Short answer, yes.
Long answer, I’ve heard some shenanigans about a couple different Chicago workers’ compensation law firms who get fired all the time because they don’t call clients back and don’t fight for them.
Apparently some firms are adding a clause in to their clients that says if the client fires them they have to pay the attorney the full 20% fee.
This is illegal!!!
When you fire an attorney and hire a new one, the total lawyer fees under Illinois law can not exceed 20% of what is recovered. If the old lawyer thinks they are entitled to part of that 20%, they can try and work something out with the new lawyer or petition the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and an Arbitrator will decide who gets what.
Key points. 1. Your bottom line is not affected. 2. Any attempt to say you’ll owe the lawyer additional money is a lie and really scummy.
Whether you should switch attorneys or not is a different story and depends on how bad their service is, how old the case is and whether or not there have been any settlement offers or not.
If you want to talk about any of this, call the number at the top of the page or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you.
But don’t be scared in to just dealing with the bad representation.
