The Hired Gun

​Our team fights for those who have been injured.  So, naturally, we deal with all kinds of injuries: spinal, knee, shoulder, etc.  Oftentimes, the big insurance companies and corporations’ only defense is that our clients were not really injured.  To support its position, insurance companies and corporations hire a doctor to “examine” our client.  This is called a defense medical exam (“DME”) or independent medical exam (“IME”).  However, there is nothing independent about the exam.

What does a defense medical exam mean for our clients?  Our clients take off work, travel to a doctor’s office, and are examined by a doctor they have never met and who will not provide any treatment to them.  In Illinois, our clients have the right to have their lawyer present for the exam.  Our team tries to go to every exam.  First, we know how uncomfortable being examined by a stranger can be.  Second, our team has found that hired doctors often “forget” what they say during the exam.  We want to hold these hired guns accountable.

Our team is known for standing up against the insurance companies and corporations’ hired guns.  In several cases, our client is wrongfully being denied compensation based on these DME doctors and their reports.  Once we dig into their reports, we see flaws, missing records, and even the wrong person named in the report.

In a recent case, our client was notified that the workers’ compensation insurance company would not pay our client’s medical bills based on the insurance company’s hired gun’s report.  Once we questioned the hired doctor about his report, it became very clear that the report was full of errors, discussed treatment our client did not receive, and did not even have the right age for our client.  Angie Zinzilieta asked the doctor whether it bothered him that our client was being denied medical benefits based on his report.  The hired doctor finally relented and affirmed that it did bother him.

What we do is hard work, but it is also heart work.  Our team spends hours preparing for and fighting these hired guns because it matters.  Make sure that the legal team you hire fights for you every step of the way.