TOUCH TO CALL: (800) 517-1614
Illinois Lawyer
Find The Best Attorney For Your Case
(312) 346-5320 or (800) 517-1614
Free Consultations - 24/7
No Appointment Needed, Just Call

Michael Helfand

“I can’t afford a big time lawyer”

money-pile

We hear this a lot. And we get it. Many people can’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for legal help. The good news is that in a lot of cases you don’t have to.

For many kinds of Illinois legal cases, your lawyer’s fee will be a percentage of what you recover in the end. There are no up front or out-of-pocket costs. This type of arrangement is called a contingency fee. It’s good news to people who are looking for legal recourse but don’t have a lot of cash on hand. It makes a “big time lawyer” accessible to anyone.

If you are injured, you likely have a case where you would pay a contingency fee. Your lawsuit, if you choose to file one, would be for damages. It’s your lawyer’s job to prove the amount of your damages and recover money for you to pay for your legal bills, any time that you were unable to work and even compensation for your pain and suffering.

Injury cases are the most common type of contingency fee case, including medical malpractice, workers’ compensation, nursing home abuse and other personal injuries. In these cases, you might settle for a certain amount, or go to trial and have a judge or jury determine what you will be awarded. Your lawyer would then get a portion, as their fee.

On the other hand, if you have a case where you aren’t suing for a sum of money, then you should expect to pay an hourly fee, or in some cases a flat fee (for more routine legal work, like writing a will, for example). In these cases, the big time lawyer might not be an option for you. In a divorce, for example, you’ll probably be more concerned with what your lawyer charges than you would in an injury case. You’ll also have to put down a retainer, which is usually a couple thousand dollars. Your lawyer will take their fee from the retainer as they do the work.

The bottom line is that before you decide you can’t hire a large law firm downtown, know what kind of fee your lawyer is going to charge. In a contingency fee case, it’s not going to be that different; most lawyers – big and small – charge about 1/3. Plus, you don’t have to pay anything until your case is over. And if you lose, there is no fee.

Don’t assume you can’t afford the attorney you want. Give us a call. We will talk to you for free and explain legal fees, whether you need a big firm, and other aspects of hiring an Illinois lawyer. Our goal is for you to learn about all of your options.

See also: Finding A Chicago Legal Malpractice Lawyer

FAQs on legal malpractice cases in Illinois

images (2)

Can I sue my lawyer? It’s a basic question, but a good one. Some people worry that it’s not possible to sue a lawyer. It is. If your lawyer commits malpractice, you can sue for any damages it causes you.

Do I need a lawyer to sue my lawyer? It’s a good idea to find an experienced legal malpractice lawyer to go after the first lawyer. We know that sounds like a lot of lawyers, but legal malpractice cases are complex and a niche area of law. You simply have a better chance at succeeding if you hire someone who has done it before.

What counts as legal malpractice? It’s professional negligence. If your lawyer failed to act as they should when handling your case, then it can constitute malpractice. An expert will testify as to what your lawyer should have done. It generally has to be more than a mistake, and if your lawyer made a judgment call that turned out to be wrong, that also might not be enough.

How much money can I get? The amount you can recover in a legal malpractice lawsuit depends on your provable damages. This is the financial harm that you suffered as a result of the malpractice. In a failed real estate deal, for example, you can probably put your loss into a dollar amount. This is where some potential legal malpractice cases get weeded out – if you don’t have monetary damages, you probably don’t have a case.

Am I likely to win? There’s one other major part of a legal malpractice case, in addition to proving negligence and showing your monetary damages. You also have to prove that if your lawyer had done what they should have done, you would have won the case. So if you are in a car accident and sue the other driver for $30,000 but your lawyer blows the deadline and you get nothing, you‘ll have to prove that you would have won the car accident case if your lawyer hadn’t missed the deadline. It’s essentially two cases in one.

You don’t have to decide on your own whether you have a legal malpractice case worth pursuing. Most legal malpractice attorneys in Illinois will give you a free initial consultation, where you can ask questions and get their opinion on whether you have a good case.

If you would like our help in finding a lawyer or just have questions, fill out the box to the right or call us at (800) 517-1614.

