Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Firing your attorney will not get you control of the $10,000. Your attorney has a duty to determine if there are people in addition to you entitled to this money. If you believe your attorney has acted too slowly you can complain to the California State Bar. However, it sometimes does legitimately take a while to resolves claims.

In the 30 years that I have been practicing personal injury law there has been a shift in attitude by state bar counsels. In the old days the emphasis was on the right of your client and if your client wanted you to stiff the medical creditors or others with claims, that was not something the bar got excited about. Now, the bar stands ready to discipline attorneys who don't pay off the medical and other creditors.

If you fire your attorney, some other attorney will be necessary to sort out the claims and it will come out of your end unless the state bar makes your current attorney pay for the new attorney which is highly speculative at this point.

You can fire your current attorney but he cannot give you the money if the doctors have a lien on the money. It may even require thst your attorney file a case in court called an interpleader to have the court determine what to do with the money in his trust account. The law entitles the attorney to be paid for his time and costs in the interpleader case and that will come out of the money the attorney is holding. Technically the money the attorney has is not yours. You have a claim on the money just like the claim of the medical providers. The best thing is to work out all the liens and distribution of the settlement funds before settling. However, that is not always possible, particularly in settlements for the policy limit like I suspect was the settlement in your case.

Your lawyer is obligated to settle your medical liens before he pays you the final disbursement. This can take a long time especially when there are multiple medical providers and they are being asked to waive recovery on a lot of money.