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With a history dating back to 1842, Illinois railroads easily are the nation’s most important in terms of the region they serve and the volume of traffic which is handled. Chicago, where the East meets the West, has been coined as the nation’s railroad capitol.

Illinois proudly ranks second in the country with the greatest number of railroads, with total rail miles, and employing over 300,000 railroad employees. But unfortunately, railroad workers have a higher risk of injury than people in most other occupations. Considering the railroad industry is relatively small, the risk of injury is statistically very high. While railroad workers are not covered by workers compensation, they do have other legal options to help recover damages incurred by accidents at work.

Before workers’ compensation, there was the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Put in place by the United States Congress in 1908, FELA provides compensation for work injuries to railroad workers. As a railroad employee, you are not entitled to state worker compensation benefits. FELA is your only right to compensation as a railroad employee.

FELA was born out of a need to protect railroad workers and force carriers to improve their safety standards for both their employees, patrons and property and become more accountable to their employees for any injuries they caused. Both programs, FELA and workers’ compensation were founded with the common goals of promoting a safe working environment and compensating workers following work-related illnesses and on-the-job injuries.

When compared to workers’ compensation however, FELA is considerably different in laws and process. The most important of these is the difference in proving the role of negligence. In a standard workers’ compensation claim, there is not always a need to prove employer negligence in order to claim benefits for medical expenses and lost wages. For FELA, an injured railroad worker must always prove the railroad was negligent in order to obtain compensation for their injury.

To add insult to injury, pun intended, every railroad retains skilled claim agents and attorneys whose sole job is to immediately investigate injuries of employees, focusing primarily on how to protect the interests of the railroads, not the injured.

The United States Supreme Court recognized the unfairness of this and as a counter action authorized a designated counsel familiar with FELA to represent injured railroad workers. It is in the best interest of the injured to hire an experienced and aggressive counsel to fight for their rights for several reasons.

While FELA provides an employee up to three years from the date of injury to file a claim, an injured railroad worker should seek counsel and advice at the earliest opportunity if they feel they have a potential FELA case against a railroad. This includes before submitting an injury report or talking to a claim agent. The people representing the railroad are trained and skilled at ‘manipulating’ the situation in the railroads favor. The wording, complaints and answers in an accident injury report can mean the difference between winning and losing a case and having an experienced FELA attorney is your right.

Another difference between workers compensation and FELA is filing claims. Workers’ compensation requires an injured employee to file a claim with the insurance company providing the workers’ compensation benefits. Under FELA, injured railroad workers can file claims in state or federal court and also mandates that the injured party is entitled to a jury trial.

Most FELA claims will end up in court as the railroads save money litigating every FELA claim. Here is just another reason an experienced attorney is best interest of the injured. If an attorney is not experienced and familiar with FELA, they may be unwilling to go to battle against the railroads in court and often times setting less than fair value.

Railroad employees are not in the social security system, but rather in the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) pension system. In an injury there can be a decreased earning capacity and a decrease work life expectancy, even if an employee is able to return to work. Even retirement annuity can be negatively impacted as it is determined by the employee’s earnings and length of service. Just another reason an experienced attorney is needed. They should properly investigate and quantify any loss from the (RRB) pension system and retirement annuity for the injured.

FELA can be a complicated claim. Many railroad employees are uncertain of their rights and their employer’s liability requirements under FELA and find answers with the help of an experienced FELA lawyer in Illinois.  If you would like our recommendation as to a great lawyer for your case or if you just have questions, call us for free any time at (800) 517-1614.

A very nice woman called me recently after getting in to a car accident in Chicago.  She has a pretty big injury, and the other car that hit her is clearly at fault.

Her concern was that she had just hired a personal injury lawyer in Chicago who advertises a lot. By a lot, I mean you have all seen the terrible commercials. He was charging her a fee of 40% based on whatever recovery they get for her.  She had talked to some friends after hiring them and was told that their fee seemed high.  Her question was, is a 40% fee normal for a Chicago car accident lawyer?

