Legal Question in Workers Comp in Arizona

Re: check withholding

Part One: I can think of several reasons why your attorney had to send funds to that company. Under a Federal law called ERISA, a disability insurer could have a statutory lien against your workers' compensation benefits. Also, the disability policy might have an exclusion for work-related disabilities, but they may have agreed to keep paying you as long as they got repaid later (after you proved your entitlement to comp benefits.) Attorneys are sometimes ethically obligated to send money to lienholders, whether the client likes it or not! You are, however, entitled to a written explanation from your attorney of why he/she did this, and the best way to get that, is to make your request in writing, as well.

Part Two: It sounds like your attorney came on board when some earlier benefits were not being paid, and has represented you ever since. Moving a case along, from temporary to permanent disability, is not always as simple as it looks. Most attorneys I know (including me) who litigate temporary benefits and get the client paid, will continue taking a 25% fee from permanent benefits, because we take many steps--some which you don't see--to get our clients' the best-possible permanent award. Some of those steps may involve communication with the doctors or the adjuster, or referring your case to an expert for an opinion.

I have no idea whether or not your attorney has been reasonable in his/her fee policies, and the only way for you to make a fair judgment on that subject is, once again, to ask questions. If you read the attorney employment agreement you signed, you'll also probably find a paragraph explaining how fee disputes are to be resolved. If you can't get a satisfactory response, you may want to invoke that paragraph.