04-02 When a lawyer sends a request for medical records to a healthcare provider based on a limited medical authorization, the covering letter must not mislead the healthcare provider as to the scope of the authorization. Although a lawyer has the duty to use legal procedure for the full benefit of a client, a lawyer may not make a frivolous discovery request and shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact to a third person.
03-01 In workers’ compensation arbitrations where the only issue to be decided is responsibility for workers’ compensation payments between insurance carriers, can an attorney serve as the arbitrator to render a decision when this attorney has or does represent one or more of the insurance carriers involved in the dispute if full disclosure is made and all parties consent?
95-17 A lawyer may not interview administrative officers of a client’s local governmental employer concerning their knowledge of facts concerning the client’s injury while on the employer’s property without the consent of the attorney for the employer’s workers compensation insurer, where the lawyer has brought suit against individual co-employees and others but does not seek to hold the employer liable for the client’s injuries. The lawyer is not required to obtain the consent of the attorneys for the co-employee defendants in the lawsuit.
94-05 An attorney may, with the client’s consent, request that a client’s lump sum worker’s compensation benefits be mailed to the attorney, as long as the draft is made payable solely to the client. An attorney should not insist that a client’s current weekly disability payments be mailed to the attorney even if these benefits are made payable solely to the client.
94-04 An attorney may accept employment on a contingency fee basis to represent a client seeking temporary total disability payments in a worker’s compensation case, regardless of whether such payments are past due or not, provided that the fee is reasonable and not excessive under the circumstances.
79-27 Attorney representing both employer or its insurance carrier and the employee or his representative in a worker’s compensation case