Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

Being an Illinois workers' compensation attorney is unlike almost any other area of law.  For example, if you are getting a divorce or arrested for a crime, hiring a local attorney can pay huge dividends for you.  Most county courts have hearings for these if not daily, at least a couple of times a week.  If you are a Freeport based attorney, you are not going to drive to Rockford and back on a daily basis for cases if you can help it.  You'd probably just handle cases in Freeport.

In work injury cases they don't hold hearings in every county.  Instead, a group of counties will have hearings at one location.  For example, if you live in Galena, Freeport or Rochelle, your hearing location will be in Rockford.  And there are not hearings every day of the week, rather there are just hearings for a couple of days out of the month.

So if you are a Galena based attorney, you not only have to drive to Rockford for hearings, you most likely make a living taking on most cases that come through the door.  We strongly believe that if your attorney handles not only workers comp, but also divorce, criminal, traffic, real estate, etc., it is a bad sign.

It's not that these attorneys couldn't do a good job for you, but since you pay a maximum of 20% to whomever you hire, don't you think you give yourself a better chance of a good result by hiring someone who handles only work injury cases?

We saw this recently when a woman called us because her small town, take every case that comes through the door, attorney was trying to get her to settle her case when her doctor said that she needed another surgery.  She had hired this lawyer because he did her divorce and real estate closing.  He would have likely been fine if the case was simple, but she needed to go to trial and he was over-matched against the insurance company lawyer who handles 100% workers comp.

If you go to any hearing location for workers' compensation and do a survey of the lawyers, you will find that most of them (unlike criminal and divorce cases) are not local, but rather are bigger city attorneys that travel throughout the area doing nothing but work injury cases.  If your attorney doesn't have a large case load of work injury cases then you are probably hiring the wrong firm.

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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That is the number one question that we get.  The short answer is that there is no way to tell you for sure without reviewing your medical records.  We can usually give a likely range by asking you a few questions, but if you are interested in knowing the maximum that could be expected, a records review is needed.

In the bigger picture, that question is often asked at the wrong time.  Specifically, right after you get injured you shouldn't be thinking about a settlement.   While you are under a doctor's care for the injury, you shouldn't be thinking about a settlement.  If you are in vocational rehabilitation because your employer has no job for you, you shouldn't be thinking about a settlement.

It's understandable that you would want to know what your case might be worth, but it's not realistic.  If you can't return to work at the same job, but can work a new job for similar pay, your case is worth less than if you can't work the same job and now have a big wage loss compared to your old job. 

If you are still getting medical treatment you may have future medical care as a goal and that could affect what the case is worth or whether or not you go to trial.

By settling when you are getting treatment you risk your health and there is of course nothing more important than that.

Finally, the insurance company does not have to make a settlement offer to you, but if you formally file a case with a lawyer and your case is legit, a settlement will happen.  And FYI, we have never seen a situation where someone ends up with less money through a good Illinois work comp attorney than they could have gotten on their own.

 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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