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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Our law firm is unique in that we are a network of attorneys throughout Illinois that solely help injured workers.  What we do is listen to your situation and recommend the attorney within our network that best fits your needs.  There are about 20 firms that we work with.  The goal is always to have the right lawyer work on the case.  Whatever is best for the client is how we guide our decisions.

This was well demonstrated in a call the other day.   A stuntman injured his shoulder severely while working on a movie in Chicago.  The movie was about football and he was injured making a tackle.  Within our network is an attorney who is also a college football referee.  He has more than 25 years representing injured workers and refereeing football games.  Not only does he understand work injuries, he understands football injuries.

Not that other lawyers in our network or other firms couldn't get a good result for this client, but clearly this is the best attorney for this guy.  At the least we believe that he gives him the best chance for success.

If you contact us we'll tell you who is the right lawyer for your unique 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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

We represent a lot of people that have repetitive trauma injuries like carpal tunnel, De Quervain's tenosynovitis and herniated discs in your back or neck.  Unlike a specific accident such as slipping on a wet floor or lifting a box and feeling a pop in your back, repetitive trauma injuries don't always have a specific date that you can point to as when your problem started.  Most people notice some pain and try to work there way through it or assume it will go away.

Illinois workers' compensation law states that the accident date for repetitive trauma injuries is the date you knew or reasonably should have known that you had the injury and it was related to your job duties.  Reasonable minds can disagree on that and many injured workers in Illinois have lost their case over that issue.

If you suspect that your job may have played a role in contributing to your injury it is important that you are 100% honest with your doctor about what your job duties involve.  Doctors are there to treat the injury.  Many won't make a comment about whether or not the injury is work related unless you ask.  When you do ask be very descriptive about what your duties involve.  In other words make clear how many hours a day you type, how often you are lifting heavy objects and what they way, how many parts you move an hour on an assembly line, etc.  The more descriptive that you are the better the chance that your doctor will understand the true role your work activities played in your injury occurring.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link