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It’s the job of an attorney to take the emotion out of a legal situation. We are trained from law school to look at things objectively so we can make calm, rationale decisions or recommendations for our clients.
Lawyers are also, believe it or not, human. And if your lawyer does not have any human emotions, it can be a bad thing.
I bring this up because I recently talked to the family of an injured worker whose case was so wrongly and illegally denied that it made my blood boil. My emotion didn’t change my recommendations, but I was still really ticked off about this.
With the caveat that insurance companies wrongly deny Illinois workers’ compensation claims all of the time, there are some that are so gross and so far beyond acceptable behavior that it needs to be called out.
In this case, a worker was carrying a jug of water at the grocery store he works at. While walking he got bumped into and it fell and splashed all over the floor. He got up to try and clean it up, took a few steps and slipped on the wet floor, badly injuring his leg. This was all caught on camera.
He inquired about workers’ compensation and was told that he was not eligible for it because the company did nothing wrong. Now that is blatantly not what the law is. Illinois workers’ comp is a no fault law so he does not need to prove negligence on the company.
This type of denial is really bad on its own, but when you learn about the injured worker, that is what will really make you mad.
The worker in question is a high functioning autistic man. He can work and communicate, but is not able to live independently. He also is kind, sweet and very trusting. In this case, his parents have guardianship over them and were smart and caring enough to reach out on his behalf because what the insurance company said did not seem right.
In the end the only harm will be a slight delay in getting medical bills paid as well as compensation for lost time benefits. But it could have been so much worse. Every day people fall for insurance company lies about whether or not they have a case.
In this case I truly believe they thought they could take advantage of an autistic person. Their goals are no different than when they wrongly deny someone not on the spectrum, but the thinking is. This case is so clearly a case. It’s caught on camera! But they knew they had a kind and trusting injured worker and rolled the dice that he would not learn the law or have someone looking out for him.
I don’t get how people that do things like this sleep at night or justify their actions. You are actively trying to harm people. It does beyond “it’s just business” and is truly disgusting.