Nothing could be further from the truth. I, like almost all lawyers, offer a free consultation. That means we can talk on the telephone or face to face about your questions and the details of your car accident and your injuries. There is never a charge for things like this. I talk to people all the time and answer their questions and there is never any problem or issue. The truth is, I am happy to help answer questions, and I even wrote a book and created a video DVD, which I offer for free to anyone who has been involved in an accident or has been injured, no matter how.

So, a common question is: what do you do if you have been injured in a car accident and you cannot work? Really, the question usually is “How can I keep paying my bills if I cannot go to work?”

In Workers’ Compensation cases, we can usually get TTD payments (Total Temporary Disability) weekly to keep money coming in.

But in car crash cases, there is no provision in the law for weekly or monthly payments to immediately replace a salary. Your options are making sure you are covered by a disability policy personally and/or at work, relying on savings and the help of your family, or as a last resort, considering a lawsuit loan.

I always caution my clients to consider their situation very carefully beofre taking out a lawsuit loan. those companies really help injured people who are in a very tough spot. But the cost of the loans is very expensive and the interest rates are high. And, there are some companies which are better than others, as far as rates and how easy it is for me to work with them at the end of your case. Lawsuit loan companies never loan money unless a reliable, well-known lawyer is involved in the case. This is because lawsuit loan companies want a case accepted by a lawyer to kind of guarantee that the case is okay.

If you have been involved in a car crash or any kind of injury, and you have questions, please feel free to give me a call. Or you can call my toll-free telephone number (1-888-HURT-318) to get a free copy of my informational DVD and book which explains your rights.

The post Missing Work Because of a Car Crash appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

After several years of litigation, I recently took one of my client’s car accident case to hearing and we just got the results. We ended up with a good amount of money for the client. But Allstate insurance company fought us tooth and nail every step of the way.

In our case, the car accident happened when the defendant made a left turn into my client’s car while she was driving with her two young daughters in the backseat. My client ended up with a herniated disc in her neck, a lot of therapy, and some permanent pain in her neck. His was not terrible, debilitating pain, but it made her every day activities harder for her to do and with young kids in the house many of us know how an extra neck or back pain can make every day activities something to address.

The young man driving the car had a very small insurance policy and we were able to collect that money. However, my client was insured with Allstate insurance company. They hired two separate doctors who never examined my client. These doctors looked at her medical records and said that she should have been in pain for a couple of weeks and otherwise there was no reason for her complaints of pain from her car accident.

I think it is absolutely terrible for Allstate insurance company to hire two doctors to write reports calling their own insured (my client) a liar. What else would you call what they did? Their doctors said that my client should have sustained an injury of about four weeks from the car accident. They basically said that she was lying about her pain and problems.

But she continues to be in pain in her neck to this day. All of her doctors agree that her injuries were a result of the car accident. She was in active medical treatment for a year and a half. And she has permanent on and off nagging pain in her neck.

Allstate never offered a penny. They never even wanted to discuss settlement. I guess they decided that calling their own insured a liar and trying to do character assassination on her was a better move. Remember, this is a woman whose car and home are insured with Allstate. She sends them premiums every month for their insurance coverage. She was rewarded with insults and delay. They could have a made a fair offer in her car accident case. Instead, they forced us to try the case before an arbitration panel of three Judges.

Going to a hearing like that can be stressful. My client was nervous and she was afraid that we would not win. But I was confident and I pulled out all the stops to make sure the Arbitrators understood what was going on. The case was not easy and the facts were not perfect. It was a fight.

I am happy to say that we did recover pretty good money for her for her injuries. Nothing is going to erase the ongoing problems she has with her neck. But in this car accident case, we at least one a moral victory and put some money in her pocket.

If you need to speak with a car accident lawyer, give me a call at 312-895-0545.

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I think I may have found a solution, but not one which is easy to set up.  It does require some work.  And there is always the risk that updates to WordPress, Facebook and/or Twitter will result in “new features” which break my efforts.

But if this works, I’ll be pretty happy — I will not have to post things 3 times.  That would be pretty nice.

Here goes nuthin’!

The post Will I Be Able To Post To Twitter and Facebook From My Blog? appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

Usually when lawyers talk about expedited hearings and Workers Compensation cases they are talking about setting up the hearing as soon as they can to try and get your medical bills paid, a medical procedure preapproved, or to start getting you paid while you are off work (that’s called TTD).

