How to Communicate with My Lawyer.

Attorneys and clients must remain in communication about the claim.  This is a given.  How much communication is too little or too much?  This is a harder question to answer.  Sometimes, though rarely, an attorney and the client will need to communicate daily.  This is really the exception to the rule.  Very rarely will the status of your case change such that daily updates are needed.  There are times that a particular situation occurs where the client and the lawyer should confer though.  It is these times that are the most important to discuss.

But let’s start at the beginning of the claim.  When you hire a workers’ compensation attorney like our law firm, we file the appropriate paperwork at the State Board of Workers’ Compensation electronically.  We either file a notice of claim or a request for hearing.  We also formulate a strategy on how to proceed depending on the issues at hand, the options available and the desires of the client.  When we file a notice of claim, we also serve a WC-102 request for documents.  The WC-102 form allows the Employer/Insurer 30 days to respond to our document request.  If we request a hearing, we generally serve written discovery requests on the Employer/Insurer.  The law allows the Employer/Insurer 45 days to respond to this discovery.  Though some Employer/Insurers respond immediately to the requests for information, they can take the full 30-45 days to respond.

In general, the first 30-45 days of representing a client involves waiting on the exchange of documents.  Though it appears that the first 30-45 days of representing a client involves little work, as the documents come in, we review the paperwork and sometimes amend our strategy.  You may not be hearing from your lawyer a lot during this time period until the documents come in.

Once the first 45 days are over, if a hearing is requested, your deposition will be scheduled.  Once the deposition has taken place, things tend to move faster.  Further documents, including medical records, are requested.  Sometimes we schedule additional depositions of the witnesses, doctors or schedule independent medical examinations with doctors to address the medical issues relevant in the claim.  All of this activity is designed to prepare the case for trial or possibly settlement.  Sometimes you will hear from us daily, weekly or monthly depending on how fast the case is moving along.  We also provide written updates to our clients via emails or letters in addition to the telephone conversations.

Where problems arise is with unrealistic expectations of how often calls should take place and how quickly calls should be returned.  Remember you hired a lawyer who is good at what they do and who is also busy.  Don’t call your lawyer every 5 minutes and expect them to be happy to hear from you.  You certainly would not want us to call you so frequently without any update to provide.  If the attorney is in the office, in general your call may be returned the same day.  There will be days where your call cannot be returned the same day it is made, but don’t be upset.  If your lawyer is in depositions all day, he or she will have a long list of calls to be returned and you will want your lawyer to devote the proper time and attention to your conversation and not rush you through the call.  This is another situation where speaking to the paralegals about your concerns helps speed up the process of your concerns being addressed.  When the attorney communicates with the paralegal, he or she can start working on the problem before returning your call.

The most important thing you can do as a client is keep our firm up to date about your address, home and cell phone numbers.  If we cannot reach you, we cannot tell you what is going on with your claim.  When we cannot reach you, any hearing must be postponed or canceled because the Court demands that your address with the State Board be kept current.  We can’t do that if we don’t know where you are living so please give us your most up to date information.

If your attorney is out of the office in court, meetings, or depositions, it is very important that you communicate with the attorney’s paralegal about your concerns.  Sometimes, the court appearance keeps us out of the office all day, which limits how quickly a response can be given.  If you tell the paralegal what is going on, then the team efforts of the paralegal and your attorney can provide a quicker response to your question or concern.  Our office works together as a team, so don’t be afraid to speak to the paralegal if the attorney is unavailable.  Many clients don’t like communicating with secretaries or paralegals.  Though the secretaries and paralegals are valuable and important members of our law firm, if the client prefers to communicate with the attorney then that is fine and we are more than glad to help.  If the attorney is out of the office in court or depositions and you do not want to communicate with the paralegal, then you will need to wait until the attorney returns to the office for your particular situation to be addressed.

Email is also a valuable communication tool that most clients don’t think to use.  All of the attorneys in our office use a blackberry device where we can see the emails while we are out of the office.  Don’t hesitate to send your attorney an email when he or she is out of the office.  Even if we are in depositions or in Court, when there is a break we might be able to send a quick response to your question.  In general, it is difficult to make a call during a break but an email is easy to respond to and doesn’t distract from the work we are doing.  But don’t just use email when we are out of the office.  When we are at work, we respond to hundreds of emails all day long.  Even when the volume of calls keeps us on the phone all day, we can still respond to questions or concerns submitted via email.

Finally, setting up a face to face meeting with your lawyer is an important communication tool.  Never show up unannounced and expect that your attorney will be available to meet with you without notice.  Always schedule an appointment!  The appointment guarantees that your attorney has cleared a particular block of time for communicating with you and you alone.  We use these meetings with clients to prepare them for depositions and hearings and also to talk about settlement possibilities.  Don’t schedule a meeting with your lawyer without a particular goal in mind though.  If you have questions or concerns, write them down so you don’t forget.  If you are prepared with the questions you have in mind, the meeting can be more productive.

In general, if you are concerned that you are not hearing from your lawyer enough, then call us, email us or write us.  We want to make sure we are meeting your expectations and that we are all on the same page of what you want out of your claim.

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