airlines from march twenty seventh the one nine hundred eighty seven to april eighth of two thousand when she had accident thirteen years unfortunately this woman was five foot three two hundred sixty pounds during the thirteen years that she worked for united she had no accidents before this accident no disability whatsoever worked as a union worker member of the teamsters  were several different jobs not just got the service worked in the food lines prepared food with them in trays stood up all day the last seven years she worked as a cabin service worker a position where she had to crawl in  i challenge the court to find one piece of medical evidence in this record that says that the petitioner can return to work full duty without restrictions which are not challenging that each of her doctors found she could work at least some type of i'm not challenging that that's correct yes the point though on if we look at the record we will find that treating doctors indicated that she's only capable of doing said terry type  says she never going back to a job except the sedentary job in two thousand and six when the case was getting ready for trial they said no to dr george holmes a well known put medical doctor holmes says she can only work sedentary work she's never won back to full time work i keep in mind before does accident she did all starts the work had no limitations whatsoever the first from going back to her former job she has restrictions not keeping that in mind there are only two witnesses that actually testified in this case the two thornton and her husband ke to call anyone to challenge worst ones testimony all the other evidence is brought in by medical records and vocational rehabilitation records this case turned on an arbitrator's review  she went back to work tonight in march of two thousand and four and worked in that comedy little light duty position until december of two thousand and four with united said sorry we can't do all shortly after she's told by united we can accommodate your position anymore in december of two thousand and four the united being a temporary compensation again in the hopes that someone would reach a settlement and they went all the way and paid her until june of two thousand and five when it appeared that this case wasn't going to settle and she had gotten social security disability in march of two thousand and five because of the fact that she although not totally and completely in ketan could be incapacitated for any type of work the standard is was there any work available for a five foot three two hundred sixty pound high school educated black woman with a severe for finding this woman a job with her restrictions in today's economy forget about the fact that unemployment is at its highest rate in history in the united states but the prognosis for finding this by three hundred united act on that report do they start looking for jobs they wait until a year later to begin their second effort folkish rehabilitation period old time june two thousand and six with her family she reschedules or for three or four days later to come in for an appointment she she wears sloppy clothing and she wear sneakers to an appointment for a job interview fact of the matter is if she got a brace on a regular and she could only wear sneakers but these are suggestions made in a report to try to undermine this woman and to try to place this woman as unwilling or as someone who doesn't want to work also just so we're with her for the record are you proceeding and does our cabin service work those people only get paid nine or ten dollars an hour rather than some theories can you tell us specifically why she qualifies for benefits as an outline because what it is establishes th because at the time that this case went to trial she was disabled not from every type of job but she was disabled from any job that was a reasonably of vailable in the marketplace for continuous employment that's the standard ok and that the bottom line is if you look at the cases you'll find out that my client is a lot more disabled but there's a case also that says that i think it's the z jack case that says that she doesn't have to prove anything with respect to vocational rehabilitation efforts but keep in mind these are only these rehabilitation efforts that she's being questioned of are only from june of two thousand and six to september that allowed and what happens is john tells her come to work to go to this job interview she comes what happened he didn't did any of the vocational rehabilitation experts involved in this case testified that there were no jobs available for her in the market for a show that big even a judge no experts ever testified for vocational rehabilitation record all all that's in the record of the report in those reports did any of them express the opinion that she there were no jobs available for her job mr belmont his initial focus in all assessment in june two thousand and five says that the only jobs that would be available for this woman you think she might be able to find her a job within the light duty capacity but that would be between seven and dollars an hour as opposed to what she one could ever give you an answer how do you know that someone is totally disabled and only been working any type of job quadriplegics work today to get rid of a lot entirely as the theory of recovery i'm sorry we should get rid of o the law only is clear well we know people recover in illinois and theories because you know claimants meet their burden of proof under that and so we're asking you here if you meet your burden of proof you want that there where is it well the first of all there's there i believe that but your honor because as the commission found she failed to meet her burden that there is no stable labor market available for her and more specifically  doctor has commented that her ability to work is so limited that she will be unable to find work with a personal stable even market over the her the degree of her restrictions are so great that she will be unable to do so that there's no stable or market for her father was no vocational testimony reports indicating that there isn't a stable labor market for there was mr belmonte who did state say yes that her prognosis for work was guarded but that she could quote should certainly be able to