Most of the time, when I achieve a great settlement, arbitration award, or verdict for a client, I want to tell the world.  Most of the time, my clients are only too happy to allow me to do that, provided their names and specific identifying information isn’t included.
But there are exceptions.
One of my latest settlements was a great result for a deserving, and very satisfied, client.  I suspect the attorney who referred this case to me would also be rather pleased.
However, we cannot really talk too much about it.
Why, you ask?
The specific terms of the…
Continue Reading Shhh…It’s a Secret

May 10th will be the anniversary of my 35 years as a lawyer.
It’s been a wild ride, and I couldn’t have imagined at the start it would be as interesting, successful, or fulfilling as it has been. And it’s not over yet!
A lot of lawyers write on LinkedIn about how wonderful they are. I hate that. The attorneys who resonate with me – and probably with you – are open, honest, and human. Human beings, flawed as we are, make pretty good lawyers – because our clients are also human beings.  And so are defense attorneys, insurance adjusters,…
Continue Reading Thirty Five Years in Practice!

Does your back hurt?  Do you think about your back?  Do back exercises?  Had surgery, acupuncture, injections, or physical therapy to help your back?  Do you think about how long you have to sit or on what surface when invited to travel or attend an event?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re probably among the vast majority of Americans who experience back pain; studies show up to eighty percent of the population will have some level of back pain at some point in their lives.
What spurred me thinking about all this?
A recent trip my…
Continue Reading Back For More

By the time you read this, I will finally have completed physical therapy following my October 1, 2024 rotator cuff and adhesive capsulitis (that’s “frozen shoulder” to non-medical nerds) surgery. 
In other words, five months post-surgery, I am now free to not go to physical therapy.  But that doesn’t mean I will not be performing therapy on my own.  Probably for the rest of my years.
Why does it take so long?  When is it completely healed?  Why do you still have to do exercises?
The End…Sort of
My therapists have been wonderful, with the primary one, E, not just…
Continue Reading Armed for Victory

Yes, my client fired me.  Or did I fire my client?  It’s hard to explain exactly who did what, but let me give a little bit of background.
My client was a long-time acquaintance.  I’d known him for decades. He was a professional who had referred some of his own clients to me when they needed a personal injury attorney.  I’ve handled a few cases for him personally over the years too. So when he told me about the horrific car crash he had been in, I was only too happy to help him out.
As is my standard practice,…
Continue Reading I Got Fired/I Fired My Client

This is now number four of my series of blogs about my recovery from rotator cuff surgery and its attendant ups, downs, complications, and progress.
Last time I wrote, I was fighting some knee pain that was slowly resolving, while simultaneously working in physical therapy to improve my shoulder range of motion and slowly strengthening the shoulder.
I have made some positive progress.  As with all recoveries, it is not linear or perfect, and, to quote the great unintentionally wise man, Yogi Berra, “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
Four Months
Four months since my shoulder surgery on October 1st! …
Continue Reading Grafting Solutions

You’ve heard the calls frequently that workers’ compensation recipients are “gaming the system” and sitting around at home collecting checks for not working.  If your own opinions run along these lines, you probably also believe the attorneys who represent petitioners (the workers’ compensation word for “plaintiff”) are also somehow doing something unethical or unseemly.
Allow me to dissuade you of both notions with a few stories of some legitimately injured hard-working clients of mine whose workers’ compensation cases recently were resolved.
Chase a Suspect; Blow Out a Knee
 You may have read my recent blog post about D, the police …
Continue Reading Gaming the System

Policing is a dangerous profession.  We all know that.  But most of us think in terms of truly dire injuries or even fatalities, usually involving firearms.  Those are all terrible situations and when we see them on the news, they make us recognize how special the brave men and women who choose this profession truly are.
What most people do not think about is that police officers get hurt in a myriad of different ways. Some of them are rather banal and routine, yet painful nevertheless.  In my client D’s case, he was chasing a suspect in the suburbs and…
Continue Reading In (K)need of Speed

This is the third installment of my blog on my recovery from my October 1st rotator cuff surgery.  The good news is that my shoulder range of motion is coming along ahead of schedule.  We are just at the point where strength improvement enters into the mix—more on that later.
So everything is great, right? 
It’s me we’re talking about, so of course something has to get screwed up!
My knee is bad.  It’s been bothering me for several weeks now.  No, it’s not the left knee that I have had surgically repaired twice, thirty years apart.  It’s the…
Continue Reading Shouldering The Load Over the Long Term

We are the masters of our destiny, kings and queens of our castle.  We live in a world where we can choose everything we experience—our playlists, podcasts, social media connections—so you would assume you have complete control of what happens when you settle your personal injury, workers’ compensation, or medical malpractice case.
But you don’t.  At least not completely.  Especially if you are married.
Am I advocating against people getting hitched?  Of course not!
But if you are married when you get injured, be wary that what you think is coming your way may not be all yours after all.
Continue Reading What’s Yours is Yours; What’s Mine is Yours Too?

Many people get behind on paying child support.  For the same reasons that people fall behind on paying their other bills, many people are simply unable to pay what is required for child support.  Often, this is caused by a combination of factors, from underemployment, inflation, rent increases, or bad financial planning and bad choices.
Whatever the reasons, the law in Illinois is designed to help protect the children who benefit from child support, and so falling behind on support can lead to a lien being placed on your personal injury or workers’ compensation case.
Hold it!  You mean the…
Continue Reading Child Support Liens—Injury and Workers’ Compensation Cases

 I have now blogged twice about the rotator cuff surgery I had on October 1, 2024.
As I have tried to emphasize previously, this is a long process, with very few obvious gains or changes in status for long periods of time.
I am, according to my surgeon at my six week post-operative appointment, “ahead of schedule.”  What exactly does this mean in real terms?  Read more to find out what I can, and cannot do—and how your activity may be limited after this type of surgery..
Surgical Repair is Done So I’m Healed, Right?
As the surgeon told me…
Continue Reading Rotator Cuff Recovery—The (Almost) Eternal Struggle

In a recent blog post, I wrote about my then-upcoming rotator cuff surgery.
Now, the surgery is over and the long and boring recovery has begun.
What lessons has this experience reinforced?  Several jump out for sure.
I understand even more what my clients are experiencing, and it has reinvigorated my empathy for people in pain.
This has also made me understand the importance of checking in with people to see how they are doing.  Often, they just want to talk about their experience, how they are feeling, and are just bored, so even talking to a lawyer isn’t so…
Continue Reading What I Learned from My Rotator Cuff Surgery