You can switch lawyers in Massachusetts, even after the case is already underway.

That's the short answer.

If your brother was hit in Cambridge after a traffic signal lost power and went dark, and now the case feels like it's sitting in wet cement, he is not trapped with the first lawyer he hired.

Massachusetts does not force you to stay with a lawyer you don't trust

Clients can fire their attorney and hire a new one.

That stays true whether the case is still in the insurance claim stage, already filed in Middlesex Superior Court, or stuck somewhere in between.

A lot of people think signing a contingency fee agreement means they're locked in for the whole ride. They're not. It means the lawyer may have a right to be paid for work already done if money is recovered later. It does not mean the client has to keep dealing with ignored calls, vague answers, and months of nothing.

And in a case like this, months matter.

A dark-signal crash in Cambridge can turn ugly fast on liability. Massachusetts drivers are supposed to treat a dead traffic signal like an all-way stop. But after a storm, power issue, or utility mess, everybody swears they had the right of way. On roads like Massachusetts Avenue, Memorial Drive, Alewife Brook Parkway, or busy intersections near Central Square and Kendall, that kind of wreck becomes a blame game immediately.

If the lawyer isn't pushing the case, the insurer fills the vacuum.

The social media issue is exactly where a stalled lawyer can hurt you

Here's what most people don't realize: old photos do not have to be fair to be effective.

If the insurer found pictures of your brother hiking in the White Mountains, lifting weights, moving furniture, or doing anything physical, they will use them even if the photos are years old and have nothing to do with what he can do now. They'll crop out dates, ignore context, and act like one smiling photo means the injury is fake.

That doesn't automatically ruin the case.

But it does require someone to get out in front of it.

A decent lawyer should be gathering the actual timeline, preserving metadata if needed, lining up medical records, and making it painfully clear when those photos were taken and what changed after the crash. If your brother is between jobs and his COBRA is about to run out, he may already be rationing treatment because he's scared of the bills. Insurance companies love that. They turn gaps in treatment into "see, he must be fine."

That's bullshit, but it's common bullshit.

What happens to the fee if he switches

Usually, the new lawyer handles the transition.

The old lawyer may claim a lien or ask for a share of the eventual fee based on the work already performed. In Massachusetts, that fee dispute is usually worked out between the old attorney and the new one, or resolved from the final recovery. It does not usually mean your brother writes two separate checks and pays double.

That fear keeps people stuck with bad lawyers.

It shouldn't.

The bigger question is whether the old lawyer actually moved the case forward. Did they order records from Mount Auburn, Cambridge Health Alliance, or Mass General? Did they secure traffic signal outage information from the city or utility records? Did they get witness statements? Did they preserve intersection data or crash scene photos before everything disappeared? If not, then hanging on out of guilt makes no sense.

The retainer agreement matters, but not in the way people think

Yes, the paperwork matters.

But mostly for figuring out how the old lawyer gets paid later, not whether your brother is allowed to leave.

The smart move is to get a copy of the signed fee agreement, the case file, and any major correspondence. That includes demand letters, insurer responses, medical record requests, and anything mentioning the social media photos. A new lawyer will want that immediately.

If the first lawyer starts acting like the file is somehow hostage until they're paid, that's where things get ugly. The client file is not a prize to be held for leverage.

If COBRA is running out, the delay becomes more dangerous

This part is brutal.

When someone is between jobs in Cambridge or Boston and COBRA is about to end, every week of delay has consequences beyond the lawsuit. Harvard and MIT workers, biotech contractors around Kendall, hospital staff between positions, lab employees along Route 128 - people lose coverage all the time between jobs, and injuries do not politely wait for a new card in the mail.

If treatment drops off because coverage ends, the insurer will say the person got better.

If pain gets worse three months later and there's no recent visit because the bill would be crushing, the insurer will say the problem must be unrelated.

That's one more reason a lawyer who won't return calls is not just annoying. They may be actively damaging the claim.

How the switch usually works in real life

It's not complicated, even though lawyers sometimes act like it is.

• The client hires new counsel.
• The new lawyer sends notice to the old lawyer and requests the file.
• If a lawsuit is pending, the court gets updated on who represents the client.
• Any fee claim by the old lawyer gets sorted out later from the case proceeds, if there are any.

That's basically it.

No dramatic courtroom showdown. No rule saying the client has to stick it out.

One thing your brother should not do

He should not keep posting.

Not "just family stuff." Not "just an old memory." Not anything that lets the insurer build another cheap little story about how he's perfectly fine. In a Cambridge injury case, especially one already tangled up over a dead signal and disputed injuries, social media is where context goes to die.

If the current lawyer hasn't explained that, hasn't responded, and hasn't moved the case while COBRA ticks down, switching is not overreacting.

It's fixing a bad situation before it gets worse.