If you got hurt on a Manhattan job site near Hudson Yards or along Second Avenue, yes - you can change lawyers in a New York injury or workers' comp case, and your boss does not get to force you onto your own health insurance instead of workers' compensation.

In the next 24 hours: Tell your current lawyer in writing if you want to change firms. Keep it simple: you are ending representation and want your file sent over. Also give your employer written notice of the work injury immediately if you have not already. In New York workers' comp cases, the formal deadline to notify the employer is 30 days, but waiting creates arguments you do not need.

File or prepare Form C-3 for the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. The filing deadline is generally 2 years from the accident or from when you knew an illness was work-related, but early filing matters. If your employer is pushing you to bill private insurance, save those texts, emails, or voicemails.

In the next week: Get your own medical evaluation from a provider experienced with New York workers' comp. If this was a crash while working - not rare in spring and summer around Manhattan bike lanes or a delivery route feeding into the Cross Bronx Expressway - ask the doctor to clearly document work restrictions, causation, and body parts injured. Insurance company doctors tend to be brisk.

If there is also a third-party case, like a negligent driver or unsafe property owner, that is separate from comp. A lawyer switch does not erase your claim.

In the next month: Make sure substitution paperwork is filed with the Workers' Compensation Board and, if there is a lawsuit, with the court. In New York, lawyers usually resolve fee issues between themselves; you do not pay two full legal fees because you switched. If a motor vehicle was involved, watch the 30-day no-fault application deadline and the serious injury threshold under New York Insurance Law if you are pursuing pain-and-suffering damages.