The answer is that while there are a lot of attorneys who charge that much, it’s not normal.  Most accident lawyers we know, certainly the best car accident lawyers we know, typically charge 1/3 of what they recover.  In big cases that can be the difference of tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket in the end.

So why does this firm and some others charge more?

It’s not because they do a better job. The biggest reason they do it is because they think they can get away with it.  They’d charge a client 50% if they thought they could line their pockets more.  Attorneys like this, in my opinion, don’t care as much about their clients as they do about their own bottom line.

Another reason they do it is because they have huge overhead.  All of that TV, radio, internet and billboard advertising isn’t cheap.  So they have to recoup as much of the costs as they can.

What’s crazy about this one particular firm is that car accident cases aren’t really what they do and certainly not what their main lawyer has done for most of his career. Of course their clients don’t realize that.  They also don’t understand that many of their cases are handled by very young lawyers.

The reality is that most of the prestigious law firms in Chicago would never do this and in many cases they will cut their fee to 28-30% depending on the facts of your case.

You can get a great lawyer on your case and at the same time not get ripped off by that attorney.  If you have any questions about law firm fees in Illinois car accident cases or simply want to speak with a lawyer for free, call us at 312-346-5320 or fill out our contact form and we will call you ASAP.

We are Chicago attorneys who help people, for free, with legal guidance and/or lawyer referrals on any Illinois legal matter.  Call us at (312) 346-5320 for a free consultation or fill out our contact form and we will call you.

A recent caller to my office thought they had a good medical malpractice lawsuit, but didn’t want to proceed because they didn’t think they could afford a lawyer to bring the case.

This is a common concern people have.  This isn’t a concern most people should have.  The short explanation is that every lawyer who handles medical malpractice cases in Illinois works on a contingency basis. That means they can’t charge an hourly fee and only get paid if they win the case.  As a result, attorneys in Illinois who handle these cases are very selective in which matters they get involved in.

There is a longer explanation though.  Some callers are worried about the case expenses.  Most contracts to hire a medical malpractice attorney state that the attorney will advance the costs of the case, but get paid back by the client.  These cases often cost more than $100,000.00 to take fully to trial.  Many callers are worried that the attorney will sue them if they lose the case. That is why they don’t think they can afford the risk of hiring a lawyer.

The truth is that if the case is successful, the attorney will be reimbursed their costs.  If it’s not successful, some contracts state that the client will have to pay the lawyer back. I’ve NEVER seen this happen with the attorneys that I know and recommend. I do think it’s happened with smaller firms that can’t afford to advance these costs.

My advice to anyone who is hiring a malpractice attorney in Illinois is to discuss this issue with the lawyer before you hire them.  The ones that I know will change their contracts to state that you’ll never have to pay them back a penny if they don’t make a recovery.  If you have a good case they will be happy to do this.  It’s a risk for them for sure as most cases, even the ones that seem good at first, don’t result in a recovery. But firms that really crush it in this area of law have the ability to take that type of risk.

Bonus tip.  There are some smaller firms who will ask their clients to contribute to some of the costs of the case. Unless there are really odd circumstances (like asking an attorney to file a last minute lawsuit) I don’t suggest you do that.  While any firm can take on a malpractice lawsuit, the truth is that most of the top results are handled by around ten different law firms, all in the Chicago area.  You don’t want to get a lesser firm on your case that would ask you to pay the costs.  You also don’t want to get a firm that skimps on costs, ultimately costing you a win or resulting in you not recovering as much as you deserve.

As always, if you have any questions or want an attorney referral, please contact us at any time.

If you have a suffered a work injury in Illinois, the best-case scenario is to receive excellent medical care and recover well enough to return to work without restrictions. Unfortunately, the process of a Worker’s Compensation claim can often be long, arduous, exhausting and just plain complicated. The capstone to the process often ends with a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE).

So what is a Functional Capacity Evaluation? The FCE is a series of tests used to evaluate your work-related physical abilities. If one has been ordered for you, it usually means that you are coming to an end of your treatment and the doctor is ready to send you back to work, with or without, restrictions depending on the FCE report.

