Keeping an Eye on Workers' Rights

I worked for a worker's compensation attorney for two years, witnessing many employee behaviors since he represented them.

He worked tirelessly on their behalf, some more than others, admittedly but when I saw the kind of people he had to deal with sometimes it made me respect his work.

Carol, who had been his legal assistant for years before he expanded his staff in 1991, could have written a book on all that she saw, the funny stories, the hilarious depositions, the telling mediations.

I remember one time we had a client named Robert whose elevator didn't go all the way to the top if you know what I mean.

The day before his deposition he called Carol and said, "Well, I accidentally cut off three fingers yesterday but I‘ll be at the deposition."

She couldn't believe he was still coming and didn't want to reschedule - especially since he hadn't been to the doctor!

She later recounted the story to me, mocking him and saying, "I'm minus three fingers but I'll be at the deposition!"

Not to take away from the serious clients who had sad and sometimes shocking stories and who deserved to be compensated, but we had a client also who claimed to be totally incapacitated. Then the insurance company for the defendant sent us a videotape showing our client water skiing, hauling armloads of wood, doing all kinds of physical things.

The attorney I worked for was furious, to say the least and dropped his case after giving him a piece of his mind.

Around December all the clients wanted their money and quick and they would hammer us constantly for their settlement checks that just couldn't get there fast enough - even if the attorney had just taken their case. Although he would try to explain to some of these clients that these things take time, some of them wouldn't hear of it.

Like the older client who got tired of talking to us on the phone and had a cab drop him off at our office around mid-December in the middle of a workday. He got out of the car and the other attorney in the office noticed he was carrying a small paper bag.

Given his temper, we were worried of course.