Man, I rarely get shocked by the terrible performance of some Illinois workers’ compensation attorneys, but boy was I stunned recently.
An injured worker with a very big company had a major leg injury before they started their job. They were able to work the heavy duty job for about six months and then a forklift ran into them and made the leg injury worse. They now need a surgery that will be very involved.
This worker got an attorney right after the accident and received medical and lost time benefits for about four months. Then surgery got scheduled, approved and suddenly there was a delay.
Of course the insurance company for this big company got a hold of their old medical records and got a hired gun doctor to state that the need for surgery is this old problem, not from the impact of the forklift. So surgery is not approved.
Putting aside the fact that the defense to this case is a joke, it is now time for the lawyer to spring into action and do what they were hired to do. They need to protect their client. That, unfortunately, is not what happened.