An FCE is prescribed by a doctor.  You have the right to choose the facility where it takes place. Careful to assess injuries without causing any further damage, the evaluator will test a variety of physical performances critical to an employee’s job including:

• Push and pull strength
• Overall strength
• Lifting ability
• Flexibility
• Stamina
• Range of motion
• Ability to carry objects
• Any abilities related to the employees job

For example, if an employee’s job requires heavy labor, the evaluator will be sure to administer tests specific to their ability to lifting and carrying heavy objects, push and pull strength and range of motion.

It is very important for the employee undergoing the FCE to be very honest, consistent and specific about what he/she is able to do and what hurts. The FCE’s are only as good as the data that received.  In addition, the FCE could hurt an employee’s case if they try to exaggerate their symptoms. This could be a costly mistake as the FCE has been designed to avoid any fraud.

Following the FCE, a report will be generated. A successful FCE test report will address an employee’s functional limitations, any additional rehabilitation needed, the employee’s ability to return to work and if so what tasks they will be able/unable to perform. This report provided by your doctor will ultimately determine the next course of action.

If your injury is serious enough that a FCE is needed, you would be nuts not to have an experienced attorney in your corner.  If you would like our recommendation as to which attorney is best for your case, please complete our contact form or call us at 800-517-1614 to speak with an attorney for free.

Back in 2013, a really nice woman called us with what seemed like a relatively minor Illinois workers compensation case.  She had hit her elbow on something on the job and originally it seemed like a relatively small bone bruise.  I didn’t expect that the case would take six years to resolve.  I also didn’t expect that she’d end up getting a major bout of RSD.

RSD or reflex sympathetic dystrophy is a chronic condition that causes burning, swelling, stiffness and/or skin sensitivity to whatever body part is affected by it. Nobody knows what exactly causes it, but it’s thought to be a malfunction of the nervous system. As happened in this case, it often occurs following some sort of trauma.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a synonym for RSD and they both don’t have a cure. Some physical or pain management therapy can make the pain tolerable.

Because you can’t see RSD and since treating it is expensive, insurance companies often dispute these cases.  That’s what happened to this nice woman.  Insurance companies have doctors for hire who will say that you weren’t really injured on the job or don’t have CRPS.

This woman was so severely affected by this issue that she is no longer able to work.  It took years but eventually the attorney we referred her to was able to get her a settlement for around $550,000.00.  This settlement included almost $200,000.00 for her future medical care.

What is scary about this case is that an inexperienced lawyer could have easily settled it right away.  If your attorney doesn’t understand the medicine behind CRPS, they can not truly advocate for you as well as someone who has handled many of those cases.

Fortunately we know many lawyers who have had success with RSD cases and were able to connect her with one of them.  This attorney told me that it was one of the most medically complex cases he had seen.  Getting the right lawyer likely put hundreds of thousands more in her pocket than she would have received without it.

In any work comp case that is beyond a minor injury, it’s really important to get an attorney who handles these cases all day, every day.  We see many firms who try to do workmans comp but also criminal law, divorce and other unrelated practice areas.  It’s not that those law firms couldn’t do a good job. It’s that they don’t give you the best chance for success. And since all Illinois work comp attorneys get paid the same amount, why wouldn’t you want the best firm you can get?

As always, if you need help with a case or just have questions, please call us any time at 800-517-1614 or fill out our contact form and we will call you.

We are Chicago attorneys who have since 2001 been helping people find the right law firm for their case. If you would like our help, please call us at 312-346-5320.

What is one thing you do more than anything else in your life? It is more than you eat, more than you drink and is the one thing, other than your heartbeat, that continues to happen even when you’re not thinking about it: You breathe.

Naturally, clean air is a basic requirement for human health. Air pollution can cause and worsen many health conditions. And unfortunately, traces of chemicals known to cause human cancer lurk in the air everywhere. None know better than residents in Willowbrook, IL where 40+ lawsuits have been filed to seek damages from chemical emissions by the Sterigenics plant.

