On Saturday, Northwestern University lost to Nebraska on a last second “Hail Mary” to Nebraska.  Nebraska was down three points with 5 seconds left and was about 55 yards from scoring so they didn’t have a choice.  It wasn’t a great choice, but of course they had nothing to lose.  Sometimes you just throw stuff against the wall to see if it sticks.  In this case it did.
 
That happens in other areas of life too including workers’ compensation claims.  In fact, I recently got a call from a guy who was the victim of an insurance company Hail Mary.
 
He injured his leg in 2009 and has been receiving TTD benefits ever since then.  Then out of the blue he gets a letter from the insurance company saying that his current condition isn’t work related and they are going to stop sending him benefit checks.
 
Of course there was no real basis for this denial.  It was throwing a dart against the wall to see what would happen.  What did happen is it forced this nice guy to get a lawyer and stop the craziness.
 
I have no problem when an insurance company defends a case because it’s defendable.  Reasonable people can disagree over what an outcome should be and that’s why we have our court system.  But when they act with complete disregard for your health and with no morals, then we have a really big problem.
 
From their standpoint, they already have lost, so what’s the worst that can happen.  Maybe you buy their nonsense and settle your case for less than it’s worth.  In a crazy world, you’d just give up.
 
If they are successful even just once out of ten times then they win in the long run.  Your case is about you and your life.  But to them it’s just another file number and they don’t care about your well being or what struggles their actions will cause you to go through.
 
The good news is that this is an easily problem to solve and we can file for penalties and attorneys fees that if done enough and collected enough can actually deter them from doing the wrong thing.
 
Whatever happens, don’t despair.  We do have a very strong work comp system in Illinois for workers that is also fair to employers.  As long as you educate yourself and protect yourself, things will be fine.

We are workers’ compensation attorneys who 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.

By Michael Helfand