Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

Every case that is formally filed at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission is assigned to an Arbitrator no matter what the facts are.  Most people live near where they work.  In addition most people work in the same place every day.  But some people travel for their job and get hurt far away from where they work or live.

For example, you could be a laborer that is based out of Urbana and travel around the country servicing cell phone towers.  If you got hurt on the job in Chicago and filed a case, your claim would be assigned to an Arbitrator at the Chicago Workers' Compensation Commission even though that could potentially be a big inconvenience for you.  That is because the law in Illinois is that your case is assigned to a hearing officer in the area where the accident took place. 

On the other hand, if you are based out of Urbana, but hurt while working out of state, your case would get assigned to an Arbitrator in Urbana because the law states that if you are hurt in another state the case will get assigned to an Arbitrator near your home or employer.

The  point of all of this is to know that when hiring an a lawyer, you want to be represented by someone that regularly appears before the Arbitrator.  We just were hired by a Rockford man who was hurt in Cook County.   He had originally hired a Rockford workers' compensation lawyer, but let him go when that attorney refused to motion the case for trial because he never goes to Chicago for cases.

When we suggest an attorney, we always recommend someone that frequently appears before the Arbitrator that will hear the case.  That may not be a factor when you hire the lawyer, but it could be important down the road.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Every now and then we get phone calls from people who have taken a leave of absence because of stress, depression or some other psychological injury.  Unfortunately we usually can't help these people.

Under Illinois law, unless there is something physical that led to the mental injury, it's almost impossible to win a work injury case.  In other words, if your boss pushes you (which is a physical act) and that leads to a mental breakdown then you could have a case.  But if your boss is just a jerk and screams at you all of the time and that leads to a mental breakdown then it's probably not a case.  Might sound odd, but that's the law.

Typically the only time a mental stressor that leads to a mental breakdown can be covered under IL work comp laws is if the mental stressor is shocking and well beyond what is normal.  The classic example is a factory worker who saw a co-workers hand get ripped off by a machine that they both worked on.  This led to severe nightmares and panic attacks.  That case was compensable.

Of course, no matter what happened to you, we will always talk for free and give our honest advice.  Call any time, 312-346-5578.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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We can get what is called penalties and fees.   Essentially, if you are not getting your benefits and there is no good reason - such as a reasonable dispute as to the extent of your injury or how it occurred - then they can be punished.

In fact they can be punished as much as 50% of your medical bills, money for each day that TTD benefits are inappropriately denied and 20% for attorney's fees which puts more money in your pockets.

There are often legitimate reasons that cases are disputed such as an IME report.  But often insurance companies just do the wrong thing.  We are amazed that more attorneys don't take advantage of this law and take their cases to trial.  In a recent case, an insurance company had to pay more than $110,000 in penalties because of their awful behavior.

If you are getting screwed over for no reason the law is on your side.  Use it to your advantage.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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We tell anyone that contacts us that nothing is more important than your health and we truly believe that.  We'd rather have a client that makes a good recovery than a client with a long term injury that is worth more money to us.  We take no pride in handing over a check to a client that will be in life long pain.

We don't offer much medical advice because we are not doctors.  One piece of advice we will give is that you should hire a doctor that gives you the best chance of a good outcome.  And yes, we mean hire a doctor.  They should work for you.

We feel that you get the best chance of success by getting a doctor that is narrowly focused in their practice.  In other words, lots of orthopedic doctors operate on multiple body parts, but if you are having back surgery, we suggest that you get a surgeon that primarily operates on the spine.  It's not that a doctor who operates on the back, legs, arms, etc. can't do a good job; rather we think a real specialist gives you the best opportunity.

Don't hesitate to look around for the right doctor just like you would/should for an attorney.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Don't take our word for it.  The Illinois Appellate Court just ruled that an electrician whose work duties varied - compared with someone who does a single task every day on a repetitive basis - could still bring a case for repetitive trauma.

In this case the electrician alleged that he got carpal tunnel, cubital tunnel and pronator syndromes due to his repetitive and hand intensive work.  The defense said that benefits should be denied because the work was varied.  The Court disagreed and said that even though it wasn't the same task over and over, it was repetitive enough.

