While there is so much important advice we can give to an injured Illinois worker, right at the top is do not settle your case too soon. When you settle, it cuts off your benefits and ends the case for good.
About five years ago, we got called by a person whose Illinois attorney was telling them to settle for around $150,000. They had been off work for over three years and not only were they still getting weekly checks that totaled to over $60,000 a year, they also were still receiving active medical treatment.
They came to us because they did not want to settle, but were getting a lot of pressure.
Normally when there is a settlement offer that big, getting a new attorney is impossible. That is because a new lawyer would only get paid if they got this worker more money. But every case is different. And this case shows why we will talk to anyone about their case.
It became clear that not only should this worker not settle, but full settlement value was at least triple what they were getting offered. They had hired a law firm I had never heard of. I looked that firm up and they appear to only dabble in Illinois work comp cases.
Long story short is we connected the worker to the best Illinois workers compensation attorney we know in central Illinois and he took the case over. He kept benefits going and eventually took the case to trial. He won the trial and this worker was declared to be permanently and totally disabled due to how bad the injury was.
As a result, for the rest of their life this worker will have all of their related medical bills paid for and they will receive around $62,000 a year tax free for life. And that amount will increase over time due to cost of living increases that the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission provides.
All told, even if the benefits were to stop today, this person has already netted more than double what the old attorney was telling them to take.
The level of bad lawyer work in this case is almost criminal. It makes me shudder to think how many other clients they have given terrible advice to. The client told us we were incredible, but it does not take a genius to tell an injured worker not to settle while they are still under a doctor’s care and getting weekly benefits.
Five years from now this worker will have accumulated more than $300,000 in additional work comp benefits alone, plus tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills that will be paid.
This is a case that made me feel so good when I learned the result and so angry about how it went down originally. It is a case we never should have been involved in because the first firm should have just done their job. This does not happen in every case of course, but it happens way too much.
I am just thankful that this worker did not trust their attorney’s advice when something seemed off, but instead sought a second opinion. And if you would like to do that, please contact us any time for a free, confidential case review.
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