My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: NY
I know someone who was out on disability for the last 7 years because he got hurt on the job. Without going into too much detail, he was bumped by a car while on the job and his lawyer has been trying to sue the driver. While this was going on, he’s been on disability and has been receiving weekly checks. However, within the past month or so, it came to light that his lawyer was full of crap and hasn’t been attending any of the hearings (he was doing the case for free because he was a “family friend”). In fact, the case was dismissed about 2 years ago. Feeling very guilty about this, this guy approached his company and told them what happened (technically he could have kept his mouth shut but he actually felt so bad about it that he couldn’t sleep). I don’t know exactly what happened during that meeting, but the checks have stopped coming for 3 weeks now, and now he’s worried that this company will sue him back for the last 2 years’ worth of checks.
While the last scenario about getting sued is bad enough, he realizes that his “great deal” is now over; he knows he’s in deep shyte now and needs to just move on and find a job. I could rant about how I always felt he could have worked at a desk job anyway while the lawsuit was ongoing, but his lawyer told him to follow this path.
Problem is: What the hell does he tell a prospective employer when asked why he was out of the workforce for the last 7 years? Saying he was on disability is not enough – they’ll ask why he isn’t on it any longer.
And no, this “someone” is not me.
What are his options now?