Sterigenics is a plant in Willowbrook that sterilizes primarily medical instruments as well as pharmaceutical drugs and food. The company uses high doses of ethylene oxide, a colorless and odorless gas that has been linked to cancer, to sterilize the medical equipment.

The U.S. EPA regularly assesses cancer risks from air pollution with a National Air Toxics Assessment. The assessment sends red flags to areas where there is an impact from air toxins. Officials began investigating Sterigenics last year when surrounding communities were showing red flags on this assessment. The recent study found that people living or working within a mile of the plant in Willowbrook face some of the nation’s highest cancer risks, and in some areas more than nine times the national average.

Sterigenics primarily uses ethylene oxide, a gas known to cause cancer, the most common being lymphoma and leukemia, but stomach, blood and breast cancers can also be linked with ethylene oxide exposure. Can this be a coincidence? The residents of Cook County don’t think so and neither does our law office.

Backlash against the company has been brewing for months since residents learned of the dangers last year. The company has maintained their stance that these emissions have been within legal limits, but still the plant was ordered to be temporarily shut down in February 2018 by the Illinois Attorney General. Upon closing, ethylene oxide air pollution in the area plummeted by nearly 90%.

After 34 years of the plant being in production too much damage has already been done. Too many residents find too many similar stories and health issues to not fault the company that stole their good health and ruined their lives.

A woman, who has no family history of cancer, was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been dealing with the horrors of it for over 6 years. Another man, whose wife recently died of cancer, is now standing by while doctors treat his daughter who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. A daughter, who since second grade has had violent coughing fits causing sever sickness. They are not alone. Families all over the area have been plagued with several health problems.

The plant did reopen in July of 2018, but was permanently closed by September 2019 for reasons unrelated to the cases against it.

When a family member requires more care then their relatives can provide, many families consider a nursing home. They are an amazing way to ensure that your loved one is being cared for and getting the treatment and care they deserve.

Many of these elders are well-cared for but sadly some are the victims of abuse. Abuse continues to be more prevalent than most people wish to believe and over 3/4^th of the cases of nursing home abuse are perpetrated by caregivers.

Abusive treatment is nothing new at nursing homes. Workers have been accused of sexual harassment, improper treatment or sedation, neglecting to clean or rotate as need or even dropping patients.

And now enters the newest form of elder abuse: Social media. It is redefining the way we interpret privacy, free speech and employee rights. While it can be a fun and enjoyable way of sharing photos, videos and memories with others, social media is now one of the biggest dangers to nursing home residents.

Since 2012, at least 65 instances have been reported nationwide in which workers at nursing homes have shared inappropriate photos or videos of residents being bathed, fully or partially naked, and some even deceased. At least 16 of these cases involved Snapchat, a social media service in which photos appear only for a few seconds and disappear without record.

Take for example an Illinois nursing home being sued after videos emerged on social media of caregivers taunting an elderly woman. The two staff completely exploited this elderly woman’s privacy and dignity. The nursing home is also being accused of failing to properly implement their abuse prevention policy. The hope from this lawsuit is to help prevent abuse like this happening to other individuals all across the state.  What kind of scumbag would taunt an elderly patient they are supposed to be caring for?

The numerous incidents illustrate the emerging threat that social media poses to patient privacy as well as the potential for capturing transgressions that might have otherwise gone unrecorded.

Illinois law requires certain professionals, including those in the medical field and adult care, to make reports of suspected abuse of adults age 60 or older who are unable, due to dysfunction, to report for themselves. Yet, the reported nursing homes rarely found these controversial media postings themselves. Most came from concerned members of the community whom saw the posts, posted privately or publicly.

The irresponsible use of social media has created a number of potential ethical and legal challenges. Federal agencies are now asking state officials to help enforce rules that prohibit nursing home staff from taking demeaning photos and videos of residents.

Making the decision to put a loved one in the care of others in a nursing home is an emotional and stressful situation for many families. Factoring in the risk of social media abuse should not have to be one of the concerns. If this has happened to someone you love, please call us at (312) 346-5320 for a free consultation with a lawyer to discuss what options you may have.

