Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: Expired insurance check

It is not a problem getting insurance companies to reissue expired checks. As they are on notice of your attorney's claimed attorneys fees, they are not likely to "settle around" your attorney as that could subject not only you but the insurance company to the lawsuit. The question is why is your attorney holding the check?

Joel Selik

www.SelikLaw.com

Re: Expired insurance check

No. The insurance company presumably knows that your attorney is entitled to a share of the funds and will not be willing to help you deprive him of that share. Call me a cynic, but (because you indicate that you have delayed signing the check) my guess is that you're trying to find a way to keep the entire payment without letting your attorney keep his fee. You might feel that there is good reason to do this, but the insurer will not subject itself to potential liability by giving you all the money when it knows the attorney has a claim to a portion of it.

If you and your attorney have a dispute, you need to resolve it instead of trying to do an end run around him.

Re: Expired insurance check

Probably not. If the atty is still representing you, the ins. co. will probably stop pay on the lst check and reissue to the atty. The ins co is not allowed to deal with you direct unless you fire your atty or he withdraws and you notify the ins co that you are representing yourself. However, if you fire your atty, he still may have a lien on your settlement for his hourly fees.