Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

an applicant can always fire his attorney. However, the attorney's fee request will be considered by the court, as the attorney worked on the case and is entitled to payment for his services. You will have an issue playing the recording if you did not inform the attorney that he was being recorded. In fact, it may be a crime in California, I am not certain.

Whenever I get such a large set aside I always consider an annunity. In other words, I seek a third party like Ringler Associates to offer an annuity to cover the cost of future medical expenses. Even if your boyfriend is asked to put 150,000 into the anunity, he can still pocket the difference.

It has been many years since I handled WC case, and even longer since it was was for State Fund. Mr. Mahurin is correct. It is a crime in California to record a telephone conversation without the other person's knowledge and approval, but not to have some one listen in on the other phone.

I suspect what may be bothering your attorney is whether the VA would either deny the drugs or treatment because it is for a WC injury or seek reimbursement from the carrier [you in case of a settlement] for the treatment. You need to find this out, as then what may happen is you are getting the present value of the overall cost of treatment which you have to invest to pay as you get each treatment, but that is based upon a guess as to how much drugs will go up in cost and how much you would earn on your investment. Buying an annuity would result in a guaranteed weekly or how often you want pay out. But if you live longer than anticipated, the annunity may run out of money. If inflation in the medical area is high, you may not have enough to invest. So you need very professional advice on the figures and anticipations.

State Fund is not allowed to take into account that the VA will cover him, just as if you drive into another car you can not refuse to pay the property damage because the other driver has insurance coverage. Among the WC carriers, SCIF is one of the most honest because it is a non-profit. You need to find out why your attorney acted unprofessionally and what is bothering him as to the case. I would think that another WC attorney would be willing to take the case because while the WC judge will award the vast bulk of the attorney fees to your prior attorney, a new attorney would get something. You also need to find out if the fee will be awarded as a percentage of the permanent disability benefits or if the amount of medical payments will also somehow be taken into account [not done when I practiced}