We are Illinois attorneys who will talk to you for free about your case and if needed, recommend an experienced attorney with a track record of success.  We only recommend law firms we’d suggest to family members or friends.  Call us at 800-517-1614 or fill out our contact form and we will call you.

Nursing homes are an amazing way to make sure that your loved ones are being cared for and are getting the service that they deserve. They offer the most extensive care a person can get outside of a hospital offering help with custodial care, such as bathing, getting dressed, and eating, as well as skilled cared. Skilled nursing care is given by a registered nurse and includes medical monitoring and treatments.

Medical professionals in nursing homes deal with the most precious and delicate commodity of all:  life. It is practically essential in a medical occupation to achieve perfection. Nurses, no matter how logical they may be, and how prepared they are to do the best possible job, are still humans capable of making errors.

Studies suggest that one in five nursing home residents suffer from medical errors. Sadly, 37% of those medical errors are medication errors, accounting for nearly ¼ of all medical malpractice cases in the United States. A medication error is defined as mistakes that are made while making or administrating a resident’s medication by a physician, nurse or caregiver. Medication errors include incorrect dosage, incorrect method of administration and even providing the incorrect medication to the wrong patient.

Most medication errors are genuinely made by human error, but sadly medication errors are a serious and pervasive problem, often caused by negligence and malpractice. Negligent medication errors occur when staff administers expired medication, the wrong dosage, documenting incorrectly, following wrong implemented ‘med pass’ routines, giving too much or too little medication, and giving at the wrong time or rate. Medication malpractice is more when ignoring an order, poor medication management during ‘med pass’, knowingly substituting wrong medication, and diversions of the correct medication.

Although most errors cause minor effects, there is a huge spectrum of consequences, including the possibility of death. In fact, approximately 7,000 deaths are the result of medication errors. Other possible consequences to medication error are unexpected medical complications, reduced immune responses, failure to organs, malnutrition and dehydration.

More often than not, mistakes become more common during extended shift hours, heavier workloads and the simple matter of inexperience. However, the most common cause of medication errors is incomplete patient information, meaning staff not knowing a patients’ medical history, previous treatments/diagnoses, allergies or current medications. Another cause of medication errors can be miscommunication. Messy or illegible handwriting, confusion with decimal points, mix ups between drugs with similar sounding names and even medical abbreviations can be misunderstood resulting in a medication error.

If this has happened to a loved one of yours and you would like to speak with an attorney for free to discuss your options, please contact us at any time.

There are a lot of “dirty secrets” when it comes to lawyers and how they market themselves, celebrate their success and talk to clients.  One dirty secret covers all three of those areas and it has to do with what a case is worth.

When you go to a lawyer in Illinois, it’s expected that they will know what they are talking about and that you will not.  Your hope is that they will be honest with you and look out for your best interests.  When it comes to accident cases, it’s not uncommon for an attorney to say something like “The more I get for you, the more I get for me, so I’m motivated to get you the most money possible.”

If I was a client and I heard that, I’d assume that the attorney is on the same page as me. If down the road they told me that my case was at most worth a million dollars and that’s what the settlement would be, I’d believe them and think they did a great job.

The problem with this is that I could be very wrong and it could cost me a lot of money.

I’m not saying one million isn’t a lot. It is. But if your case is worth 5 million and they get you one million or two million and they get you one, then they really sold you out.

What happens in some cases is people hire law firms that either aren’t doing well financially or don’t want to do the work needed.  If you are a lawyer and struggling to pay the bills, getting 333k now for settling a case for one million dollars might be better for you rather than doing the work needed to go to trial and possibly get five million in a year. If your office is closed by then it doesn’t help you.

The problem is that shouldn’t matter.  The client’s best interests should be all that matter, but unfortunately that’s not always the case.

The second and more common scenario is when an attorney just doesn’t want to do their job. If they went to trial that would mean a lot of depositions, a lot of prep work and in most trials, a week or two where they are doing nothing else.  Sadly some attorneys will tell their clients lies and make it seem like their position won’t get much better at a trial or lie and say “you could end up with nothing.”  That could be true in some cases, but some attorneys use that in every case as a lie to convince their clients to take an offer.

