Injured Worker Advocacy By,Mike Weldon I am a California Injured worker who has been in the California Workers comp.system for about four years. My first thoughts of working to change the happened in early 1999 after my forth surgery. At the time my knowledge of workers comp.was limited to the hand outs given after the injury and what my attorney told me. I started digging on the internet. The first workers comp.group I came across was Prairie Law injured workers e-mail forum.At that time I came to the conclusion that changes need to be made. I thought that I was the only person who had been given the treatment by an insurance co. In September 1999 I started Victims of Workers Comp.This started as stress relief and has become a passion thanks to injured workers from across the country. Change starts with a small idea and strong willed people backing it.We have a group that are knowledgeable and willing to go the distance. Before the internet and even now the insurance carriers brag was injured workers have no way to join together to fight back.We do and have now. Attempts have been made to silence those who speak out for change. E-Mails and web pages show up at wcab hearings,insurance companies lurk at our sites. No where in the Labor Code can I find where being injured on the job revokes your First Amendment rights.Speak up for yourself don't be taken advantage of stand up for yourself.Your silence and lack of knowing your rights are what the insurance carriers use to keep the injured worker down. Our goals are simple and straight forward.First we are injured workers helping injured workers.We don't give legal advice that's what lawyers are for.We pass along our knowledge and experience to others.With the depth we have today we are able to help in most cases.If not help we can at least pass along comfort by the injured worker knowing they are not alone.Our second goal is change.The California comp.system takes care of everyone but the injured worker. Here are some reasons we feel this way.If your treating doctor treats your for a year and then rates you how can if the carrier disagrees with the rating they send you to an IME.Tell me how a doctor that sees you for 15 minutes can know more about your condition that your treating doctor.Its a scam.Just like workers fraud is a scam.When the changes were brought into play the carriers claimed 20 to 30%of claims were frauds.The state tracking system that eats up 6 million dollars a year findings are 0.5% show me the missing 29.5%.The whole reason behind this was to make injured workers look like criminals and be treated as such.Why are the carriers exempt from the same laws workers must adhere to.
