One of the first questions many injured Illinois workers have is about what hiring an attorney is going to cost them. In fact, many injured workers do not do anything because they do not think they can afford legal help. That is a huge mistake.
The great news is that it costs nothing up front to hire an Illinois workers’ compensation attorney. State law requires work injury attorneys to work on a contingency basis which means that we only get paid if there is a recovery. It also requires that our fees be capped at 20% of what we recover for clients. In almost every case that means 20% of a settlement. So we work for free until the case is resolved. If we settle your case for $50,000, then our fee would be $10,000. If we get you nothing you owe nothing. In just about situation you will net a lot more with an attorney than without, even with our fee.
Twenty percent is really low compared to personal injury or medical malpractice cases where fees are usually 1/3 or more of what is recovered. But every now and then the fee is even lower than 20 percent. In fact, on a case we were involved with recently, the fee ended up at approximately 12.5% of the settlement.
The case involved a person who worked at a chain restaurant. They fell over a bunched up carpet and injured multiple body parts including their back, shoulder, hip, neck and elbow. When they first contacted us, it was just after the accident and it seemed like it would be a smaller case. But as time went on they did not get better. They are an older worker and needed permanent restrictions. The employer could not accommodate those and a job search turned up nothing. The worker was permanently disabled.
The handling attorney negotiated a settlement of $350,000. Because our client was such a low wage earner, her settlement rate was set at the state minimum for the time of her accident which was $605.23.
How our fee was limited to 12.5% of the settlement and not 20 percent
Per the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, attorney fees are not always 20 percent of the total settlement. They are capped at 20 percent of seven years of benefits. So in this case it was $605.23 (settlement rate) x 364 weeks (seven years of benefits) divided by five (20%). So on a $350,000 settlement, the fee was just over $44,000 or approximately 12.5%.
After case expenses, the client netted more than $302,000. It was a pretty amazing result as they were a part time worker who only made $344.00 before the injury.
This reduction in attorney fees does not happen in every case or even most cases. It happens on claims where a worker is permanently disabled or receiving a large wage differential payout. If you are in either of those scenarios, you should be talking to your attorney about a cap on their fees.
Sadly, there are some attorneys who try to take the full 20% even when it is not allowed. While we of course would have loved to get $70,000 on this case, $44,000 is still a lot of money and very fair. Most importantly, the client was well taken care of and will be able to survive financially.
If your attorney tries to take more than they are allowed, don’t sign any settlement contract. Tell them you want to talk about their fee with the Arbitrator.
By the way, our client netted a lot more because they also received compensation for future medical care and 100% of that money went to them to manage.
If you have any questions about lawyer fees or anything else related to Illinois work comp law, please contact us any time at 312-346-5578. We help everywhere in Illinois.
