Many people who are hurt on the job and have Worker’s Compensation claims ultimately wind up being offered a settlement to wash out or waive all their future rights to medical care and/or lost wages and/or both. What people don’t realize is they are often asked at the same time to waive all their rights under any other employment laws in connection with the settlement of the Worker’s Compensation claims. This is not necessary as there are many times when you can settle your Worker’s Comp. claims and not have to worry about settling any other claims or waiving any other rights. The problem comes when the Worker’s Compensation lawyer is not well-versed in the area of employment law and therefore allows their client to waive their rights without fully explaining to them what in fact they are doing.  This may be because the client has not advised the Workers Comp. lawyer of any other claims or the lawyer just doesn’t practice in that area.  Even when a charge of discrimination is pending with the EEOC and especially if the client does not advise their Worker’s Compensation lawyer that such an EEOC charge exists, horrible results can occur with respect to the waiver of all employment law rights. The moral of the story, read carefully everything you sign and make sure you tell any lawyer you’re working with about any legal issue you may have at that time, even if you don’t think it is related to the claims the lawyer is working on for you, so that all your rights are protected and/or you are fully informed of the consequences of your actions of signing any document.  Another alternative is to engage an employment lawyer at once and keep that lawyer advised of any other claims you may have and especially put the employment lawyer in touch with any other lawyer who is representing you on any other case.  More on that soon when we talk about what happens when one lawyer does not know about the existence of another lawyer or lawyers.