Wheeling Personal Injury Attorney

This weekend is Memorial Day and I’ve been so actively involved in several military personal injury claims in the past eighteen months, I wanted to say as a Wheeling personal injury attorney, I am grateful for the service of our women and men in uniform.

The past couple weeks I’ve been working on a veterans’ project. I cannot disclose much but for to say that it involved representing veterans in claims for damages suffered in recent wars.

This was eye-opening for many reasons. Although I heard of the carnage that went on in Iraq, I was not as aware of the daily activities of your average soldier. Based on what I’ve seen, I can say I will never take their service for granted again.

I’ve also reflected recently on the many veterans’ personal injury cases I’ve worked on in the past few years. Just this week I met with a vet who clearly suffered from PTSD and other severe physical ailments suffered while serving.

He was just injured in an auto accident when he got rear-ended through no fault of his own. You’d think it would be an open and shut case. It’s not. Veterans with pre-existing conditions make complicated cases.

Specifically, is their injury the result of their auto accident or was it the result of an injury they suffered in the field. Yes, you can have both. Meaning, they suffered an injury in combat and that injury was exacerbated or aggravated as a result of the accident. But those types of cases are difficult to prove.

Another challenge facing these folks after an auto accident is obtaining medical treatment. As a Wheeling car accident lawyer, I’ve had to deal with Tricare Insurance and the Veteran’s Administration countless times. The VA in particular is extremely difficult to deal with. What you’ve heard about dealing with the VA is not fictional.

If I’m hired to represent a vet who is using the VA for his or her medical treatment, I tell them up front, get ready for a long wait to obtain medical treatment, to get the medical treatment they need such as an MRI or surgical procedure, to obtain their medical bills and records from the VA and as such, a long wait to receive compensation for their injuries.

Finally, my most recent experience with at least one liberal vis-a-vis military veterans has not been positive. He told me that he didn’t think our veterans were heroes for serving and sacrificing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not saying this is all liberals and frankly, on social issues, I’m very liberal myself. Just saying, this guy represented a lot of liberals’ thinking on the military.

I was heartened today this morning, May 26, 2018, when my daughter and I attended a town hall meeting with Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider of the 10^th district here in Lake County, Illinois. The Congressman spoke quite a bit about the sacrifice of our veterans and he himself had attended several memorial events in the past few days to honor their service. Thank you, Congressman Schneider.

I’m off my soapbox and will get back to legal topics in future weeks. Just wanted to share a few of my experiences as an injury lawyer serving Wheeling and advise vets what they can expect if they are involved in a personal injury claim. If you would like to discuss any of these issues, feel free to call me at 847-305-4105.

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