Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

A Chicago man called us the other day looking to learn more about whether or not his plantar fasciitis was related to his work activities.  We won't go in to his specific facts, but here are some things to think about:

1. The plantar fascia is a medical term for the cushion from your heal to the bottom of your foot.  The older you get the more worn down it gets.  It also wears away with excessive use.

2. If you have a simple desk job it would be difficult to prove that your heal injury is related to your job unless you had a specific incident where you banged your heal against a desk or something like that.

3. Most Illinois workers' compensation cases that involve plantar fasciitis are from people that have to walk an excessive amount or have to work on un-even surfaces.  We have also seen cases where having to wear certain types of footwear like steel toed boots contributed to the problem.

4. Other common contributors to the problem are obesity and diabetes.  Remember though, even if you have those problems, if your job aggravates or accelerates your condition it should be covered.

5. Like most injuries, the most important thing to do if your heal is hurting is to see a doctor and hopefully solve the problem before it's too big.  The longer you wait the more likely surgery is going to be needed.

6. Finally, it's not uncommon for these problems to last a lifetime, even with surgery.   Many of our clients have been given permanent restrictions or forced to find a new job.  The good news is that IL work comp law protects you in that situation.

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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The Arena Football League is reportedly going out of business.  One of the players who got hurt in a game, but has never formally filed his case wants to know what to do.  The answer for him is the same for any other Illinois injured worker whose employer went belly up.

Even if your employer files for bankruptcy your case doesn't go away.  Most employers have paid for insurance that covers your claim.  If they were self-insured then the Illinois Employer's Guarantee Fund will take over your case.

The short answer is that unless you were working for an employer that carried no insurance at the time you got hurt, there is really nothing to worry about as long as we get your case formally filed with the State of Illinois.  It's possible that your benefits could get delayed, but the case itself will never go away.  And that is true whether you play football, install cable lines or sit at a desk all day.

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 happy to answer any questions that people have about Illinois injury cases.  Three questions we get asked a lot are what are the abbreviations FCE, IME and MMI?

FCE- Stands for functional capacity evaluation.  Basically it's a test that has you perform a series of activities throughout the day to determine if you need any physical restrictions before returning to your job or what capacity you can work in.  It's an objective test that measures not just ability, but also effort.  If you are found to have used a bad effort it can hurt your case.

IME- Stands for independent medical examination.  This is the insurance company's right to send you to a doctor of their choosing to see if you are really hurt, what your diagnosis is, whether or not your problem is work related, what treatment is needed or anything else that they want to ask.  It's usually a one time visit.  Many of these doctors are hired guns or almost always favor the employer.  Some are truly independent.

MMI- This means maximum medical improvement or as good as you are going to get medically speaking.  We don't consider settling a case until a client is at MMI because once you settle you can not get any more medical treatment at your employer's expense.  Sometimes you are at MMI, but still need ongoing physical therapy or a yearly exam.  Your doctor determines when MMI has taken place.

If you have questions about any of these terms just let us know.

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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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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My first trial many years ago I represented a woman who did semi-repetitive work on the job and per her doctor had carpal tunnel.  I was fresh out of law school and my boss at the time asked me to go to trial to get the experience.

My opponent was kind of an older attorney and didn't seem very organized.  We talked before the case went to trial and he was encouraging me to settle.  Young and confident with marching orders from my boss I told my client to decline the settlement offer.

I thought the trial went well as my nervous client testified well.  However, it was clear from the get-go that my opponent and the Arbitrator had a great relationship.  I was addressed as "counselor", my opponent was called by his first name.  During a break the two of them yucked it up.  Six weeks later I got the result and the case was denied.  To this date it's the only time I've represented an injured worker and lost a trial with no compensation (as discussed in this blog, that is no great deal as our firm only takes on legitimate injuries).

The lesson from all of this is that while the facts are important, the ultimate income often depends on things you can't control.  Because of this experience I launched www.findgreatlawyers.com to point people in the right direction for their case.  We have a state wide network of attorneys that helps people find the right lawyer for their case.  If you have a Lake County workers' compensation case, we will connect you with a lawyer that not only focuses their practice on job injuries, but has a great relationship with the Arbitrators up there.  Same for any other county.  This gives you the best chance of success.