Those are good goals. Injured workers need to be treated so they can get back to work as soon as possible. Injured workers can’t live with no income. And the Worker’s Compensation act in Illinois provides that these are things that injured workers are entitled to. But more and more Workers Compensation insurance companies are discovering that they are getting away with cutting off benefits in the state of Illinois. Remember, insurance wants to make money by collecting premiums and refusing to pay bills.

So Workers Comp lawyer sets up an expedited hearing. But what does “expedited” mean?

If you look it up in the dictionary, expedited means something that’s rushed  or done right away. But the way the commission works, you are lucky if you get an expedited hearing in six weeks. Very rarely, you can get a hearing sooner than that. Sometimes it takes even longer.

I don’t know about you, but if I didn’t have any income in six weeks that would cause me a lot of stress. If I needed back surgery and was in daily pain and I had to wait six or eight weeks for an answer as to whether I could hear the surgery, I would not be happy. It isn’t fair. It defeats the purpose of the Worker’s Compensation act in my opinion. You are to have an answer within a week or two on such questions as this.

But the judges (called arbitrators) over at the commission deserve a vacation now and again. They have lots of cases on their calls. They only hear cases on scheduled dates every month. They have cases that go to trial, and hundreds of lawyers who want to talk to them. It is not an easy job. They can’t do everything. They are human beings who are doing their best. And the state of Illinois does not have enough money to hire more of them.

Just be aware that getting in front of an arbitrator on a request for expedited hearing pursuant to 19(b) or 8(a) is oftentimes not something that can happen right away. Don’t be so mad at your lawyer.

You should also be aware that sometimes the judge will convert the expedited hearing into a full hearing. If that happens, your case is going to trial and your lawyer has to have all his ducks in a row – all of your medical bills and records and oftentimes, a deposition of your main treating doctor. It can take a lot of time to organize all their trial material and to get a doctor’s deposition.

So keep in mind that even if you can get in front of the arbitrator, will your lawyer have had enough time to assemble and organize all the stuff he needs to win your case? Do you want an expedited hearing and then lose it? If it takes a couple extra weeks to get the case truly ready for trial, that is the better move rather than rushing to an expedited hearing where the judge will continue the hearing anyway because the doctor’s deposition is not okay.

Like so many things in life expedited hearings and Workers Compensation seem like they should happen right away and they should be simple. But nothing in the law is simple.

What is simple is you deserve a lawyer who will explain the sorts of things to you and will talk to you on the telephone when you need answers. If you’ve been involved in a Workers Comp case and you need help right away, give me a call. I’d be happy to send you a copy of my DVD which explains your rights or to give you a free consultation, or both. Good luck.

The post What Is An Expedited Hearing In Workers Comp? appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

There are usually two kinds of dangerous construction cases that I handle. Those two kinds of cases are: (1) injured construction workers who are hurt on the job either by a dangerous condition or by negligent conduct by a coworker or other contractor on the jobsite; or (2) ordinary citizens not involved in the construction who encounter a dangerous condition with little or no warning.

In the first kind of case, you have potentially to claims. You have a workers compensation claim against your employer any time you are injured on the job. This includes construction jobs where your hurt due to dangerous construction. And you also can sue whoever is responsible on the worksite for safety or for creating or maintaining the danger. That often means suing the other contractors on the worksite. That means you have to cases for one accident. This is very common.

A skilled personal injury lawyer who handles dangerous construction cases can position both the workers compensation case as well as the third-party construction case for maximum value and the most money in your pocket. This often involves settling the workers comp case first and negotiating with the workers comp carrier. This is a good kind of case to have because both workers compensation and construction cases are the types of cases where laws of been passed to protect the injured worker. That doesn’t mean they’re easy. It just means that if you hire a good lawyer with experience in cases like this you have a good chance of winning the case and making sure all of your medical is taken care of and getting a fair sum of money for your injuries.

The other kind of case involving dangerous construction that I handle involve private citizens and normal people who come across a dangerous construction situation. For example, if someone is working on the sidewalk and they dig a hole in the side walk and don’t warn of the hole on the sidewalk or do not cover up the hole, that can result in serious injuries.  Or you could be walking past the construction site and a crane could drop construction material or demolishing the building could result in a piece of concrete flying and hitting you. Usually construction companies are pretty careful about not hurting people but when they make a mistake, the stakes are high. Making mistakes here could kill someone or cripple them.

