The workers comp insurance company handling my claim has offered to settle and we have come to terms on the settlement. To complete the process, the insurance company turns the settlement agreement over to an attorney who does all the legal work and I have just now started to receive the attorney's paperwork. I asked the insurance agent when we negotiated the settlement if the attorney's involvement was just a formality and whether there would be an attempt by the attorney to argue the agreed settlement amount. The agent said no, I just had to appear to conclude the case in front of a judge. Am I being gullible by just coooperating with the process from here, or should I seek representation for the final settlement process? I feel a bit uneasy about appearing before a judge on my own and am concerned that I may be being led like the proverbial sheep to the slaughter :-) Thanks for any input.

If you're looking at a settlement, I would definitely get the advice of a WC attorney. In my personal WC experience, the first offer was X and my attorney got them to offer 2X. Considering that the attorney took only 25% of the settlement, he got me a much better deal.

Thanks, PattyMD. We have already done the negotiation. I was able to get their settlement amount up around 2.5 times the original offer, so that is already done. I'm just wondering if I am going to get any surprises in the final appearance part of the process. Thanks.

Wow, I'm impressed. Re: surprises, I can't speak to from personal experience; I wasn't even present for my settlement discussions. It was all done by the attorney.