matter of fact his admin asst. was nasty about it. I decided then that I needed to find alternative counsel.

Someone on this board or the WC Board recommended that a way to locate a good WC lawyer is to review the cases that are listed on the WC docket on your State's WC website and compile a list of the lawyer's names from the cases that win. After a while there will be several attornies that emerge as clearly better than others. This is the process I used to find the lawyer that is currently representing me. I lucked out, because his admin assistant is awesome, and she is the one that I deal with all the time when I need help with my WC issues. He has such a giant ego that it is amazing he even fits through his office doorway, but I rarely deal with him (thank God!)

The reason I wrote all that is because I suppose that you could use that same theory to find a good medical malpractice lawyer. Try to find a state site where local med malpractice cases are listed with the legal representatives from each side. Hopefully you might pick up a trend where a few names emerge as potential representatives for you. I then traced the names of the attorneys that I was researching to the yellow pages in the phone book.

Also - consider asking friends and neighbors for referrals. Do you know anyone in the legal profession? Or have you worked with anyone in the past that knows someone?

I really wish you the best of luck. I feel your pain - I have also been seriously worried about my financial future since I've gotten sick. It's a valid concern. Sandy