Illinois workers’ compensation law is constantly changing. That’s because new cases come out all the time that change how the law is interpreted and applied. And while I wouldn’t say being an Illinois work comp attorney is like being a brain surgeon, it really does take years to learn how to properly handle these cases and know at least 95% of what you need to know. I would never recommend someone with less than five years of experience and usually look for attorneys that have 10-30 years of a track record.

There is no substitute for experience. You can’t just come out of law school and know how to handle a case or conduct a trial. You certainly can’t do it as well as you should be able to do on your 100th time. Most lawyers in Illinois learn by handling cases over the years and being taught by more experienced attorneys. And this leads me to the dangerous trend which you need to be aware of.

A lot of Illinois work comp law firms are working remotely. That in of itself isn’t a big deal, except for the ones that are completely giving up their offices in my opinion. But some of these remote only firms are hiring young attorneys and having them work completely remote as well.

In fact I saw an ad from a Chicago area law firm who was trying to hire a new work comp lawyer for their firm. The position was offered as 100% remote.

The danger in those situations is how does that young lawyer actually learn how to handle a case. When I was a young lawyer I had two mentors whose offices I was in every day. I shadowed them. I got to sit down and have my work reviewed. I could always pop in and ask questions and they would come in and check my work. If I was talking to a client, they would listen in and offer feedback and if needed offer their opinion if I said something wrong. They had resources in their office I could review whenever needed. I could look at their files and use what I saw to make myself a better lawyer. I could look at their old files for research on similar issues.

Now can some of these things happen when everyone is working remotely? Sure. In reality though, when people are working remotely it doesn’t happen to the same efficiency. Are you willing to call your boss ten times in a day with questions. Are you going to overhear them talking to someone else about a case and have them pull you into the conversation because they realize it would help you too? Can you pop in whenever you want or shadow their work?

There’s no way young lawyers who work remotely are getting the training that in office attorneys are unless that firm has an incredible game plan for educating the young attorney. What I think happens in reality is that these young lawyers are learning how to handle a case on the backs of their clients. That means the client is suffering while the attorney learns the ropes.

That doesn’t doom every case, but it certainly increases the chance that your case won’t go well. And you only get one shot at a case so they can say “oops” but it doesn’t help you out.

So my strong advice is to not have your primary attorney on a case be a young lawyer even if an older attorney says they will be supervising. Why should your case be the one that they train on? And if they work only remotely, to me that is a red flag and one you should likely avoid.