The Best Work Comp Attorney In Southern Illinois? They Aren’t In Chicago
The Best Work Literacy Lawyer in Southern Illinois? You’re not in Chicago
There are a few employee compensation law firms in Chicago that do a lot of advertising. Billboards, television, radio, etc. There’s no law against it, but it’s just not my style, especially when they nickname themselves. I know it works because we get a lot of calls from their unhappy customers.
Some of the companies that advertise are doing a good job and others are lousy in my opinion. I find that they have so many customers that their customer service suffers.
Their reach is not limited to the Chicago area. These companies are taking cases across Illinois. While you can practice anywhere with an Illinois license, that doesn’t mean a Chicago attorney should handle a case five hours away from his or her office.
Quite simply, the best employee compensation attorney in southern Illinois isn’t going to be someone from Chicago. They might do a good job for you, but I find when a Chicago law firm handles a lot of cases far away from their office, they send their young, less experienced attorneys to handle the case.
I saw this first hand in the late 90s when my career started. I’ve been sent on a plane to Alton, Carbondale, and Belleville several times to work on cases. I did my best, but quickly found that the local lawyers who were with the referees by first name were better equipped to get a good result.
These early experiences inspired me to build a nationwide network identifying attorneys who I think are doing excellent jobs across the state. In other words, if you are injured in Madison County, Decatur, Effingham, etc., I will not try to deal with your case directly, but will refer you to lawyers I have known for years and who I think are good A job as a lawyer in a big city.
The goal of any lawyer should be to get the best result for their client. Any lawyer who is arrogant enough to believe they are the right one for you in any situation is lying to you.
This whole post was inspired after receiving a phone call from a backcountry injured worker who hired one of those firms that did a ton of advertising. When it came down to it and they needed an operation that was not approved by the Labor Department, this company did not go to court to get them for them but tried to get them to resolve their case. Worse, it wasn’t even a lawyer who was the primary point of contact, but an inexperienced paralegal.
A word of warning. While there are many great work injury attorneys out there, you need to avoid some of them. The best deal almost exclusively with work cases or have them as the main focus of their practice. Beware of those who try to take on every case that comes through the door or handle cases of non-harm such as divorce, intercourse, etc. I strongly recommend that you ask her how many accidents at work she has brought to court in the past year. If the answer isn’t at least five, that’s a bad sign.
By Mike Helfand
Courtesy of Illinois Workers Compensation Injury Law Blog
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Disclaimer: WorkersCompensation.com publishes independently produced publications by various stakeholders in the compensation industry. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of WorkersCompensation.com.
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