Below are brief summaries of Workers’ Compensation cases that we have resolved for past clients.

  • $12,000,000 settlement. Successfully settled a complex case in favor of a catastrophically injured ironworker facing myriad insurance and Medicare issues. Substantial workers’ compensation insurance funds were obtained to provide a handicap-accessible home and vehicle for the client and his family.
  • $645,000 settlement. Totally disputed case for a laborer who had an unwitnessed fall off a ladder and sustained a brain injury.
  • $525,000 award and settlement for a Local 1 ironworker whose foreman (and uncle) testified against him claiming no notice of an injury was given. Through phone records and through the impeachment of the testimony of the company’s workers’ compensation administrator, the firm obtained an award in excess of $250,000, including $125,000 in penalties and fees. The claim then later settled for an additional $275,000.
  • $500,000 award for an ironworker who suffered a second career-ending injury in the same occupation which involved defending in the Appellate Court against an employer’s appeal of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s original decision in favor of our client.
  • Established the medical relationship between the injury of a union millwright who caught a 110-pound steel beam as it fell from its perch and the one in a million diagnosis of his condition. Total settlement exceeded $450,000 in new money to the client.
  • John Popelka settled a Workers’ Compensation claim on behalf of an Assistant Project Manager for $425,000 and established a $485,000 Medicare “set-aside” Trust. Our client had developed R.S.D. following a meniscal surgery to his knee.
  • $335,000 lump sum settlement for a truck driver who was severely injured after being run over at a gas station.
  • $324,000 settlement for a worker who injured his lower back and aggravated a previous injury that required two surgeries.
  • More than $300,000 award in a difficult-to-win case of a school administrator who died as a result of mental stress.
  • $287,800 settlement for an ironworker who, after injury, required surgery. He underwent vocational rehabilitation and found suitable and appropriate employment; the settlement included $10,000 in a fund for future medical expenses.
  • $275,000 settlement for a laborer that was unable to return to her former occupation as a result of her injuries.
  • $250,000 lump-sum settlement for a union ironworker with a knee injury requiring an arthroscopic procedure.
  • $250,000 settlement for a Local #1 ironworker with a knee and back injury.
  • $242,000 settlement for a union ironworker injured while lifting rebar and unable to return to his former occupation.
  • $225,000 settlement and agreement for lifetime medical care for a business executive who incurred reflex sympathetic dystrophy following an injection at work. The employer had paid close to a million dollars in weekly and medical benefits prior to the settlement.
  • $222,500 settlement for an electrician with an operated shoulder.
  • $215,000 received prior to the settlement which was used to build a handicap-accessible home for a union ironworker who became paralyzed after a fall. The insurance carrier also provided transportation by purchasing a fully handicap-accessible van.
  • $200,000+ award for a union carpenter injured in a fall, he had initially been denied benefits by the workers’ compensation carrier because of a pre-existing condition.
  • More than a $200,000 award in the difficult case of a construction worker injured in a fall but denied Workers’ Compensation because his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit at the time of the accident. Despite a vigorous defense, we presented compelling evidence including a medical expert which proved that the worker’s impairment was not sufficient to deny his claim.
  • $195,000 received prior to settlement solely for the cost of a new handicap-accessible home for an ironworker who became wheelchair-bound after a fall at a construction site. In addition, a fully handicap-accessible van was obtained for the individual at the expense of the insurance company.
  • $190,000 received for a union electrician who sustained a tendon and nerve injury to his thumb.
  • $125,000 in penalties and fees on behalf of an ironworker who injured his lower back at work and whose employer improperly denied the claim.
  • $65,000 award. Expanded a $42,000 award including penalties and attorneys’ fees to $65,000 in the Circuit Court of Cook County after the insurance company unilaterally refused to pay the full $42,000 award it believed to be excessive, despite the fact it chose not to file an appeal. The Circuit Court was persuaded to apply the underpayment first to the penalty and attorneys’ fee award and then impose additional penalties and fees on the remainder, thus avoiding the common law prohibition of ‘penalties on penalties.’
  • Prevailed against the workers’ compensation insurance carrier which had denied the claim of a painter injured when a scissors lift toppled. Although, as owner of the painting firm, the injured party had opted out of Workers’ Compensation insurance coverage. We proved that in the performance of his duties he was acting as a covered employee, not as the owner who had opted out.
  • Successfully argued the claim for wage differential payments based on journeyman’s pay scale vs. the apprentice pay rate, even though the injured worker was an apprentice at the time he suffered the career-ending injury, he had complete the classes and testing required for journeyman status.
  • Award of permanent total disability benefits for Local 111 ironworker injured during a bridge repair in Moline, Illinois.
  • Successfully represented a welder denied benefits for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).

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