Based on the Court's findings, the injured worker received approval for six needed surgeries, all of which will be paid for by the insurance company.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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We have a big philosophy on how we treat our clients.  You can sum it up that we do what we think gives them the best chance of success and that we treat them like we would a family member or friend.

Case in point is a recent client.   We are helping them with their work injury, but it happened in a car accident that was someone else's fault, so we connected them with a good personal injury attorney for that.  They were off work for a long time so they needed a referral to a social security lawyer.  Again, we didn't try to handle that in-house, we sent that to someone we think is an expert.

From there regrettably their doctor messed up their surgery so we recommended an Illinois medical malpractice lawyer.  And finally, their ex-wife is making a claim against their benefits so we referred this client to a family law attorney.

It's not the desired path for a case, but it's not uncommon either. 

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Most people that are hurt on the job have one case and one case only.  But some have two.

The most common example is a person who usually works in another state, but is hurt on business in Illinois.   The insurance company tells them that the claim has to be handled through a different state (that is favorable to the insurance company) and offers a settlement in that state.

So let's say hypothetically you get a settlement of $10,000 under Florida workers' compensation law for an injury that took place in Illinois.  If that same case would be worth $40,000 in Illinois, we can get you an extra $30,000.  The insurance company would have a credit for the $10,000 that they paid in Florida.

Even if the Florida settlement contract says that you give up your rights to pursue cases in any other state, Illinois would not recognize that part of the contract and would still allow you to bring your case here.  And if that happens, you'd have two settlements, although the total amount would be as if you just received one.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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If you are an Illinois employer or doing business in Illinois and you don't have workers' compensation coverage, it's a felony.  This assumes that you have employees.  In other words, if you are the only employee you don't have to coverage, but if anyone works for you, you do.

In addition, you can't have an employee sign away their rights to workers' compensation coverage.  Even if they signed that type of document, it would not be enforceable. 

Also, some employers try to get around this law by calling their employees independent contractors.  If they truly are employees - meaning that you have a right of control over them - then they would still be covered under the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act.

From the worker's standpoint, rest assured that your employer doesn't set the rules, the state of Illinois does.  No matter what your boss says, you are covered if hurt on the job.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Insurance companies typically make money because most people are too nice or too scared to find out their rights.

Take Jim (name changed of course) who called us today looking to find out if we could help a two year old medical bill get paid.  It turns out that on April 28, 2006 Jim blew out his knee at work and had ACL surgery.  The insurance company paid him for his time off work and paid for all of his bills except this one that had gone to collection.  When Jim called to ask them to pay the bill no one returned his call.

Jim was just going to pay the bill (almost $1,000) out of his own pocket, but as you know, times are tough.  Fortunately he called us and even more fortunate is the fact that he didn't wait much longer because come April 29th his case would have been barred forever.  Now not only will the bill get paid, but Jim is looking at around $35,000.00 for his injury.

Now I can't say for sure, but a pretty educated guess is that the insurance company new that if they could just delay Jim for a few weeks that they would be off the hook and Jim would be screwed.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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We represented a very nice woman who had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands.  Based on her medical records, recovery and current complaints, her case in our opinion is worth 25% loss of each hand.

Problem is that before she hired us she tried to settle the case herself.  The adjuster offered her $20,000 which was 12% of the hand.  Our client then said she wants $24,000 and made clear that was her bottom line.  The adjuster didn't budge so the client came to us.

We immediately realized that this case was worth double the offer and made the case to the adjuster.  She admitted it was worth what we were asking, but said, "I'm only offering $24,000 because I know that's what she wants." 

Long story short, we took the case to trial, got exactly what the case was worth, but our client didn't get her money until 14 months after they would have had they come to us in the first place.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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We are representing a nice laborer who hurt his knee on the job, had surgery for a torn meniscus and for the most part has made a good recovery.  He's a the type of worker every company should want; doesn't make waves, works hard, shows up every day, etc.

