Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

We met someone the other day, not a potential client, but just someone we met at a social gathering.  In the conversation they learned about my practice and said that their husband had a previous work injury, but didn't hire a lawyer because after thinking about it they decided that they "don't want the lawyer to take it all."

I'm not sure where this type of thinking comes from.  Under Illinois law, attorney fees for work injuries are limited to 20% of what is recovered for the settlement or trial verdict.  There are minor exceptions to this rule, but it applies in 99% of the cases.

This is true whether you hire one law firm or switch firms five times (don't do that); lawyer fees can never exceed 20% total.  If you settle for $50,000.00, the lawyer gets $10,000.  If you lose the case they get nothing.

I don't like to talk about personal business in a social setting so I don't know what this man got for his settlement.  I do know that she said he wasn't happy with it.  Whatever the case, I've never seen a time where someone did better in the end without a lawyer than they would with.  And no matter what happens, there is no way you will hire an Illinois work injury attorney and feel like they "took it all."

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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A recent case decided at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission shows once again that you never should let your employer or their insurance company tell you that you don't have a case because you are an independent contractor.

According to the case, a trucker who was issued a 1099 form and labeled an independent contractor, was really an employee who was entitled to benefits for his work injury.  He had a long, continuous relationship with the defendant, he worked full time and exclusively for the defendant and the defendant provided him with the equipment to complete his job.  They also had the right to terminate him.

Under Illinois law, this trucker was found to be an employee because the employer had control over him.  He had signed a form that said he was an independent contractor, but under Illinois law you can not sign away your rights to workers' compensation.

In other words, if it looks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duck, it's a duck.  If you look like an employee, talk like an employee and act like an employee, you are probably an employee.  Don't let them tell you that you are not.

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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This was passed on from another workers' compensation lawyer we know:

So I was watching a trial the other day and thought of you.  The petitioner's attorney had what seemed to be a great case.  Operated ACL injury with a disputed TTD period and a question as to whether or not there was an intervening accident that made it worse.  Client missed about two months from work for which he wasn't paid.  His lawyer made an opening statement asking for the TTD benefits, but not once did he ask his client if he actually missed any time from work.  We all know the system favors injured workers, but this was the most lazy, unprepared lawyering I've seen in a while.  Even if the medical records say he was authorized off work, how can you not actually ask your client if they missed work?  The guy was a white collar worker with a good wage so this will probably cost him around $8,000.

We have never finished a trial in which we didn't look back and think that there was a question we wish we would have asked.  But we've never looked back and forgotten to ask a material question like "did you miss any time from work?"

There are a lot of great workers' compensation attorneys in Illinois.  Most are really prepared before they go to trial.  But there are some that don't go over testimony with their client ahead of time, are always shuffling through papers during the trial and give you the impression that they haven't actually reviewed their client's medical records.

If you are going through an Illinois workers' compensation trial, if your attorney doesn't ask to review your testimony ahead of time, consider it a very bad sign.

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 received a call a while back from a nurse at a Chicago area hospital.  She had developed a C-diff infection and was looking for a lawyer.  C-diff, like many infections, can be life threatening and is known to cause major colon damage.

The question for this nurse or anyone that thinks their infection is job related is how do you actually prove that you picked it up on the job?

Like any other case where you don't have a specific injury (e.g. back pops while lifting a box), you need your testimony about your job activities and an opinion from your doctor that your job contributed to the condition.

In the case of the nurse, she knew that there were patients on her floor that had C-diff, but because of confidentiality rules, she couldn't get those records.  We were able to achieve success for her because her independent knowledge, along with the fact that she had no other reliable contributing factors, caused an infectious disease doctor to state that more likely than not her work as a nurse played a role in her getting C-diff.

Whether you get C-diff, MRSA, or any other infection, it is your burden to show that it's work related in some way.  By properly explaining your situation to your doctor you can usually succeed in obtaining benefits when the evidence is on your side.

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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A lot of readers ask how long they have to bring a case.  Some have only been hurt a few days ago, some are going on a few years.

The statute of limitations to bring an Illinois workers' compensation claim is the longer of three years from the accident date or two years from the last payment of compensation. 