 

See also: FAQ guardianship of an adult

Illinois Child Support Laws Are a Joke

little_girl_reading_600x399

If you read my blog, you know that I am not a believer in “father’s rights” type marketing strategies.  It’s the stuff of snake oil salesmen in my opinion.  If you care about your clients then you do whatever you can for them.

I do think some laws are unfair though. The biggest violator has to be Illinois child support laws.

What is wrong is that the amount you pay or receive does not reflect in any way the amount of time you spend with your child or what you do for them financially.  If you are paying support for one kid, you’ll pay 20% of your net take home pay.  Two kids is 28%.  Three is 32% and so on.

But if you have your kids 50% of the time (man or woman) and your ex has the other 50%, one of you is still going to pay child support to the other.  How is that fair?  What if the Dad has the kids four days/nights and the Mom has them three?  Should the Mom have to still pay the full amount?  It’s not right.

It’s definitely not a male/female issue.  People get screwed equally.  It’s not just based on the time spent with the kids.  How about the fact that you can be making $35,000 a year and your ex could make $400,000 a year and you’d still have to pay them child support if they have primary custody.  I know Illinois can be a screwed up state, but that is ridiculous.

This happens because “this is how it’s always been done.”  What made sense 50 years ago doesn’t necessarily make sense now.  And to change this wouldn’t require more litigation, it would just require more organization and a willingness to look at what is really going on.  Here’s what I’d propose:

-If your ex earns more than four times or $100,000 more than you do, your child support payments can’t exceed half of the current statutory minimums (so if you have two kids, you’d pay 14%).
-If you can prove that you spend at least 40% of the non-school hours with your child, then you should be eligible for the same deduction.  Perhaps this would encourage some listless parents to spend more time with their kids.
-If you lose a job or have a reduction in salary, let’s create an easier way to modify your payments without having to hire a lawyer and go to court.  And if you get a raise, you should be required to report it within 30 days for modification of be subject to having to pay back the increase retroactively.
-And given how many employers pay their employees cash under the table, enabling those parents from having to pay child support, I’d be in favor of allowing the other parent to sue the employer because their breaking of the law is hurting the child.
-I’d have child support issues handled by Arbitrators, not Judges, if that was the only issue in the case.  That way it would take less time and money to get a result.  Put both parties under oath, ask them questions about their wages and go from there.  These hearings should not take nearly as long as they currently do.

While we are at it, let’s address college support payments.  In an ideal world, parents would be able to afford to send their kids to college.  I certainly hope to do so for my kids.  If my wife and I stay married then it will be up to us as to whether or not to pay all or part of their college expenses.  But if we were to get divorced then I’d be forced to do so.  That makes no sense at all.  A much better idea would be to make sure that 529 college savings plans can’t be touched until the child is either in school or has turned 20 and has not yet gone to college.  But if you never saved for college while you were married, why do you get forced to pay it once divorced?

This system wouldn’t be perfect.  Nothing is.  But the goal should always be to make our laws better and fairer.

In Illinois, is it legal to ….

shutterstock_23318308_crop380wWhile our law firm is known for being the place to get the right attorney recommendation for your case, we also provide free legal guidance to anyone that wants to ask us a question.

We don’t promise that we will always know the answer, but after 13 plus years in business and having talked to over 300,000 people, there is almost no legal situation that we haven’t seen before.

Many of the questions we get start off with callers asking “Is it legal to” and go from there.

Some of these are simple such as is it legal for a 20 year old to have sex with a 16 year old (it’s not) or can an employer fire you if you don’t show up to work, but it’s the first time that you did it and there was no warning (they can).

But most of the calls we get can’t be answered by hearing just one sentence from someone. Cases are always fact specific so getting more information can change our answer. Even in the example above, if you are fired for a first time no show, but employees of a different race are allowed to blow off work without punishment then you might have a racial discrimination claim.

A recent caller to our office wanted to know if the foot drop she got after a medical procedure was the basis of a lawsuit for malpractice. Similarly a man who had his leg amputated following an foot infection wanted to know if that was a case. The answers to both were that there are certain indicators that would tell us if it was a case or not (the amputee has diabetes which can lead to blood flow problems), but there is no way to give a definitive answer without seeing medical records.