perform wor cooperation with the effort indeed to herself she admitted that she terminated the vote effort surely made a couple of a point and she cancelled more than she made she never did that the vocational testing there was a job fair she didn't go to and eventually this effort was suspended terminated by her not by her native their lines now yes she had been working in the accounting position previously she'd had you know she was on and off because she had several surgeries but there was a question of whether she could permanently work in these positions some some company would positions are are not intended to be permanent there's no evidence on that that it would have been permanent so it's really a non issue getting some more treatment at the time she resigned from rehabilitation dr messer a physician did not limit her from participating in the vocational rehabilitation effort at the fact this was august six so that even though she had a degree of disability no doubt about it and she could not go back to her prior position no doubt about it she was able to participate in the vote effort her positions didn't prohibitive so that the the the idea that you can pull out of the manifest way to the evidence yes there are some cases council sites the mirror tech city chicago where claimants were awarded awarded lots but but the facts of those cases are not are not the same i see very little argument in their brief in an attempt to fact incorrect incorrect she could not be making twenty dollars an hour working for united airlines there's no evidence of that there's her statement that she was making twenty dollars an hour and that's what council sites  agree she indicated her wages are roughly twenty dollars an hour there's no evidence that she could now make twenty dollars an hour the only evidence of what she could make is what the evidence show for mr belmonte search about what cabin cleaners are making in they're not making ten dollars an hour kareen she was seven to ten according to mr belmont in alternate employment so that there is no proof of what she could be making now as a cabin crew should be making i'm speculating but probably not but unfortunately again this is these are the facts the facts are that the trying to excuse me nine twenty five southwest eight seventy five the median is eighty eight in the chicago land area it's a little bit less state statewide so that's the evidence somewhat patricia could be making now and maybe one does talk about your customary employment you know it is not always there in your customary employment you will make more money the blacksmiths going out of business as the blacksmith back to my old job and agreed you can't if you can't bottle the evidence what she could be making is still unclear and sold speculative that ad at best you might get a tiny wage law say i  don't know what that would be and that's and that's what the commission found that what your earnings would be i think they use the term unsupport in my new job versus what i could be making in my old job here we can't stand before your honor's and tell you what that would be indeed indeed it might be less but because she doesn't have a it's what she could be turning into the customary employment we have seen over the last few years around or what has happened to many of us perhaps not anybody in this room i hope not but the fact is a lot of people are making less at the same jobs they used to do who's never cleaned cabins for the various airlines unless they have not been outsourced they are all the baking less money won but that that job no longer pace more not speculative where your honor if i could sort of follow up on the drift of your question if there were other jobs at united identified that she could work at and what those earnings were that might be different we might have the variables to plug into the equation we don't have those petitioner did testify that other  cabin cleaners had been placed elsewhere at united and they were making more money of course but we don't know what those jobs were and certainly we do not know if she could have performed them with her with her restriction sold the the record is  general statement seven to ten we don't know because she didn't go out looking to get a job gary and that he had a job and as i stand here as an attorney as an advocate and someone who likes to look at the worker's comp back and analyze it you know tooth and nail so to speak a hypothetical wager loss to me is anathema this person does not have a job she didn't go off and get a job like kelly and he did a high i know that to say i don't think this issue has ever been argued before this the evidence is not there because again we know that you can make seven to ten but the ten looks like more than the average of what cabin cleaners are making sure that on a certain level one could argue there is no wage lost period but but i'm not i mean that's that's certainly part of the argument but the main argument is that we don't know what she would be earning as the campaigner rather than we have this statistic it's an average we know that we know the one front page we know what what what  this is there is no evidence in the record but yet he hired joseph belmonte a certified vocational rehabilitation expert whose job it is to evaluate all the jobs in the marketplace that are out there for a person with these disability and who came in and said that by the way she was making seventeen dollars and seventy five cents as a cabin worker when she got her the way the only jobs available in the entire market mr carville land area are between seven and ten dollars that's his expert not mine i didn't call vocational expert bob to get up here and tell you that there is speculative testimony as to what the wings of earnings of a worker with your disability is i guess anything is expert doesn't have any ability or any expertise because that is the  for the fact that their standard of say the thing can't find were readily available within a sixty mile radius of the area where they work with her disability so pale and then this this this sham and it is a sham that just because  outsourced cabin service working that means that there is nowhere available for this woman there's no specific training to be kept in service or they put you in that place floor when the planes instead