When Is The Right Time To Get A 2nd Opinion?

I got a call recently from someone who had been seriously injured on the job. He had an attorney and wanted to know if it was OK to get a second opinion. The first thing he said to me was, “I don’t know if this is the right time or not.”

Turns out it was not the right time as he had signed settlement contracts already that had been submitted to the Arbitrator. It’s too bad as it appears that his case was worth at least $75,000 more than he agreed to settle for.

So when is the right time to seek a second opinion from an attorney on an Illinois work comp case?

Every case is different, but the best time is certainly before a settlement offer has been made. Attorney fees in Illinois work injury claims are capped at 20% of the settlement. If you hire a new law firm, the two firms will have to split that 20%. It doesn’t cost you more. But if an offer has been made, the first lawyer is entitled to 20% of that offer and the new lawyer would likely get 20% of any increase they can get.

So if an offer has been made, it makes it harder to take over unless it’s woefully low. Usually what we see is that the offer is low, but a lot of work needs to be done. So we’d end up doing a ton of work and the other attorney would get the majority of the fee. It’s hard to take over a case like that.

If there’s no offer, this issue doesn’t exist. But even then, it’s best that you get a second opinion and switch lawyers (if that’s what you want) sooner versus later. The other day I got a call from someone whose lawyer is doing a terrible job and there isn’t an offer. But we can’t get involved because the case is 12 years old. The old attorney would have a claim to most of the fee.

On the other hand, when we get called by people who realize in the first six months or so that they hired the wrong lawyer, it’s easy to take the case over. There’s one Chicago work comp law firm in particular whose clients tell us the same story all of the time. Namely that they can’t get a call back and the attorney doesn’t seem interested in helping. We’ve been involved in taking over a lot of their cases because most people are smart enough to expect better service.

Of course a second opinion doesn’t always mean talking about getting a new attorney. We will answer questions for free and in confidence, but within reason. One person called me because “my lawyer yells at me whenever I call and I don’t want to bother him.” It felt like a Stockholm Syndrome situation to me as they wouldn’t even consider switching. We won’t do the job for shitty lawyers, but we will honestly tell you if what’s happening in your case seems to make sense or not. A lot of attorneys do a great job with the case, but don’t communicate that to their clients well enough.

If at any time you want to talk to us, call us at 312-346-5578. You will usually immediately speak with a lawyer.