This happens in all areas of law. Some that contact us want to know if it was illegal that the cops searched their car. Again, we need the whole picture to answer that question in a reliable way. That would include seeing the police report. We’ll give an opinion as to what we think is likely the answer, but you should want something more definitive.

“Do I have a case if I feel in the parking lot on my way in to work and broke my ankle?” Well, we’d need to know what caused you to fall, who owns the parking lot, it is for employees only or the public too and many other things.

The bottom line is that if you read legal websites that provide answers to questions, you have to remember that every case is different. Just because some lawyer didn’t think a different person had a good case does not mean that you don’t.

We will always review your case for free and give you an honest answer. We’ll ask probing questions (all calls are confidential) that will give us lots of information and help us offer an educated opinion. But having this full picture will allow us to best serve you. And believe it or not, sometimes getting the full picture can take 20-30 minutes on the phone (always free) and other times it can take one minute. Every case is different.

See also: Can An Illinois Attorney Have Sex With A Client?

What not to do if you’re in an accident in Illinois

assassin

We’ve written about what you should do after an accident. Here are things you should not do.

 

  1. Don’t forget to get a police report. If your goal is to prove that the other driver is at fault, and we assume that is your goal if you’re considering legal action, then you will need a police report. It’s an important piece of evidence that you won’t get if you don’t call the police to the scene of the accident. If it’s a major accident, they’ll obviously be there. If it seems minor, you should still call and get this report in case you realize later that you are more injured than you thought. Also, don’t be tempted if the other driver tries to discourage police involvement and just pay you instead. If they’re at fault, they might try this. If you agree, and they drive away, you might never hear from them again if you change your mind.
  2. Don’t compare your case to someone else’s. There are some similarities among accident cases, but there also are specific differences. Usually these differences exist because of specific facts. The law might be the same, but it can be applied differently in different situations. You might hear stories from family members or friends or coworkers about what happened in their accident case. You really can’t assume it would apply to you. An experienced attorney is the best person to give you advice and help you set realistic expectations.
  3. Don’t wait too long to get a lawyer. We understand why people wait. You’re wondering what the best approach might be, whether you even have a case and how much it would cost to get a lawyer. While you’re pondering all of this, evidence is disappearing and witnesses are forgetting what happened. It’s free to talk to a lawyer about your Illinois accident case, and there is no attorney fee involved at all unless you win. Illinois law only gives you a certain amount of time to file a lawsuit, and if you wait too long, you lose your chance.
  4. Don’t share a lawyer. The problem with sharing a lawyer is that a lawyer cannot protect two clients on either side of a legal issue. Your interests are at odds with the other side, even if things are friendly. If you agree to share a lawyer with the person who caused your accident, it’s safe to say that you aren’t going to get an outcome that is fair to you. In the worst case, you could fail to recover the money you need to pay your medical bills and other losses.
  5. Don’t plead guilty. Don’t plead guilty unless it’s at the advice of an experienced lawyer whom you trust.  Otherwise, you are accepting an outcome that can be avoided in many cases. Even if you don’t think you have a choice, talk to your attorney first.

GM recall – and lawsuits – expand to include more vehicles

The class action lawsuits against General Motors after the faulty ignition switch issue are growing, as GM adds even more vehicles to the list. This is quickly becoming one of the largest cases ever. We are looking for plaintiffs who own any of the following GM models. These are the latest models to be added to the recall:

Buick Lacrosse (2005-2009)

Chevrolet Impala (2006-2014)

Cadillac Deville (2000-2005)

Cadillac DTS (2007-2011)

Buick Lucerne (2006-2011)

Buick Regal LS & GS (2004-2005)

Chevrolet Monte Carlo (2006-2008)

Chevrolet Camaro (2010-2014)

A few months ago, GM announced that more than a million vehicles were being recalled because of a malfunctioning ignition switch. The error had already led to many accidents and GM acknowledged 12 fatalities, as well. The most alarming aspect of the case was that GM knew about the faulty ignition years before it finally came forward.

