When someone is so severely injured that they can’t work again or can’t return to their old job, it’s usually from a back or neck injury. In some occasions it can be other body parts though. These permanent disability or wage differential cases are the most valuable under Illinois workers’ compensation law and bring the highest settlement. But how did a 43 year old guy end up with a $415,000.00 settlement so quickly?
The injured worker came to us after injuring his knee working for a construction company. By the time he came to us he was facing his third knee surgery and was starting to become suspicious of the insurance company. A lawyer in our network who deals with a lot of construction outfits began helping him out.
What we quickly realized was that the client would never be in a position to safely return to a construction job where he’s walking on a lot of uneven pavement and do a lot of lifting. He’s only in his early 40’s but his knee might as well be 80.
The bottom line is that once it became clear that he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the old job and that they didn’t have a light duty job for him, it became time to see how much money he could make in a new job. The sad reality is that while he made a really high wage at his old work, his injury, job history and education is going to prevent him from making that much right now.
So he became a wage differential case and since his work life expectancy and wage loss is so high and there was no argument that: 1. He was hurt at work. 2. The injury is severe. 3. That he suffered a big wage loss. This lead to what was a really quick settlement for such a big dollar amount. And when I had spoken to the client for the first time in August of 2016 (he was hurt in 2015) he told me that some lawyers told him that leg injuries pretty much never end up as wage differentials. Usually it’s lawyers promising too much. In this case it was lawyers not knowing what they are talking about.
Of course every case is different, but when an attorney is aggressive and knows what they are doing, a great result can happen in relatively quick time.
If you’d like to discuss your case or have any questions about anything related to Illinois work injury law, fill out our contact form or call us for a free consultation with an attorney. We cover all of Illinois.