When picking an Illinois workers compensation attorney, who are you actually hiring?
We are very up front about our service. We are workers' compensation lawyers in Illinois that are advocates for our clients. Our team is a state-wide network of attorneys and whoever takes on the case is based on the facts of your unique situation. Some things that determine this are the type of injury, the company you work for and who we think the Arbitrator will be if the case goes to trial. In almost every instance the attorney that you speak to will handle your case from beginning to end and be available to answer all of your questions. A couple of calls to us by potential clients have shown that not every firm works that way.
Firm #1 is run by a lawyer that just does a ton of advertising including a great amount with the Yellow Pages. We are told that he makes the client think they are hiring him, but just sends the client on to another firm. We have never seen this lawyer actually directly handle a case.
Firm #2 is run by a lawyer who has a huge volume of work injury cases, but hires very young, inexperienced attorneys to handle them. We are told that quite often clients start with one lawyer and then end up with three or four different attorneys before the case is done. None of them are very aware about what is going on with the claim when they take over and of course the clients are frustrated.
Firm #3 does a great job by reputation with Rockford workers' compensation cases, but only has a handful of cases outside of that area. A caller explained to us a situation that could be quickly resolved with a trial motion, but they've been waiting for six months to go to court because the lawyer hasn't made time to travel to Chicago.
All of these situations are complete B.S. In some ways, if you have a serious work injury your life as you know it is on the line. We will never understand how some of these attorneys can look themselves in the mirror every day.
Whether you find a lawyer for us or through anyone else, don't be afraid to ask up front who will be handling your case, how they will communicate with you and what the firm will do if that lawyer leaves. Ask that attorney what percentage of their practice is workers' compensation and how many cases they have handled in the county where the case is going to be filed over the last two years. Then ask them how many lawyers have left their firm in the last five years. If your prospective attorney doesn't do at least 80% workers comp and hasn't handled at least 30 cases in the last two years in the area where your case is going to be filed it's a red flag. And if over the last five years more than four attorneys have left their firm (for most of our network attorneys only leave to become a Judge) then you should probably keep looking.
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.