Three years from the accident date is usually straight forward unless you have a repetitive trauma injury like a back problem from a lot of lifting over time.

Two years from the last payment of compensation includes not only workers' compensation benefits like TTD or payment of medical benefits, but also payments for medical bills related to the injury through group insurance (if obtained from your employer) or disability policy benefits (again it must be through your employer).  We have seen cases where a statute of limitation had passed, but because an insurance company paid a bill all of the sudden the case was alive again.  This is very rare and as far as we know, workers comp is the only area of Illinois law where you can miss the time limits for filing a case and then possibly get it back.

There is also a law that says you must give your employer notice of an injury within 45 days of when you knew or reasonably should have known that it might be related to a work accident.   Failure to do so can cause your case to be dismissed. 

The reality is that if you are hurt on the job you don't want to lose your right to benefits over a technicality.  By hiring an attorney this should never happen.

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 get tons of calls from truck drivers.  Some were injured in Illinois, but otherwise have never been to Illinois.  Others have their terminal out of Illinois in places like Decatur, Chicago and Rockford, but work out of state.  Still others came to Illinois for their pre-employment physical and training, but haven't been here since.

If hurt on the job, all of those people would be eligible to pursue an Illinois workers' compensation claim.  They potentially would also have the ability to file a case in other states depending on where they were hurt, where their terminal is located and the laws of each state.

We are only Illinois attorneys so we can't give you advice about other states.  That said, we know many work injury attorneys throughout the country and everyone we've talked to has made it clear to us that the best benefits for injured workers are in Illinois.

Sometimes the insurance company will tell you that they are processing the benefits through one state.  They don't get to make that decision, you do.  Sometimes they do it because they don't know any better.  Often insurance companies do it because they know the case is worth less money in a state like Indiana, Tennessee or Texas than it would be in Illinois.  Many states have smaller limits as to what you can recover (we are told that the maximum for a Kansas case is $125,000.00) and they also sometimes give the insurance company control over your medical care.

Remember that if you want to bring your case in Illinois, as long as you were hurt here, hired here or have your employment principally based out of here you can bring an Illinois workers compensation claim.  Even if you settled your case through another state you may still be able to file your case in Illinois, even if your settlement agreement in the other state says that you can't bring any other cases.  Only the Illinois Workers'  Compensation Commission can close out your 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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Insurance companies typically make money because most people are too nice or too scared to find out their rights.

Take Jim (name changed of course) who called us today looking to find out if we could help a two year old medical bill get paid.  It turns out that on April 28, 2006 Jim blew out his knee at work and had ACL surgery.  The insurance company paid him for his time off work and paid for all of his bills except this one that had gone to collection.  When Jim called to ask them to pay the bill no one returned his call.

Jim was just going to pay the bill (almost $1,000) out of his own pocket, but as you know, times are tough.  Fortunately he called us and even more fortunate is the fact that he didn't wait much longer because come April 29th his case would have been barred forever.  Now not only will the bill get paid, but Jim is looking at around $35,000.00 for his injury.

Now I can't say for sure, but a pretty educated guess is that the insurance company new that if they could just delay Jim for a few weeks that they would be off the hook and Jim would be screwed.

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 representing a very nice woman who broke her hip when she fell off of a chair.  She had to go to a nursing home as part of her care after surgery.  Her doctor believes that while in the nursing home she contracted C-diff which is a very severe infection of the bowels that can be life threatening.

When this client came to us, the insurance company was agreeing to pay for the nursing care for the hip, but not for the C-diff problems.  They tried to get our client to put that through Medicare.

The law in Illinois is clear.  Anything that arises from the original injury is part of the workers' compensation case.  We have had cases where clients on crutches after knee surgery hurt their elbow because of the crutches.  That was covered.  We've seen people go in for routine surgery and become brain damaged from a surgical error.  That was covered.  We certainly expect that our new client will have all of her bills covered by workers' compensation as well.

It's important for our client or anyone else not to have Medicare or group insurance pay for these bills.  If they realize that they paid bills in error they can sue you to recover what they paid.

