Options When a Workers' Compensation Lawyer Stops Communicating

Attorney Answer

You are allowed to change lawyers, and you do not need your current lawyer's permission to talk to another one. Do it in an order that protects the claim, because the deadlines in a Texas workers' compensation case run no matter what your lawyer is or is not doing.

Start with the part that is not about your lawyer at all: the filing duties in a Texas comp claim belong to you. Tex. Lab. Code § 409.001(a) requires an employee, or a person acting on the employee's behalf, to notify the employer of an injury not later than the 30th day after the date the injury occurs. Tex. Lab. Code § 409.003 requires an employee, or a person acting on the employee's behalf, to file a claim with the Division of Workers' Compensation not later than one year after the date the injury occurred. If either has been missed, Tex. Lab. Code §§ 409.002 and 409.004 preserve the claim where the employer or carrier had actual knowledge of the injury, where the division determines good cause exists, or where the claim is not contested. Those are the facts to verify first — before you spend energy on the lawyer problem.

It is also worth knowing that Tex. Lab. Code § 451.001 protects an employee from being discharged or otherwise discriminated against because the employee has filed a workers' compensation claim in good faith or has hired a lawyer to represent the employee in a claim. Changing lawyers, or hiring one at all, is protected conduct as far as your employer is concerned.

An attorney's duty to communicate, what happens to a fee agreement when you switch, and how to complain about a lawyer's conduct are governed by their own set of rules. In general terms: Texas lawyers are bound by professional conduct rules that require keeping a client reasonably informed, a client is entitled to their file, and the state bar operates a grievance process for lawyers who will not communicate. Fees are set differently in a comp claim than in most cases. Tex. Lab. Code § 408.221(a):

(a) An attorney's fee, including a contingency fee, for representing a claimant before the division or court under this subtitle must be approved by the commissioner or court.

And under § 408.221(b), except as otherwise provided, the fee "is based on the attorney's time and expenses according to written evidence presented to the division or court." So any fee a lawyer on your claim is paid has to be approved, including after a change of lawyers. A Texas workers' compensation lawyer can walk you through all of it in a single conversation, and the second opinion is the valuable part.

One honest note before you act. Comp claims contain long stretches where nothing visibly happens — waiting on a designated doctor, on a hearing setting, on a carrier's response. Silence is not always neglect. That is one of the things a second lawyer can tell you quickly.

What you can do

1. Email your lawyer a short, dated request for a status update and a complete copy of your file. Keep the sent copy. Written requests are what make a pattern provable.

2. Contact the Texas Division of Workers' Compensation directly and ask what has been filed in your claim, what its status is, and whether anything is scheduled. You are entitled to know, and you do not need your lawyer to ask for you.

3. Write out a dated list of your unanswered calls, emails and messages. Facts and dates, nothing more.

4. Talk to a second Texas workers' compensation lawyer before you fire the first one. Ask specifically whether anything in your claim is time-sensitive right now.

5. If your lawyer will not communicate at all, ask that second lawyer about the state bar's grievance process — and understand that a grievance addresses the lawyer's conduct, not your claim.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Lab. Code § 409.001(a) sets 30 days to notify the employer of a work injury and § 409.003 sets one year to file the claim with the division, and a workers' compensation case carries further deadlines within the dispute process itself. Which of them are live in your claim right now depends on your facts and on what has already been filed. Have a Texas attorney confirm your dates — do not calculate them yourself, and do not assume they are being handled.