Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Don't be quite so eager to pay percentage fees before you've done some legwork for yourself. First place I'd visit is the superior court clerk's office. The Civil Index will tell you when the case was filed and the case number. Have the clerk pull the case file from the basement, this might take a day or two. The court order establishing your blocked account should still be in there and should identify the bank. (If your parents managed to finagle a court order letting them tap the account, that info would probably be in there too). Next step could be finding out the present-day name of the bank, the Federal Reserve keeps track of all the bank mergers. You could also look up the State Controller's Unclaimed Property website (http://sco.ca.gov/upd_msg.html), the money might be there waiting for you.

P.S. If you do get at the bank account, have the back bank statements looked at by a lawyer or an accountant, the bank might have robbed you of thousands in accrued and compounded interest depending on the rate they paid, and the compounding period they chose to use.

Michael is correct, that you can do some of the work yourself. However, if you do need help from an attorney, I would be happy to assist you. You should go to the court first and see if you can find the file in the archives, and the court may have to look in the microfiche or the old file records to find the case number. Then you can get the file, look at the records, and locate the bank where the money was deposited. My phone is 916-721-3324 or email at [email protected]

Joe Marman