Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

I was thinking of this lately when I was in a discussion with a workers’ compensation defense attorney about whether or not a case was compensable or not.  He revealed that there was a case he was working on that was possibly defendable, but probably a loser if they fought it.  His client decided to not fight the case because they knew that by choosing that strategy they could save money by paying a smaller settlement at the end of the case than they would if they denied the worker and that worker got a lawyer.

In other words, this is how insurance companies work.  At the beginning of the case, an insurance adjuster sets what are called reserves.  Basically they predict an amount they will have to spend in order to close the case.  If the adjuster predicts $50,000 and it takes $70,000, then they could be in trouble.  If they predict $50,000 and close it for $30,000, they are a hero because they just saved $20,000.  You almost never get as high of a settlement offer (talking about what you would net, what ends up in your pocket) without a lawyer than with one.  They of course know this so many times the insurance company will be nice in order to save money at the end of the case.  Their “kindness” could cost you thousands of dollars.

Other times we see clients tell us how great the insurance company has been, we always ask one question:  Has there been a nurse case manager going to your appointments and talking to your doctor?  Nine out of 10 times the answer is yes.  Insurance companies act nice in this scenario because they know that it’s against the rules to have these nurses talking to the docs.  They want them there because many of the nurses will try to influence the doctor to order less costly treatment than you really need or to get the doctor to return you to work when you aren’t physically ready.

And of course they are doing all of this to save the insurance company money, not because they are thinking of what is best for you.  It must work because it happens all of the time, although we have seen countless workers who make their injuries worse by being put back on a job that they aren’t ready to handle.  Unfortunately many great doctors don’t want to be bothered with these nurses and just roll over on whatever they want.

This is just the straight up truth of how insurance companies operate.  Their job is to minimize their costs any way they can.  Whether it’s having a nurse go to your appointments (we can stop that from happening with one phone call), sending you to an “Independent” Medical Examination or telling you that your injury is not covered when it is, insurance companies are looking out for their bottom line.  That doesn’t make them bad people, but it also doesn’t mean that you should just accept whatever they tell you.  If you aren’t thinking about what is best for YOU then you are making a huge mistake.  And that is true whether or not you get a lawyer through us or any other good resource.