Workers Compensation Insurance Company Lawyers Visiting Your Doctors Without your Permission
Believe it or not, the rights many of us take for granted, such as the right to privacy, do not exist if we are hurt on the job. In many states, the ability of insurance defense counsel to unilaterally talk to your doctors is virtually unfettered. In other words, the workers comp insurance lawyers are allowed to have what is called “ex parte” contact with the claimant’s treating physicians behind the patient’s and their lawyer’s backs ! In order to help WILG (the Workers Injury Law& Advocacy Group) in its research concerning this problem and its widespread abuses, IF YOUR STATE IS NOT LISTED AND YOU KNOW THE ANSWER FOR YOUR STATE PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL ALONG WITH ANY STATUTE, CITATION, CASE LAW OR NEWS REPORT. Thanks in advance, Doug Landau
States permitting unilateral contact: (or not prohibiting or significantly limiting insurance defense lawyers from having their way with the disabled workers’ treating physicians):
- Florida
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- Oklahoma
- Virginia
- Wyoming
States which are believed to at least require notice to claimants and/or their legal counsel prior to contact with the treating doctors or which forbid contact outside of the patient or their counsel’s presence:
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Wisconsin