Nancy J. Wallace

Nancy has more than 30 years of experience in workers comp in the Inland Empire, starting as a law clerk defending Comp Insurance Companies, watching insurance companies refuse help people seriously hurt at work. In 1994, she left defense to represent only injured workers. Nancy knows what it is to be injured and trying to work and support a family. In the Inland Empire 30 years, Nancy knows which physicians and facilities truly help injured workers (and which ones just give lip service but no help). Nancy answers questions for workers throughout the state on Avvo.com, LawGuru.com, and on her website: www.imhurt.info.

• Workers' Compensation

• Free Consultation
• Contingent Fees
  YOU don't ever write me a check; the Judge orders the insurer to pay me after I help you get paid on your claim.
• Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
  Workers Comp fees are just 15%, NOT 40% like personal injury attorneys. NO FEE IS PAID UNTIL YOUR CLAIM CLOSES. [You never pay the fee directly...the insurer pays a part of your award to the attorney, per the judge's order.]

California

Since 1989

Federal Circuit

Since 1990

Owner

Nancy Wallace, Attorney at Law

1996 - Current

Represented Injured Workers and Physicians and Diagnostic Facilities before the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.

Judge Pro Tem, Small Claims Court

County of San Bernardino Superior Court

1998 - 2002

Small Claims Court matters

Attorney

Kegel Tobin & Truce

1995 - 1996

Defended Travelers, School Districts in Workers' Compensation actions across Calif.

Attorney

Mark & Bolson

1991 - 1994

Workers' Compensation defense for The Hartford, Farmers, County of Riverside, County of San Bernardino, San Bernardino City School District.

Attorney

Parker & Dally

1987 - 1991

Workers Compensation Defense PLUS Estate Planning

Western State College of Law at Argosy University

J.D. | Law

1985 - 1988

Honors: American Jurisprudence Award, Criminal Procedure; Editor, The Dictum (Student newspaper); Honors Moot Court

Activities: Women's Law Association; Latino Student Bar Assoc.

Three Best Rated San BErnardino Employment Lawyers

ThreeBest

2017

Honored as one of the best 3 Employment Law attorneys in the San Bernardino Valley.

Top Contributor Award

Avvo

2017

Found to be a Top Contributor by peers on Avvo for outstanding answers to Workers Compensation questions

Client's Choice Award

Avvo

2012

Clients' Favorite Workers Compensation attorney for 2012

San Bernardino County Bar Association

Member

Current

Lawyers of Distinction

Member

2017 - Current

Calif. Applicants' Attorneys assoc.

member

2012 - Current

American Bar Assoc.

Member

2010 - Current

Activities: Law Day

Workers Comp: Welcome to Outer Space, Law Day, Anaheim

June 10, 2016

Handel on the Law

A talk on the new regulations for securing medications and treatment under the current workers comp laws, and why adjusters get to deny medication and doctor visits and how to fix that.

MEMBER

Lawyers of Distinction

Q. I was getting workmen now they are stopping it but my doctor said on this paper my condition is permanent and stationary

11 April 2019

A: It all depends on what this doctor wrote about you. If this doctor wrote you can resume all preinjury duties, you should be back on the job ASAP. If he wrote you have permanent work restrictions, you take his writing on those permanent restrictions to Human Resources and request a permanently modified job. If he wrote something inaccurate or untrue or left out body parts or problems, you object and get a Qualified Medical Evaluation -- QME -- with a better doctor. and because you have no idea how to find a better doctor, you should have an attorney getting you to a REAL doctor for the QME evaluation. While you are looking for an attorney, if you cannot resume work and the doctor wrote you will not perform your old job, you get Unemployment from www.edd.ca.gov ...and you look for a new job.

Q. Petition of Joinder

1 April 2019

A: If you really and truly 'just want it to be over' you could write to the judge and withdraw the claim form and application and pay the doctors who treated you, but I suspect that isn't the plan. What will happen next?? If it is a denied claim, you need to get your medical evidence together to prove the injury did occur on the job as you have claimed, and that typically requires a Qualified Medical Evaluation. Joining another employer does NOT start a claim 'over', nothing ever starts a claim'all over again." But the defense does get to ask your Qualified Medical Evaluator how much of what you claim is the result of activities on another job. Once you have a QME report explaining whether you were or were not hurt on the job and which job duties caused this injury -- if any -- the judge can hear the trial.

