With Illinois being a boarder state to Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kentucky and with lawyers loving to make money, there are a bunch of attorneys who are licensed in both Illinois and out of state who handle Illinois workers’ compensation cases. So if they have a law license for IL they can handle a case, but the question is should they and what is in your best interests as an injured worker? I bring…

Many Illinois work comp cases are denied without reason. They will say you have a pre-existing condition or that you were hurt away from the job.  One of the hardest cases for an insurance company to deny is a burn injury. The reason it’s hard for them to deny these cases is that a burn injury at work doesn’t happen anonymously.  Unlike a back strain that you can try to work through, if you get…

Here is a fairly common scenario: You are at work and lift something.  You feel a pain in your back like you’ve never felt before.  You report it immediately to your supervisor and try to treat the problem with rest and pain pills.  Five days later it’s not better, it’s getting worse and you go to a doctor.  Your employer files the claim with their insurance company and an adjuster calls you and asks a…

The cleanest type of Illinois workers compensation case is when you are hurt in a clearly defined job activity, it’s witnessed, you don’t have drugs in your system, you get medical treatment right away, and you follow what your doctor recommends.  Not to say that type of scenario can’t result in a contested case (most likely via a hired gun IME doctor), but it would be hard to dispute at least that you were hurt…

A reader of my blog was getting toward the end of his treatment.  The insurance company tried to low ball settle with him and he refused.  Then the insurance company told him, because he has permanent restrictions that can’t be accommodated by his old employer, that they wanted him to do vocational rehabilitation. Briefly, under Illinois work comp law, vocational rehabilitation involves hiring a voc counselor who helps figure out what jobs you are qualified…

Most Illinois work injuries happen to your back, arm, hands, legs, feet, head or neck.  But not every work accident fits nicely into a traditional box and just because it’s not typical, does not mean it’s not a case. Under Illinois law, any injury that develops from a work related injury, is also a part of the case.  So if you hurt your knee and then get an elbow injury when using crutches, they have…