A new year brings new hope, new commitment, new beginnings.  Unfortunately, it also brings new Illinois workers’ compensation lies.

I’m in my 20th year of practice and while I think I’ve heard and seen it all, the truth is that I still get stunned by some dishonest attorneys who don’t fight for their clients.  These lawyers lie to their clients rather than just tell them the hard truth.

The most recent example is from a caller to my office who was injured a few years ago.  It’s a pretty serious injury and he’s on disability as a result. He hasn’t gotten work comp benefits because there is a dispute as to how he got hurt.

To win his case, the worker needs to go to trial.  That’s what attorneys are trained to do. Before a trial can take place, the lawyer needs to take the deposition of the treating doctor who can testify as to what the injuries are and whether or not those injuries are from a job accident.  Sounds simple enough, right?  It is and these depositions take place tons of times every single day.

Problem is that it’s been two years since the lawyer first told his client that they would take this deposition. Why hasn’t it happened yet?  The lawyer says it’s because the Defense Attorney won’t agree to a date and time and that there’s nothing he can do about it if the defense attorney won’t cooperate.

What a crock of %@$^* (my New Year’s resolution was to not swear as much).  Cases would never go to trial if you had to depend on a defense attorney to do their job. Maybe he didn’t say “pretty please” nicely enough.

If the defense attorney won’t agree to a deposition date, there’s a legal solution for that.  We can file what is called a dedimus motion. That binds all parties to take a deposition on a certain date and time ordered by the Arbitrator. If that motion is filed and ordered and the defense attorney doesn’t show up then we can go on without them.

What’s really happening here is that the attorney doesn’t believe in the case and doesn’t want to spend the money that it would take to go to trial.  So instead of being honest he’s making up a lie that does nobody any good.

We never promise a result, but we do promise to be direct, honest and fight hard on any case we choose to take on.  If we think your case isn’t a good one, we likely would tell you that up front and not represent you. If, during the course of the case, it goes from what we think is a good case to not a good case, we’ll tell you that too.  Honesty is what we expect from you and what you deserve from us and our statewide network of attorneys.

I’m curious what the end game is for this lying lawyer.  He’ll probably tell the client that he has no choice but to settle.  And by then it will be too late to get new representation so he’ll be stuck.

If you are looking for a lawyer for your workers’ compensation case, or if you already have a lawyer but would like to switch, call us for a free consultation at (312) 346-5578 or contact us online. We will give you the straight truth on your case.