There are two workers’ compensation law firms in Chicago that have lots of clients. They also have lots of clients that are not happy with them. In fact, although there are many bigger firms out there than these two, when I get a caller telling me that they don’t like their attorney it’s usually one of them. One is a yeller and belittles his clients. The other doesn’t return phone calls, lies and has so many lawyers quit working for him that I’ve seen cases where more than five lawyers took over a file in a two year period. Callers are usually shocked when I can guess who their lawyer is based on what their complaints are.
The liar had a client call me recently and what he did to that client was immoral. There was a big injury that settled for $100,000. That results in a $20,000 attorney fee and they were entitled to recoup their expenses of a couple hundred dollars for medical records. That amount for medical records is actually really high, but it’s not unheard of. This lawyer had the client sign a settlement statement that showed they would receive approximately $79,800 after the fee and expenses. That’s pretty typical.
But what the lawyer did after this is theft. He added on additional charges for travel costs and some consulting company, more than $500 altogether. First off, you can’t tell a client they are going to get $x and then give them less than that after they sign. Second, I’ve never, ever heard of a lawyer charging travel costs in a work comp case unless they have to stay over night at a hotel or fly somewhere for a deposition. For example, I once flew to Kansas City to take the deposition of a treating doctor. I took the 6 a.m. flight, rented a car and then took the last flight back to Chicago. I billed for the car and flight. I could have stayed in a hotel the night before and billed that too, but I didn’t want to add expenses.
However this lawyer billed for gas charges from going from his Chicago office to the Geneva court. That is absurd!!! He likely has many cases in Geneva and I would assume he’s billing them all. There is no basis in the law for doing this in my opinion and if he was going to do it, he should have notified the client before they hired him. I have NEVER heard of a law firm for workers’ billing this charge. Beyond that, they added a fee for some consulting company that the client knew nothing about. I can’t imagine what benefit this provided.
I hear horror stories about this lawyer all the time, but this one takes the cake. I don’t know how he still has a law license and hopefully he won’t because the client promised that they would report him to the Attorney Registration and Disability Commission. That is the agency that can suspend lawyers for unethical conduct. And if anyone deserves to lose the ability to practice law, it’s this guy. I’m just shocked by the greed and lack of morals.
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