His daughter called the insurance company and asked for a settlement offer.  Her dad would have taken whatever they presented no matter how low the offer was.  Instead the adjuster said something like, "Sorry, your case was closed and can't be re-opened.  There will be no offer."

WRONG!!!

An insurance company can't just close a case.   Now your case might be barred because of a statute of limitations problem, but some adjuster can't just one day decide to tell you that the case is over.  As they said in Animal House, "It's not over until we say it is!"

End of the story is that the case has been filed and you can bet our client who would have taken whatever was offered will be getting full value for his claim.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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A sad reality is that many of our clients at some point need to hire an Illinois labor and employment law attorney.  We don't handle those cases, but we do.  You are probably saying to yourself, "Huh????"

We believe that if we are representing a client that we have a responsibility (within reason) to help our clients out in anything that stems from their case.  In other words, if you are owed overtime payments, we should refer you to someone.  If you are fired because you got hurt on the job, we should refer you to a lawyer that can help you.  If you are getting a divorce, well that likely has nothing to do with your case; but we'll still try to help you find the right attorney.

So many attorneys seem to take the easy excuse of saying something like, "We don't specialize in that."  If your work injury attorney hasn't made any relationships with employment law attorneys then all we can say is that is a real bad sign.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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If you follow this blog you know that we preach honesty.  We were called by a woman today that hurt her back on the job and has a herniated disc.  Since the company is struggling she agreed to lie to her doctor about how she got hurt.  She did this thinking she was being a good employee.

As you can probably guess, she now needs back surgery, just got laid off and of course they are disputing that she got hurt on the job.  Unless a miracle occurs, this woman has lost all of the rights of the Illinois workers' compensation system.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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When someone sustains a permanent scar from a job accident it can possibly entitle you to compensation for what is called disfigurement.  There are a few things to think about in these cases:

1. You can't settle a scar case until your scar is at least six months old.

2. Scars that occur above your knees or below the breast line do not qualify for compensation (although you might be able to get compensation for permanent partial disability if there is some other problem to that part of the body).  Please note that scars on your arms in between these two points can get compensation.

3. A scar on your face is worth more money that any other part of your body.

4. A scar that is raised or keyloid has more settlement value.

5. You can't get permanent partial disability (ppd) and dis-figuration money for the same body part.  e.g. if you are cut by a saw at work and sever a tendon, you will get ppd, but won't get disfigurement.

This is one area of workers' compensation where your medical records don't help a Judge decide what your case is worth.  If we can't settle a scar case we usually just take our client in front of the Judge and let him/her offer their opinion.  The case typically settles after that.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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If you are getting a divorce or paying child support in Illinois then your Illinois work injury claim can in a way become a part of that case. 

For divorce, a settlement for an injury during the marriage is considered a marital asset and your spouse might have an interest in half of what you get.  In other words, if you get hurt on January 15th and file for divorce that April, your spouse could be owed part of your settlement.

For child support, if you are delinquent in paying or if your ex gets a withholding order, it's possible that part of your TTD check will go directly to them.  It's also possible for them to get an order requiring that they get paid before you do if a settlement is reached.

In neither case can your ex say that a settlement isn't fair or actually take part of the case.  But once they put you and/or your attorney or the insurance company on notice of their interests, those interests have to be protected.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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As Illinois workers' compensation attorneys, we know a lot about medicine as we deal with it every day.  That said, we don't give medical advice and while we might suggest a doctor for a client if asked, we never will steer a client to a certain doctor.  It's not ethical and it can come back to burn you.

We get called all of the time from doctors and chiropractors who "want to send their clients to us."  What they really want is for us to send our clients to them.  We've never taken anyone up on this "offer" and while we might have lost some business as a result, again it's not really the right way to do our job.

If your doctor says that he met an attorney and was impressed on what that lawyer did for his client then by all means check it out.  But if your doctor seems intent on steering you to a lawyer you'd be wise to ask what's in it for the doctor and what their relationship is.  Many of these doctors seem to get in bed with attorneys who don't solely focus on work injuries.

And just as we wouldn't give you medical advice, if your doc tries to tell you what the law is we suggest that you take it with a grain of salt.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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