"I don't want to give it all to a lawyer"

We heard this from someone who ironically enough had not received workers' compensation benefits for about six months.  She hadn't yet hired an attorney because she "heard from friends" that a lawyer would just end up with everything anyway.

Attorney's fees in Illinois workers' compensation cases are capped at 20% of whatever you recover.  Even if you had a lawyer, fired them and got a new lawyer, the total fee could never be more than 20%. 

On top of that, we don't ever take a fee on medical bills that we secure for you unless we get the bills reduced for you.  In other words, if an Arbitrator awarded you $10,000 in medical payments we get a check for $10,000 for that amount to directly pay the providers.  We would only take a fee if we got the bills reduced below $10,000.  We never let our clients pay for medical treatment out of their own pocket.

We also don't take 20% of your TTD benefits unless we have to go to trial for you or perform substantial work.  If we just file a couple of trial motions or make a few calls we would rather all that money go in to your pocket.

We do get 20% of what you recover when the case is over.  If we get a $50,000.00 settlement for you, our fee would be $10,000.00.  If we recover nothing you owe nothing.  The point to remember is that most insurance companies don't offer a settlement without a lawyer on the case and when they do, the amount they provide is usually at the low end of the scale.  We have never seen a situation where a client got less because they hired us.

Most importantly, if you are seriously hurt on the job, your life as you know it is on the line so it's important that you are protected.  Work injury attorneys don't "take it all" but when they do their job they protect you and level the playing field.