Tim Guill: Your Colorado Workers Compensation Attorney
I was born and raised in the oil fields of Baytown, Texas, a heavily industrial and blue-collar region. As a kid, I remember climbing oil derricks with friends to look out over the Gulf and watch gigantic oil tankers cruise up the Houston ship channel. Like my childhood friends, I too came from a working class family. Like any other blue-collar kid, I grew up understanding the important role played by the men and women who worked with their hands to make things happen in the United States of America, the greatest industrial power in the world. To me, when someone got hurt putting their health and safety on the line for everyone else, it seemed natural, appropriate, and just plain fair that a worker’s compensation system pay for medical treatment and lost wages. The injured worker deserves nothing less.
This connection to the workers’ compensation legal system stuck. I graduated from the University of Texas, and then Texas Tech University School of Law in 1978. Immediately after graduating I worked as a felony prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Houston. Later, I joined the State of Texas Attorney General’s Office, representing the state in civil litigation matters. I have also represented insurance companies in workers’ compensation cases – so I know how they evaluate and treat injured workers.
In 1987 I moved to the private practice as a member of a large, San Antonio based law firm. Although I enjoyed the legal practice, especially working as a work comp attorney, I wanted something better for my family. In 1990 I moved to Colorado to raise my children in an environment that offered substantially more outdoor recreation opportunities. I wanted my kids to be able to wake up every morning and be greeted by the panoramic vistas of the Rocky Mountains and spend their weekends exploring the wealth of National Parks and wilderness areas the great state of Colorado has to offer.
Once in Colorado, I continued to represent insurance companies as a Colorado workers compensation attorney, specializing in defending against workers compensation claims filed by injured workers. Although this specialized work as a workers comp attorney allowed me to become an expert in all areas of the Colorado Workers Compensation Act, to be perfectly honest, I hated it. Defending insurance companies against claims made by working men and women just didn’t feel right. It went against who I was and what I was raised to believe: A blue-collar kid who respected workers compensation and what it did for our country’s injured workers. In 1993 this long-held belief and respect for working men and women caused me to switch sides in order to represent the injured workers.
In a lot of respects I do regret my time defending insurance companies and big business employers in workers compensation cases. However, truth is – I wouldn’t be the person or attorney I am today if I had not seen first-hand what goes on behind the scenes in the insurance industry. As a worker’s comp attorney representing the insurance companies, I was able to get to know insurance adjusters personally and their defense strategies in detail. I came to know the insurance company’s biases, prejudices, strengths and weaknesses, which now helps me tremendously when evaluating a case for the injured worker. My experience in representing BOTH the insurance company AND the injured worker has given me the edge needed to effectively handle any case that might arise in the Colorado Workers’ Compensation system.
My commitment to and respect for the injured worker goes back to my childhood days in Baytown, Texas. Representing the injured workers of Colorado is what I enjoy most. I have handled over a thousand workman’s comp cases in my career. If you need a legal expert to help you with YOUR work comp case, call me now and I will gladly advise you of your options, at no cost to you. Call me now and let’s get started.