To me it’s outrageous that attorneys would sell out their clients and crazy that they would turn down the strong likelihood of a much higher payday for themselves, but it does happen.

On the plus side, their are a ton of really good personal injury attorneys in Illinois.  There is a famous story of a top Chicago accident lawyer who turned down a six million dollar offer because he was confident his client’s case was worth at least 20 million.  He took the case to trial and got over 29 million awarded by a jury.  Because he cared about his client she ended up with more than 35 million at the end of the day after the appeals process played itself out.

It’s not just these seven and eight figure cases where this can happen.  We see cases worth $50,000 get settled for $30,000 all the time.  You won’t always get the maximum, but should avoid getting low balled whenever possible.

If you want our recommendation of the right attorney for your case, fill out our contact form or call us at 312-346-5320 to speak with a lawyer for free.

We are Chicago attorneys who help people find the best medical malpractice lawyer for their case, anywhere in Illinois.  If you would like to speak with one of our lawyers for FREE, please fll out our contact form or call us at 312-346-5320.

It’s a question asked by most anyone involved in a case of medical malpractice: how much is my case worth? With the time, expense and stress that goes in to a case, it is understandable to want to know a cases’ worth even when your main goal is to prevent a similar medical error from happening to a different patient in the future.

Unfortunately, there is not a “formula” for calculating the value of a claim and, in fact, the worth of a case depends on a slew of different factors. These include, but are not limited to, jurisdiction, severity, life expectancy, income loss, future treatment or pre-existing conditions. Here’s the lowdown on some of the factors that can make or break the worth of your medical malpractice case.

Essentially, it comes down to economic and non-economic damages. However, both can be complicated to determine.

Economic damages or “specific” damages, refer to more actual, measurable losses, such as lost earnings, future earnings or to expenses incurred as a result of an injury, such as medical costs, co-payments and insurance costs. Lost earnings and medical costs are more specific and concrete figures and are easier to calculate. However, with medical costs they can become problematic as doctors may disagree about the necessary medical treatments needed. And since treatments costs differently, this can alter the claim cost. Future earnings are where it gets really tricky. Without knowing the remaining numbers of working years a person has or what those years earnings would offer, future earnings are more speculative and harder to predict in advance.  As a result, in many malpractice cases an economist will testify to try and establish a financial harm.

Non-economic damages or “general” damages, on the other hand, are not measurable. Meaning the damages cannot be calculated or added up with documented bills and receipts and are non-monetary and not readily quantifiable losses. Examples of non-economic damages include loss of consortium (the inability to have normal marital relations, sexually and emotionally), pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and disability, just to name a few. Again, these damages are highly subjective and vary from case to case.  Punitive damages are not allowed in Illinois malpractice cases, but it does seem that the more egregious the error, the higher the non-economic damages are.

The location where the incident took place also counts. Bigger counties like Cook County are more likely to yield higher reward than smaller southern counties such as Urbana or Winnebago. This can be due politics or doctor liability by county. Some rural counties in Illinois have not had a medical malpractice case in a number of years.

Lastly, in any type of case, choosing the right lawyer for your type of case greatly influences the worth of your case. If the representing law firm has a positive and proven track record as well as resources, cases often will settle for a higher amount than they might otherwise. Based on the facts of your case, an experienced lawyer will know which expert witnesses can be vital importance as well as where to file for the best verdict possible.  While $4 million is a big number for a case, if a lawyer feels pressure to take that offer when the case is really worth $15 million, they are doing a bad job for you.  In our opinion there are really only around ten law firms in Illinois with the track record to get you the most money that a case can be worth.

Medical malpractice suits have the potential to get complicated quickly. Seeking the most experienced and successful lawyers helps ensure you receive the best settlement possible. The compensation does not undo the harm caused by a health care provider, but it can provide much needed medical and personal care for someone injured by a medical provider.  If you’d like our help in finding the right lawyer for your unique case, please contact us any time.