Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance
What is Hiring a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Going to Cost?
Findgreatlawyers.com helps people who need Illinois attorney referrals and legal guidance for any Illinois legal matter including workers compensation. Our service is free and we allow you to speak to our staff lawyers for any questions or concerns you have. If you would like our help please complete our contact form or call us at (800) 517-1614. Our founding attorneys have decades of experience with Illinois workers’ compensation cases and we help anywhere in Illinois. For more information on what it costs to hire an Illinois workers’ compensation attorney please read on.
Illinois work injury lawyers handle cases on what is called a contingency basis. In other words, their fees are contingent upon making a recovery for you. The fact of the matter is that there is almost always some recovery in an Illinois workers comp case.
So if you hear a lawyer trying to sell himself as being unique that he won’t charge you anything until your case is over, they might be a fraud or a little too slick for our liking. The law in Illinois prevents Illinois workers’ compensation attorneys from working on anything other than a contingency basis and the limit of that fee is typically 20% of what is recovered for you.
Not only does the state set the law on what a lawyer can charge for these cases, but they also provide the form that must be used to confirm that you are deciding to hire a specific lawyer. That form is called an attorney representation agreement.
On the form it will indicate that your lawyer is going to get 20% of your medical bills, 20% of your payments for time off of work and 20% of what is recovered for the permanent nature of your injury. Many workers are understandably worried about this form because they think that it will cause them to have to pay 20% of their bills or turn over 20% of the money that they are counting on to live.
The good news is that none of the lawyers that we recommend actually take this fee unless they have to go to trial on your behalf and fight for denied payments. In other words, if payments for your time off work are not in dispute or are resolved with a few short phone calls or letters, the attorneys you will find through us will not seek payment for their time and will turn all of that money over to you. On the other hand, if they have to take depositions and go to trial to recover payments for you that the insurance company is not providing then they may seek 20% of that amount.
If you hire a work injury lawyer and they ask you to advance money for costs related to the case it is probably a bad sign. There is no cost for filing a case and in most situations the only expenses are obtaining medical records or paying a doctor for their deposition.
Beyond all of that the costs for cases at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission are very straight forward and you shouldn’t expect that your lawyer will receive anything until the case is over.
If you have any questions about lawyer fees or would like an attorney referral please complete our contact us form or call us at (800) 517-1614.
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