Long story short.
My husband had a general laborer job, which was actually made stressful by harassment from coworkers. He took stress-leave several times, two of which times he checked himself into a psychiatric facility. Yes, it was that bad. The third and last time he checked himself into a psychiatric facility, the Dr. was one day late faxing an extension to his Human Resources Department and was terminated, had his insurance benefits immediately cancelled and was subsequently discharged from the psychiatric facility due to lack of insurance benefits and/or inability to pay for the treatment. Without treatment and a job to support his family, he took a shotgun and commited suicide shortly after.
I retained a Workmans Compensation attorney whom told me that I did not have a Civil case against his employer, so we proceeded with filing a Workmans Compensation suit. This was upwards of 5 years ago and I rarely receive any correspondence from my attorney, which averages maybe once a year. In late 2004, I attended a deposition with the Workmans Compensation defense attorney and thought this meant we were close to settlement, but this obviously was not the case.
I know that WC claims can sometimes take years to reach settlement, but in my opinion, my case seems very straight-forward. My husband was out on work related stress-leave, terminated while on stress-leave and as a direct result, later commited suicide. I cannot imagine any graver circumstances than this.
At this time, I don't think my attorney is proactive in the pursuit of a settlement as he seems to be a very popular and/or successful WC attorney. Sometimes, I feel that my case is on the back-burner because he has so many to deal with. The times that I have become impatient and called for an update, he doesn't remember who I am until I remind him of the specifics of my case. Namely, the death of my husband.
Any comments, suggestions or advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
Warm Regards,
J Fields
Los Angeles, California
My husband had a general laborer job, which was actually made stressful by harassment from coworkers. He took stress-leave several times, two of which times he checked himself into a psychiatric facility. Yes, it was that bad. The third and last time he checked himself into a psychiatric facility, the Dr. was one day late faxing an extension to his Human Resources Department and was terminated, had his insurance benefits immediately cancelled and was subsequently discharged from the psychiatric facility due to lack of insurance benefits and/or inability to pay for the treatment. Without treatment and a job to support his family, he took a shotgun and commited suicide shortly after.
I retained a Workmans Compensation attorney whom told me that I did not have a Civil case against his employer, so we proceeded with filing a Workmans Compensation suit. This was upwards of 5 years ago and I rarely receive any correspondence from my attorney, which averages maybe once a year. In late 2004, I attended a deposition with the Workmans Compensation defense attorney and thought this meant we were close to settlement, but this obviously was not the case.
I know that WC claims can sometimes take years to reach settlement, but in my opinion, my case seems very straight-forward. My husband was out on work related stress-leave, terminated while on stress-leave and as a direct result, later commited suicide. I cannot imagine any graver circumstances than this.
At this time, I don't think my attorney is proactive in the pursuit of a settlement as he seems to be a very popular and/or successful WC attorney. Sometimes, I feel that my case is on the back-burner because he has so many to deal with. The times that I have become impatient and called for an update, he doesn't remember who I am until I remind him of the specifics of my case. Namely, the death of my husband.
Any comments, suggestions or advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
Warm Regards,
J Fields
Los Angeles, California