In cases like this, you can usually sue the owner of the property and all the companies or people involved in doing the repair. You’re not allowed to run a dangerous construction site, and no one is allowed to needlessly endanger the public doing a routine repair. But it does happen. Hiring a lawyer who knows what they’re doing in these kinds of cases is the smartest thing you can do. Too often, people figure that big companies will treat them fairly. But all of these kinds of injury claims are handled by insurance companies. An insurance companies just don’t care. All they care about is money, not you, and not ruining your life.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to dangerous construction, call me right away. You don’t have to hire me but I have a book and some personal advice for you that I offer free so that you’ll know what to do.

The post Dangerous Construction Injuries appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

So I figured I would answer that question for everyone.

Fall down cases are way more complicated than most people think, and more complicated than most personal injury lawyers explain to people.

That’s because a lot of people think that if you fall down on someone else’s property, they are automatically obligated to pay your medical bills. But that is not the law.

In a nutshell, in a fall down case you have to prove that whoever was owning or managing the property new or should have known about the condition that caused you to fall in enough time for them to have fixed it.

In other words, if there was nothing wrong with the property that cause you to fall, then you cannot sue for it. So if you really just tripped over a curb and the curb was in a good state of repair and there was no other issue of a hole or snow or ice or something other than you just tripping on a perfectly okay curb, then I do not like your chances of winning a case. These are complicated cases so I always tell personal injury clients to call me when they have fall.

Think about it:  so you got hurt and you think you have a personal injury case.  Who are you going to sue, and why?  Did they do something wrong which caused you to fall down and get hurt?  If they didn’t do do something wrong, and if that wrong act didn’t make you fall down, then why would you want that person to be responsible for your personal injuries, anyway?  That wouldn’t be fair.

Lots of people get hurt and there is no one to blame.  In those circumstances, there is no law suit or claim to make.

In every kind of personal injury case, you have to prove that the person you’re suing did something wrong. If you got hurt and no one did anything wrong, then you can’t sue anybody. But only an experienced attorney who knows a lot about fall down cases can advise you properly as to whether you have a case. I’ve had a lot of success in fall down personal injury cases, even when, at first, it seemed unlikely that we had a theory of what the defendant did wrong. But I am very good at examining the circumstances and figuring out if everything was okay. So if you have detailed questions the best thing for you to do is call me at my office.

The post Can You Sue If You Trip on A Curb? appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

Fall down injury cases (called “premises liability” cases) are one of the most common kinds of injury cases I get called about.

But they are much more complicated than most people realize. A lot of people call me and tell me that since they fell on someone’s property, the property owner is liable for their medical bills.

But that is not the law at all. In fact, it is much harder to sue someone for falling on their property that it is to sue them for a car accident or many other kinds of cases. I would say that more than half of the people who call me with a fall down type case have some problem which makes the case difficult or impossible to prove.

For example, if snow or rain or ice falls out of the sky onto a sidewalk and that snow or ice causes someone to fall down, then there is no case.

Also, you cannot sue someone for failing to shovel their sidewalk or stairs.

But if there is a gutter or a roof or some kind of overhang which causes rain or snow to melt and deposit water or ice in a particular area, that might be the basis for suing someone.

Or if a sidewalk is cracked or broken or has a hole in it which allows water or snow or ice to pool and freeze and then become covered by newly fallen snow or tree leaves, that might be the basis for a case.

The simple truth is that you can try to sue anyone for lots of different reasons. But personal injury lawyers who handle fall down cases understand that they are tough cases to prove. Years ago, it was easier to find a lawyer to help you with the fall down case. But it is been my experience from talking to injured people that it is often difficult to find a lawyer to help you if you have been injured in a fall.

So can you be sued if someone falls on your sidewalk?

The short answer is yes. But whether that person will ever find a lawyer willing to file a lawsuit really depends on the particular facts of your case. It is a good idea to speak with a lawyer who has handled fall down cases to talk about the details of your case.

If you have homeowners insurance and somebody was hurt on your property, you should call your insurance company and reported right away. Part of your homeowners insurance includes that your insurance company will hire a lawyer to represent you if you are sued.