The story may not be at the top of the news anymore, but it’s far from over. Any owner of a vehicle on the list – not just those injured in an accident – may be able to seek compensation. Damages can include the decreased value of your vehicle.

Class action lawsuits work best in this type of case because many consumers can join together against a large corporation. It’s a lawsuit they wouldn’t have as good of a chance of winning on their own, and it definitely gets the attention of the defendant in a way an individual would not.

These cases often end in settlement, with each member of the class sharing in the final amount paid by the defendant. If you own one of the models listed above, or if you have questions about what a class action involves or what would be required to get involved, give us a call.

You can contact us online or by calling us at 312-346-5320 or 800-517-1614. You can talk to our lawyers for free. There is no obligation to go forward and get involved, so feel free to just call with questions you might have.

Do you have an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit?

medical-negligence

One of the hardest things I have to do in my job is tell people that they don’t have a case.  It’s not hard professionally because I always give honest answers.  But it can be hard personally since it’s heart-breaking to hear someone’s story of pain and then let them know that that there’s nothing we can do for them.  I may be a lawyer, but that doesn’t mean I have no heart.

This happens most often with calls about medical malpractice.  Even in Cook County, success rates for cases that go to trial are only 20% and that is considered very plaintiff friendly.  Of course many cases settle, but that doesn’t change the fact that a ton of claims go nowhere.

I was speaking to a malpractice attorney in Chicago who I am friends with and he said that his law firm files a lawsuit in about one out of every 100 cases that they review.  That’s true for most firms for many reasons.  The biggest is that these cases are expensive to bring and if you don’t have clear cut negligence AND very big, permanent damages, the costs wouldn’t justify proceeding.  It does allow many healthcare professionals to get away with mistakes and bad treatment.

My friend told me a great way that he explains to potential clients that they don’t have a case. It has to do more with the doctor screwing up, but not bad enough to make it a claim.

In general, you can’t successfully sue for something that is considered a general risk of a medical procedure.  For example, if you have a surgery and get an infection, that’s not likely a case because it’s a risk of being cut open.

To bring a lawsuit, your lawyer needs to find a reputable physician who is willing to testify that the person who took care of you screwed up.  My friend tells his clients that he can’t have a doctor review your records and give the treating doc a grade of a C- or even a D.  It has to be an F minus.  In other words, you need to review the treatment and say that what happened absolutely should not have occurred.

I wasn’t the best student in the world, but I wasn’t getting C minuses or D’s.  But if I did you could say that I passed or did something right even if it wasn’t great.   Well, if the insurance defense attorney can make that argument to a jury, then they are probably going to win or at least find one juror to side with them.  You need a unanimous jury to win, so if one is against you that won’t happen.

Because most screw-ups are not F minuses, it explains why you might not be able to find anyone to represent you.  Even if a failing grade appears, you still need catastrophic damages.  All of this is why bringing and winning a suit is very difficult.

Please don’t read this post and assume that you have no case.  There are exceptions to everything.  Also, it doesn’t cost anything to talk to us and evaluate whether or not something can be done or not.

Suing after a botched surgery in Illinois

download (7)

Botched surgery cases are medical malpractice cases, which are personal injury cases against a health care provider. You are alleging that your doctor was negligent and caused you harm as a result. These cases involve more than an unfavorable outcome. They are cases where the doctor screwed up, making more than just an honest mistake.

A botched surgery can be one of those cases where a piece of medical equipment or gauze is accidentally left inside a patient during surgery. It can also be unnecessary complications from a surgery that wasn’t performed properly or shouldn’t have been done in the first place. It can also be something severe, such as amputation of the wrong limb, permanent scarring or disfigurement, or even death.

In any medical malpractice case, the key is proving that the health care provider – the surgeon for example – acted below the standard of care. You’ll have to show that a reasonable doctor in the same position would not have done what yours did. In order to prove this, you’ll use a medical expert who will testify that this is the case. Medical malpractice lawsuits hinge on the opinions of these experts.

In general, medical malpractice cases are complex. They are also expensive for the attorney you hire, because they are the ones (or the should be the ones) paying for all the expenses up front. Expert witness fees can be thousands of dollars. They also don’t charge you for their time upfront. Only when, and if, you win the case does your attorney get a fee. This is why it’s important to hire a firm with a lot of resources and experience in this type of case. It’s not uncommon for a medical malpractice case to cost $100,000.