Q. I recently filed a DOR at the WCAB and I forgot to mail off a copy to the insurance company what should I do?

29 March 2019

A: Yes, i'm quite surprised you were given a date if the Petition For Reconsideration was on file. EAMS should have stopped your DOR from generating a date, but it isn't fool-proof. When a party gets a date and swears under penalty of perjury they provided a copy to the other party and they did not, the other party objects to the date when they get the hearing notice, noting they were never served with the DOR.

Q. I had a work related injury in 2016 on my foot which in resulted in a surgery and doctor rated me 13% disability

7 March 2019

A: It might be good, it might be horrible! YOU HAVE A LAWYER, that lawyer is going to take a big chunk of your money... if this isn't a real lawyer and isn't a specialist in Comp, go get a real lawyer. If you have a psych claim, there is no permanent disability, but the insurer is reponsible for treatment of a psychiatric industrial injury...how much is included to cover treatment with a psychiatrist?? There is just no way to know with the info you've presented. We can't even tell if the 13% is 13% Permanent Disability or 13% Whole person Impairment.

Q. 911 dispatcher 99-2015. Recently diagnosed w/advanced carpal tunnel. Can I still file under previous employer?

26 February 2019

A: Nope, unless you gave written notice to the employer BEFORE YOU LEFT that you had an injury to both wrists from repetitive overuse. The Statute of Limitations requires you provide notice to the employer of an industrial injury within ONE YEAR of the exposure/insult/injury. You indicated this ended in 2015, so you had until the date prior to the exit anniversary to file in 2016. It's 2019. Missed it by 3 years. I had a client, non-English speaking, tore up his ankle tendons, asked his boss to send him to the doctor because the pallet injured his leg. They wrote a report, he signed it, he got a copy. HE DID NOTHING for more than 2 years, but he had that signed 'injury report' form. When he was terminated nearly 3 years later, he had an accepted industrial injury claim and received treatment and temporary disability payments. SO IF you have a writing that you can prove got into the hands of the employer demonstrating that you were reporting a repetitive overuse injuryin 2015 before you left, YOU MIGHT be able to develop that.

Q. I have a trial date set & a QME follow up appointment set for months later which my attorney requested.

20 February 2019

A: A trial does not mean the judge has decided every issue and every dispute possible. You should take this up with either your attorney who went to trial or the Information & Assistance Officer with whom you met at Trial. The judge only decides the specific items placed in front of them at that trial date. If there is a QME appointment, it appears that someone -- either you or the insurer -- is challenging the opinion of the primary treating physician and needs medical-legal evidence about your healing status and your factors of permanent disability on each body part in your application. No one ever wants to 'just keep a case going'. But if there is no evidence before the judge on your factors of permanent disability/WHole Person Impairment on each body part, the judge cannot issue a final decision on permanent disability.

Q. How long will it take to get benefits if the insurance carrier no longer want to go to trial?

20 February 2019

A: You should never, ever 'expect' TTD. If you are not receiving it, you want the judge to order TTD to be paid from a certain date in the past and continuing. Without a judge's order, expect absolutely nothing.

Q. what is the interest rate on retro TD and PD and does LC5814 apply

31 January 2019

A: Interest is only on JUDGMENTS. I don't think you have actual Orders to pay signed by the judge (that's not in your facts). TTD ends after 104 weeks (unless there is a joint replacement or burn injury). So no judge would order TTD from 2011 to 2014. Maybe if there was a trial and a judge ordered TTD continue in 2004, you might get it for 2004 to 2007. But that one TTD issue should have been tried 12 years ago. If you have only one report and there is no other possible interpretation other than you were due PPD starting in 2014, you could get penalties under LC5814; but if the insurer/defendant has a report showing Zero PD or a minimal amount and they might win at trial owing nothing, there are no sanctions/penalties due for not paying. The solution was to get usable reports in hand back in 2014 and request a trial.

Q. Quit on 2/19/18 because of retaliation (whistleblowing & workers comp) and gender discrimination. Is it too late to sue

23 January 2019

A: I don't know the statute of limitations on gender discrimination complaints. I do know that you need to file the Workers Compensation action while you are actively employed or it is considered a post-termination claim, difficult to prove. IF YOU DID submit the claim while you were still employed and you were demoted or lost hours in retaliation (and you can prove it was the comp claim that resulted in the demotion and lost hours), then you have one year from the discrimination to file a 132a Petition with the WCAB and serve your former employer.