If you have fallen on somebody else’s property and you believe it is the result of their neglect or carelessness, then you should talk to a lawyer right away. I have quite a bit of experience in these kinds of cases and I have been able to obtain settlements for clients in cases where other lawyers turned them away or told them they did not have much of a chance. There are a lot of law cases and rules for these kinds of cases and this makes fall down cases complex. But a good lawyer with lots of experience handling these kinds of cases knows all the cases and laws. One little detail in a case like this can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Either way, if you have this sort of situation going on (if you are afraid of being sued, or if you have been injured on somebody else’s property), then you should call me. I offer a free consultation in person or over the telephone. I am happy to talk to you whether you have a case or not, and I can probably give you some very valuable insight and advice to your situation and what your next step should be.

The post Can Someone Sue You For Falling On Your Sidewalk? appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

The short answer is that a nurse case manager in a Workers’ Compensation case cannot tell you when to go back to work.  They are not allowed to direct your treatment or turn your doctor against you.

Whenever an insurance company hire a case manager who is also a nurse with some medical training to ‘help’ in one of my clients’ cases, I know what is really going on.  The Company or the insurance company is trying to beat your case.  They are trying to say you are trying to make the injuryer bigger than it is, and they are trying to get you to go back to work whether you are ready or not.

I sen nurse case managers a letter telling them the “rules for they being involved in the case.  if they do not follow my rules, then I force them out of the case.

I don’t let them bully my client.  I don’t let them attend appointment in the meeting room.  I tell my client to answer direct questions but keep the communication short and direct.  No long conversations if you have a mean nurse case manager.  I remind the nurse case manager that she isn’t allowed to direct treatment or tell my client what treatment to have or what doctor to go to or anything like that.

I hate to say it, because sometimes, a nurse  can be a really nice person and can really be helpful.  but honestly?  Usually you can just think of them as insurance company spies who are trying to get you back to work for the benefit of the company; to cut your treatment as short as possible; and to write down anything you do or say that they think will help the Company beat you in your Workers’ Compensation case.

A good lawyer can rein in a nurse case manager that is out of control. They should not be directing treatment or acting like they control the medical treatment.

Specifically, a nurse case manager cannot send you back to work or cut off your treatment.  Only a doctor can do that, so you do not really want a nurse case manager to be too “buddy buddy” with your doctor. But they CAN and DO  influence doctors and insurance company claims reps.

That’s why if I sense that I have a pro-insurance, anti-working person case manager in one of my clients’ Workers’ Comp case, if push comes to shove, I’ll kick them off the case and tell the insurance company exactly why. Better to fight over discharging a nurse  than to allow one to stay on a case and let them ruin a case with lies and a rotten attitude.

The post Nurse Case Manager Workers Comp appeared first on DeSalvo Law.

There are many different kinds of damages you can claim in a car accident crash case. I usually categorize them between property damage losses in personal injury losses.

Car Accident Property Damage

Most of the time, insurance companies are pretty reasonable when it comes to fixing your car. Of course, that assumes that who caused the accident is not an issue. In other words, if the other driver’s insurance company things that you caused the accident, then they will not want to pay for your car repairs, rental, or any other damages. If this is your situation, you will have to repair your car yourself or submit your claim to your own insurance company if you have full coverage auto insurance.

But if it is clear that the crash was the other driver’s fault, usually the other driver’s insurance will pay for the repairs. Unfortunately, there are many crummy insurance companies out there who take a long time to do a property damage estimate and then do not want to pay the towing or storage fees for the car during that time. They also do not want to pay for our rental car, and will fight you every step of the way if your personal property has been lost or so stolen as a result of the crash.

Car Accident Personal Injury

When it comes to personal injuries, almost every insurance company these days will give you a hard time. A common tactic that they use these days is to be generally supportive of you and suggest to you that they will take care of the injury claim once you are done going to the doctor. Then, they will get you or agreement to pay your medical bills directly. But this is a mistake.

Once the insurance company has paid your medical bills, you will never be allowed to tell the jury about those medical bills. Then, then, they cut a deal with the doctor or hospital to pay pennies on the dollar for the medical bill and refused to pay you any money for your pain and suffering, time lost from work, or any of the other damages you may have suffered in your car crash.

It is a dirty trick because everyone wants to be reasonable. But this is just one example of how insurance companies use their superior knowledge and experience in injury claims to trick injured people into taking less money or recovering no money when they’ve been hurt in a car accident.

That’s why I wrote my injury book and recorded my DVD and CD: to help people who have been involved in a car wreck understand their rights and protect themselves from insurance companies. Ultimately, though, hiring a good personal injury attorney is your best protection against insurance companies and I encourage you to get a free consultation with an experienced injury lawyer immediately after your car accident. It costs you nothing and could save you thousands of dollars.

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