Here’s a pretty common Illinois workers’ compensation scenario.
You’ve never had a back problem or if you did, it was no big deal. One day you are lifting something at work and feel a pain in your back. You finish your shift, take some Advil that night, but the next day you wake up and it’s really stiff. It doesn’t get better, it’s harder to work, so you tell your boss about what happened and go see the doctor.
At the doctor they do x-rays which show nothing and this makes sense because x-rays only show broken bones. They give you some pain meds and order two weeks of physical therapy. They take you off of work. You do the PT and don’t feel any better so your doctor recommends a MRI to see if there is a herniated disc.
You show up to the MRI appointment and are sent home because the insurance company says it’s not approved and your case is under investigation. You don’t hear that from the insurance company, you hear it from the MRI staff.
This type of situation happens all of the time. You then talk to the adjuster who tells you that your case is being investigated and oh, by the way, you aren’t getting a check even though it’s already a week late. This makes no sense to you at all and it shouldn’t.
So why does this happen?
The insurance company is taking a gamble that you will freak out about not being paid and ignore your doctor and go back to work. Essentially they want you to risk getting injured much worse with the hopes that they won’t have to pay for it.
The bad news is this happens a lot, is very illegal and it screws up your life.
The good news is that any experienced attorney would know how to solve this problem and usually can do so quickly. Once we file a trial motion or give a phone call, they often roll over because they know that they have no basis for screwing you over and since a lawyer is involved, they know they won’t get away with it.
It’s the type of thing that makes you lose faith in humanity. They can treat people like garbage and get away with it. We don’t promise results, but we promise we will do whatever we can to make sure that they don’t hurt you and we’ve had amazing success in doing so.
If you need our help or just have questions, call us any time at 312-346-5578. We help everywhere in Illinois.