Per the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, you have the right to two medical opinions when it comes to your care.  As long as the medical care is “reasonable” the insurance company has to pay for it. This comes up a lot from clients/callers who want to know how to get a second opinion and more specifically, how to make sure that bill gets paid. The most recent call I had on this issue shows that…

After Thanksgiving last year we had a crazy snow storm and got 13 inches of snow in one day or as those of us who have lived most of our lives in Chicago call it, a Tuesday. It was a mess for sure, but nothing you haven’t seen before. It was later that week when I got contacted by a pissed off injured worker.  His case was supposed to go to trial, but he received…

I don’t want to say that the people who run insurance companies are cartoon villains, but sometimes their minions sure act like there is a crazy evil hand controlling all of their moves. At the start of the case you are likely to get a request for medical record authorization form.  It’s usually a broad request that asks for permission to get history on every piece of medical care you’ve ever received.  They don’t have…

I’ve written before about the Illinois work comp law principle that says the insurance company can’t make you have surgery if you don’t want to.  Having something like a spine surgery is a big decision and it’s your decision.  If not having the surgery leaves you with permanent restrictions and costs the insurance company more money, that’s their problem. I recently had a caller though with a different question.  He needed shoulder surgery per his…

If you are reading this, there’s probably been some sort of pop up box that invites you to chat with me.  When I’m in the office, you get to chat with a real live lawyer.  When I’m out, we have an answering service that will immediately send your questions to me, and we call back right away. Anyway, a recent chatter was nervous because he had a trial coming up.  He told me that he…

I’m an attorney and the times I’ve had to hire an attorney and pay them up front I haven’t been happy about it. Their service was great, but just like anyone else, if I don’t have to spend money for an attorney I don’t want to. Once every other week or so, someone calls me who has been hurt on the job in Illinois, but doesn’t think they can do anything because they can’t afford…

No post today.  Have a safe and happy holiday. We’ll be back with a new blog post on the 28th.  But like any other day of the year we don’t take the day off.  So if you want to talk about a work injury case today (or any day) please call us at 312-346-5578 and our answering service will page us or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you.…