In light of these things, medical malpractice attorneys are picky about the cases that they take. It’s often a business decision. If there is not a significant injury, it won’t be worth the large expense to the firm. You can always get a consultation with an Illinois medical malpractice attorney to go over your case. It’s free, so there’s nothing to lose in looking into your options.  Contact us if you’d like our help.

 

Illinois voluntary acknowledgement of paternity law is awful

custody

 

I would never call myself a “fathers’ rights lawyer” or “mothers’ rights lawyer.”  I believe the firms that do that are really just trying to scare you in to hiring them.  A lawyer either fights for you or they don’t.  Tricking somebody in to thinking you have a passion for your work isn’t the way to do things.

But I do call it like I see it.  Sometimes that means telling a client that they are wrong even though it’s not what they want to hear.  Other times it involves pointing out a law that is incredibly unfair, even if it makes me sound like I’m just stumping for fathers.

That said, the law in Illinois with respect to voluntary acknowledgement of paternity is terrible and needs to be changed.  If a man signs the birth certificate of a child and acknowledges that he is the father, he has 60 days in which he can rescind that.  So if you’ve been dating a girl for two years and she gets pregnant, if you sign assuming you are the father, that means that you are legally the father.  This is true if (as happened to a caller to my office) five years later you have a paternity test done and learn that you aren’t really the biological Dad.  So you can end up paying child support for a child that isn’t yours.

Once sixty days has passed, the only way to vacate signing is to file a 2-1401 petition on the limited grounds of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.  That’s a lot harder than it sounds and it must be filed within two years from the date you originally signed.  Duress would be something like a gun was placed to your head.  Fraud could be a faked paternity test.

The safest thing to do is never sign in the first place without a paternity test.  That doesn’t sound very romantic, but sometimes the smart thing isn’t romantic or even easy.

Beyond this all though, the law needs to be changed.  Why should you have to support a child that isn’t yours?  It literally makes no sense and I can’t think of one argument in favor of it.  I have no problem not letting the mistaken Dad recoup the money he’s laid out over the years by mistake.  As I said, you should get a paternity test so that’s on him.  But once you do learn the truth, you should be off the hook.

In the worst examples I’ve seen some men have to support a child that isn’t theirs while the real father lives with the kid and doesn’t contribute hardly anything.  It’s just wrong and needs to stop.  We should have the ability to take laws that make no sense and change them.  This one needs to be at the top of the list.

How can I get the child support he owes me?

download (2)

The best-case scenario is when you already have a court order in place. We’re talking about a court order for child support, which is a court document that tells one parent what they must pay the other parent for the support of their child or children. If you have one of these, then you have a head start and you can go after the other parent for past-due payments.

You can bring the other parent back to court to force payments. Wage garnishment and other tactics can be used if they continue to refuse to pay. The good news is that it’s really never too late if you have a court order. There isn’t a deadline in Illinois for collecting unpaid child support. Interest on unpaid support should be included, as well.

If you don’t have a court order, you’ll be asking for retroactive child support, which is harder to get. If your child is still a minor, you can get an order for current and future child support, however. Get the help of a child support lawyer in order to give yourself and advantage. Good legal advice also ensures that you avoid pitfalls.

Adult children often wonder if they can collect past-due child support that their parent never paid. Unfortunately, the child themselves cannot collect this, even as an adult. It’s ordered to be paid to the parent, so that parent must be the one who goes after it. It might not be too late to collect, but we tell these individuals that they have to convince their parent to get involved.

Potential obstacles include a parent who has disappeared, or a parent who is unemployed and/or claims to have no income or assets. If the parent who should be paying child support is claiming that they can’t afford it, and you suspect that they are lying, an experienced attorney can help you find out the truth.

Don’t put your ability to collect child support at risk by making private agreements for payment with your ex. And don’t let them off the hook if they haven’t paid. You need to protect your interest – which is really your child’s interest – and maintain your leverage.

Free Case Review
From Our Attorneys

Archives