We’ve been Illinois work comp attorneys for 27 years. One of the reasons we’ve been successful is because we are very straight shooters who will tell you the truth whether it makes us money or not.
Part of this involves telling you if your current law firm seems to be doing a good job. We were recently called by a worker who didn’t think his law firm was fighting for him. He told me who his attorney was and it’s a firm we hear a lot of complaints about. But upon further looking into this case, it was clear that the lawyer had done everything correctly.
The complaint this worker had was that the settlement offer was too low. He said this because he’s permanently disabled from working, had a high wage and the offer was around $40,000. That offer would be really low for someone hurt at work who can never work again assuming there are no defenses to his case.
I asked what his injury was and he told me about how bad his leg was crushed and that he can’t walk. I then asked who the doctor was that had told him he can’t work anymore and he responded, “No doctor has said that, I’m just telling you it hurts too much to walk so I can’t work.”
And that was the moment I realized his lawyer hadn’t done anything wrong. You can’t make a medical diagnosis of yourself or take yourself off work and expect to be paid for it. You need a medical doctor, usually an orthopedic, to state that you can’t work due to your injury.
In this case, this worker has a desk job. They might have pain still, but nothing that prevents them from working. If they were used to doing construction or worked in a factory, they might be permanently disabled from working or at least need a career switch. Those factors would have made the case worth much more.
But no doctor has said that and his doctor is the one that gave him a full duty release. He didn’t go back to the job because he didn’t feel he could, but without medical evidence supporting that feeling, he has no way to make the case worth any more money.
The proper thing to do would have been to address this issue with the doctor and attempt to try and work. If he was unable to work for some reason then he could go back to the doctor. In this case he didn’t even try and I can’t imagine it would have been a problem as he has the ability to sit all day and move around as needed. It’s essentially what he does at home.
So while I’m not a fan of his lawyer, it looks like he did everything right. I’m sure the attorney would have loved to make the case worth 400k as they would have made a lot more money that way. But Illinois work comp attorneys can only deal with facts and evidence. And you alone can not create medical evidence. You need a credible doctor in your corner.
