Can I Change Lawyers During My Workers’ Compensation Case?

Hopefully you do your due diligence and find an injury attorney that helps you earn the compensation you deserve, but some clients find that they don’t mesh well with the attorney they hired to represent them. If you are considering firing your attorney and moving forward on your own or hiring a different lawyer, know that your actions will have some consequences that you’ll want to be aware of before you move on from your lawyer. In today’s blog, we explore some of the reasons why people want to fire their current injury lawyer, and what they should know about the process of moving on from their legal representation.

Consequences Of Firing Your Lawyer

Firing your lawyer could lead to some consequences for your current injury case, and while they aren’t all bad, you should at least be aware of how moving on from your current lawyer could impact your case. You are always within your right to fire your lawyer and move forward with different representation, but doing so may have some implications for your case. Some ways your case could be impacted by firing your lawyer include:

Additional delays to your case as another lawyer gets up to speed
Potential financial implications for the work your lawyer has already performed
It’s possible that other lawyers will be hesitant to take on your case if they believe that your reason for moving on from your original lawyer lacks merit

There are plenty of perfectly acceptable reasons as to why you may want to move forward with different representation, we just want you to be aware of how this change could impact your case. Knowing those facts, let’s move on to some reasons why a person may want to fire their attorney, and the steps to consider during this process.

Why A Client May Fire Their Injury Lawyer

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most commonly cited reasons for wanting to move on from a lawyer, and let’s touch on some alternatives to jumping right to firing your attorney if you are experiencing any of these issues.

Poor Communication – It’s important to establish a communication schedule with your lawyer during the initial consultation. If you have mismatched expectations for how you two will communicate, it can cause problems for your case. If you want more communication from your lawyer, let them know that you would like more frequent updates, but know that cases rarely move quickly and the reason for the apparent lack of updates may simply be because there’s no change to the status of your case.

Process Moving To Slowly – The workers’ compensation process is typically quite slow, as different agencies need to investigate, confirm and validate claims. There’s not much that your lawyer can do to speed up the process, so don’t direct your displeasure over the speed of your case at them unless there is a clear issue on their end that is holding up the process. Also remember that changing lawyers will only likely lead to more delays.

Pushing To Settle – Many workers may feel like a settlement leads to smaller paydays, but remember that workers’ compensation attorneys earn a fraction of your payday as compensation, so the more money they get you, the more money they take home. Oftentimes if they are pitching a settlement to you, it’s because they believe it is a fair offer and ensures compensation instead of taking your chances in court. If you have concerns about a settlement offer, voice them directly to your attorney and ask for different options if you just don’t feel like the current settlement offer is right for you.

Regardless of your reason for wanting to move on from your attorney, our advice is to try and work things out with them first. Oftentimes misunderstandings can be fixed if issues are simply brought to the attorney’s attention, and this can end up saving you a lot of time and money. However, if things have gone too far and this trust is broken, it’s time to find someone else to head up your case. We’d be happy to provide you with this help or point you in the direction of a quality firm to assist with your needs. We want to help you find a happy resolution to your case however we can.

For more information, or to talk with a lawyer about your injury claim, reach out to Dean and the team at Margolis Law Firm today at (952) 230-2700.