A strong defense strategy and skilled cross-examination helped Goldberg Segalla secure a significant victory in a matter before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, saving our client hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical and Total Temporary Disability benefit costs.

The case stemmed from a truck driver who claimed catastrophic injuries from a 2020 work accident, alleging further that the condition worsened following a second accident in which he tripped and fell headfirst while walking his dog.

Alleging a permanent total disability, the claimant testified he suffered from headaches, blurry vision, traumatic brain injury, “pseudodementia,” and disabling cognitive dysfunction.

Representing our client before the commission was Goldberg Segalla partner Ilir Imeri, who argued the claimant’s fall while walking his dog was an intervening accident that broke the chain of causation.

In waging his defense, Ilir employed a strategy that focused on:

• Exposing critical inconsistencies between the claimant’s trial testimony and medical records
• Demonstrating that an intervening non-work accident better explained the claimant’s current symptoms than did the work accident
• Presenting powerful and credible expert testimony from board-certified specialists
• Proving objective neuropsychological testing contradicted disability claims

The claimant, in presenting his case, relied upon a prior decision in Vogel v. Industrial Comm’n that held a work-related injury need not be the sole cause of the petitioner’s condition, as long as it was a causative factor, and that a subsequent accident only breaks the chain of causation between the work-related injury and the petitioner’s condition if the subsequent accident was independent.

Thus, the claimant’s alleged ongoing mental and cognitive issues were still related to the work accident, he maintained, in that the fall would not have occurred but for the initial work-related injury.

The arbitrator disagreed and found the claimant’s testimony regarding the severity of his original head injury, the development of his mental and cognitive issues, and the reason for his trip and fall while walking his dog, were inconsistent, not credible, and not supported by the medial records.

As such, the arbitrator denied the claimant’s permanent total disability benefits and found that he reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) before the intervening accident.

Ilir’s success in the handling of this matter underscores the critical importance of thorough case development, contemporaneous medical documentation, and credible expert testimony. And in securing the favorable ruling, Goldberg Segalla — through the denial of years of accrued benefits, as well as future indemnity and medical expenses — saved our client more than $750,000 in expected costs.