Had my boss done the same thing in 1997 our client likely would have won her case.

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 recently posted about a client that got benefits for an accident on a mechanical bull while a traveling employee.  A reader was wondering if she would have recovered had she been drunk?

In general, being under the influence of drugs or alcohol makes your case not compensable.  The reasoning is that it's not reasonably foreseeable by an employer that one of their employees will be intoxicated while on the clock. 

Now it's probably also not reasonably foreseeable that an employee will get hurt riding a mechanical bull or falling into a volcano (see our previous post), but we really think that the Courts in Illinois wanted to draw a line somewhere and rightly or wrongly they drew it at being intoxicated.

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 received calls from three prospective clients this week, two of which had an attorney, one of which settled a case last year with a different lawyer.  What do they all have in common?  None of them could tell us the name of the attorney that represented them?

Now I don't know if I should blame the client on this or not.  This case is your life on the line and just like raising a child, you have to show interest and personal responsibility.

That said, I got the impression that these lawyers spent so little time with the clients and dumped them off on their secretaries.  With that type of service it's not surprising that they didn't know their names.

We won't ever guarantee a client a result.  But I do guarantee that if you don't know our name once you hire us, it won't be because we haven't communicated with you on a regular basis.  Sending a letter or e-mail once a month and making a phone call is an easy thing to do and we do it.  A good attorney wants to know what is going on with their clients.

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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There is an Illinois workers' compensation attorney that we don't like.  The reason that we don't like him is because about once a week we get a call from someone he is representing.  It's always a different person calling, but the conversation usually stems from the fact that they don't get returned phone calls from that office or that attorney isn't fighting for them.  Quite often we investigate this and find that this lawyer is flat out lying about the case or telling the client to take much less money than could be obtained with a little hard work.

This same lawyer has said that he has won compensation on 98% of his cases.  That sounds impressive unless you know anything about Illinois work injury law.  The reality is that in pretty much any case you could settle for some sort of compensation from an insurance company.  Most insurance companies will pay you $1,000 just to go away.  The reality is that most good attorneys only take on serious injury cases and while we may not win every issue for our clients, just about every client we have represented has come away with a significant result.

The reason this is true is that we don't take minor cases.  It's just as much work to get a great result for someone with a broken finger as it is to do the same for someone with a broken arm.  The broken arm case is worth more money so we focus on helping people with serious injuries only.

So beware attorneys that promote something that sounds too good to be true.  Before hiring an attorney find out how they will communicate with you and if they have clients that will recommend them.

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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Chondromalacia, or runner’s knee, is a common injury among young athletes, and especially runners. Men tend to be more prone to runner’s knee than women. Runner’s knee is caused by an irritation to the under-surface of the kneecap known as the patella. The patella is coated in smooth cartilage, and it usually glides across the knee cap as the knee bends. However, if the knee tends to press up against one side of the kneecap, the cartilage is worn down and the patella is irritated. The result of an irritated patella is the kneecap or anterior knee pain known as Chondromalacia, or runner’s knee.

Treatment for Chondromalacia (runner’s knee)

Surgery is rarely necessary for treatment of Chonromalacia. Rest and physical therapy can effectively heal Chondromalacia. Usually adequate rest involves several weeks away from athletic activity and eventually a gradual return back to activity. Effective physical therapy usually focuses on strengthening of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles. Anti-inflammatory medications can also reduce pain and swelling. In rare cases, surgery may be an option.

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 don't like to take cases over from other attorneys, but consider it when the lawyer is clearly screwing up, is someone we know doesn't fight for their clients or doesn't have a lot of Illinois work injury experience.

When we do take on a new client, we sign a contract that entitles us to 20% of whatever is recovered when the case is resolved.  It's the exact same contract you should have signed in the beginning of the case. 

The good thing to know from a client's standpoint is that even if you get a new attorney, the lawyer fees should never exceed 20% of what is recovered.  In other words, that is the most that ALL of the lawyers can get and it's up to the lawyers to fight it out as to who gets what.

So if you are looking to switch attorneys, we may or may not be able to help.  But don't hesitate to inquire because it won't cost you any more money.

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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