I have and will continue to call out attorneys on their BS and provide warnings of things for you to lookout for because we should all strive to make the system as great as it can be for injured workers in Illinois.

One item I’ve ranted about in the past are lawyers who have doctor buddies and enter a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” relationship. Plainly stated, if your attorney is insisting that you treat with a certain doctor it’s a red flag.  There’s a big difference between your lawyer giving a recommendation if you ask for it and practically forcing you to see a certain physician.  In my experience it usually means they are paying the doctor back for a referral, not looking out for you.

In 20 years of being a lawyer I’ve seen this happen a bunch, but I recently was told of it happening in a shocking way.  Typically it happens where a client lives in Orland Park (or wherever) and the attorney pressures the client to see a doctor that is relatively close to Orland Park (or wherever the client lives).

The call I got was from an out of state worker who was injured on a trip to Chicago.  She needs back surgery and even though she has an orthopedic surgeon in her home state and even though she’s over three hours away by plane, the attorney she has is insisting that she fly to Chicago once a month for appointments and have surgery here!

I think this, if true, is the biggest client sellout I’ve ever heard about and I can’t think of one good reason why an attorney would recommend this. Her back injury is fairly straight forward and there are plenty of good orthopedic surgeons in her home state.  She also likes her doctor and says he’s in her corner.  Even if the treatment gets paid for by the workers’ comp insurance company, the client would still be responsible for the flights, car travel, hotel stay, etc.

Even worse, what if she has surgery, goes home and then has some post surgery complication?  Her doctor is a three hour flight away and local doctors wouldn’t have access to her medical records.

I’ve simply never heard of any Chicago work injury attorney doing something this bad.  He is literally risking his client’s health.

We don’t promise a result, but we always promise to fight and do what is in your best interests, not ours. Neither we nor any law firm in our state wide network would ever do anything like this.

If you have questions about your medical care or anything else related to Illinois work injuries, call us for free at (312) 346-5578.