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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Generally speaking, if you are hurt due to the negligence of your employer or co-worker, you can't sue for negligence.   That's one of the trade-offs of Illinois work comp law and in most cases it's well worth it because Illinois offers great work injury benefits to employees.

That said, it's shocking to us how few attorneys do a real analysis as to what other cases might exist.  So many take the approach that they only represent you for the work injury.  That may be true (and that's all we do), but as an attorney you should still do your best to offer a full analysis of what rights your clients may have.

Perhaps you were illegally fired.  Maybe you are owed overtime benefits.  Possibly someone who is not part of your company was negligent and can be sued for the extent of your injury.

One of my favorite clients is a nice young man from Indiana that we represented for free because he became paralyzed after a fall from a scaffold.  He worked for an Illinois company, but got hurt in Wisconsin so he at first contacted an attorney there.  That lawyer got him workers' compensation benefits in Wisconsin, but failed to investigate whether or not he could have gotten more in Illinois and shockingly never did an investigation as to whether or not the scaffold company could have been sued.

By the time he got to us it was too late to sue the scaffold company and all we could do was increase his benefits based on Illinois law.  Fortunately he had a legal malpractice lawsuit against his first lawyer, but really it should never have come to that.

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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It's probably also a big mess.  We decided long ago not to get involved in uninsured cases because regrettably we found that you usually can't collect in these cases.  In other words, we might win your case, but it's doubtful we'll see any money for you or us and if we do it's usually nowhere near what the case is worth.

If your employer says they don't have work comp insurance or you know that they don't you should report them to the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission Department of Insurance.  If they do their job they will investigate your employer and hopefully help you.

The most recent tragic example we saw of this was from a caller who has been a mover for 23 years and blew out his knee.  His employer shockingly doesn't have insurance and now this guy is faced with a career change.  We can only hope that the employer goes to jail.

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 a Federal Law that protects the interests of Medicare.   Basically if you have an injury now and some day need treatment for it and go to Medicare to ask them to pay for it, they are going to ask how you originally hurt yourself.  If they discover that it was from a workers' compensation claim they can deny payment if you failed to protect their interests.

Before we settle any case where it is anticipated that our clients will need future medical care we do what is called a Medicare Set Aside.  Basically an independent company comes in and states what the present cash value is of the future medical needs.  It is up to the insurance company to fund an account to pay for this treatment.  If you can prove to Medicare that you considered their interests you should have no worries.

If the insurance company won't provide this or if it's needed, we take our cases to trial.  If you win a work comp trial you keep your medical rights for life as it relates to that injury.

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 we found out a client of ours was lying, we'd withdraw from their case.  Fortunately we are pretty good at screening our clients and that has only happened once.  We were asked to provide an overview on work comp fraud in Illinois for a lecture and here is what we wrote.

Crime & Punishment in the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act

In February of 2006, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act was amended to include investigations of fraudulent work injury filings by a new Fraud Prevention Unit. Below is more detailed information about this new amendment to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.

Fraud: A person commits fraud when he or she intentionally induces another to rely on a pervasion of the truth and surrender a legal right or thing of value.

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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Hopefully your company still has a holiday party.  Most of these events are volunteer occasions which means that there is no punishment if you don't attend, at least not one that is publicized.

If you are at the office party this year and slip on a wet floor twisting your knee or sustain any other injury it is only compensable under Illinois workers' compensation laws if it was mandatory that you be there.  Otherwise you have no case.

It's mandatory if there is some repercussion for not attending.  Plainly speaking that means if you are threatened with losing your job, forced to take a vacation day, not given a bonus because you didn't show up or clearly denied a promotion.  You have to have some sort of proof, not just a feeling that it's good office politics to attend.

Two things to think about:

1. If you were injured at an office party, but were there to entertain clients then you might be covered if you get hurt because that can be seen as an act of your job.

2. If you get hurt because of someones negligence you may have a personal injury lawsuit.  Usually you can't sue your employer for negligence, but this is one time when you might be able to.  And of course, if the restaurant where you got hurt caused your injury you could sue them too.

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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