Recommend SF bay area attorney?

[bbuhlman]

Hi,
I am trying to get WC to approve an out of the country Lumbar surgery. I have lifetime medical from an injury in 1987. Can someone suggest a good attorney for WC in SF bay area?

Thanks,
Bill

[zoonooz]

how will they get paid?
it's difficult to switch attys after the PD award (and any previous atty fee) has already been paid.

treatment under california comp is limited to that which conforms to evidenced based guidelines if yours is outside those then it's going to be very difficult.

have you considered settling the open medical and purchasing the surgery on your own?

you can find work comp specialists here
Attorney Search
(ENTER YOUR ZIP CODE) (http://caaa.org/cs/zip/zipsearch.aspx)

[bbuhlman]

Thanks for your reply, I didn't think of settling for the medical. Have to weigh that carefully. I will ask how much I would get though. You don't think a new attorney would or could litigate the surgery cost from WC?

[zoonooz]

In your situation there are no provisions for allowing an atty fee from other then your disability award.
if you want to try and handle the issue yourself you probably need to review the UR and spine surgery second opinion regs.
while these mainly are between your doctors and the carrier it may need outside efforts to move them along.
ultimately you can bring it to the comp court.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/UR_Main.htm
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/dwcpropregs/SS2ndOpRegsText.pdf

of course, you can try to interest an atty to do it but without a fee not many will be interested.

[bbuhlman]

Thank you Zoonooz