Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

Almost every standard fee agreement provides that you must keep your attorney informed about your whereabouts during your case. Make sure the address record is up to date.

You are not going to get compensated for your depression or stress unless either started a long time ago and you have a sufficient medical record to support your claim because the case is over five years old. Labor code section 5410 provides a statute of limitations after five years from the date of injury. If your attorney is causing your stress, then you should find another, at least in my opinion. However, given that the case is so old you will probably have difficulty finding another attorney.

You can always represent yourself by dismissing your attorney and seeking help with the Information and Assistance office, which I believe will cause you many times more stress and delays than your current attorney.

You should first look for a new attorney before getting rid of the old firm. Once you do have new representation, your new attorney can handle transferring the case to him/her. Your old attorney may bad mouth you to the new one.

The workers' compensaon system is not going to compensate you for any harm your attorney has done to you; that is not something that occurred on the job. If the problems worsened your injury condition, then; it might be hard to figure out whether it was just the natural progression of the injury or the stress caused by your attorney. If your condition never reached a level of maximum improvement, then you might be able to sneak the stress caused aggravation into your industrial injury. But if you have been rated for PD, you only have 5 years from the date of the injury to allege an increase in PD.

As to any suit against your attorney, that would be limited to a malpractice claim and you must show that what you finally got was less than what you would have gotten with reasonable representation. That normally is very difficult to prove. I suspect in your case the amount of benefits you wil get with a new attorney will be no greater, just sooner.