Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that patients with violent injuries often face legal and financial needs that can have an impact on their recovery—and that providing legal help at the bedside can make a measurable difference.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, evaluated the Recovery Legal Care program at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the nation’s first medical-legal partnership embedded in a trauma center.
The team of UChicago investigators, led by Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, and Tanya Zakrison, MD, MPH, Professor of Surgery, analyzed records from more than 500 patients and found that 94.8% had at least one legal need. Income support, including help accessing public benefits, was the most frequent, reported by 89.3% of patients, followed by housing at 64.3% and employment at 59.5%.
“Seeing that almost 95% of patients had legal needs was astonishing,” Tung said. “Eighty-nine percent specifically needed help with public benefits. These are entitlements they already qualify for, but administrative barriers and systemic issues keep them out of reach.”
Expanding the definition of recovery
While trauma care often focuses on surgery, physical therapy, and mental health support, the researchers argue that recovery should be understood more broadly.
“Most of the time, when people talk about recovery from violent injury, they’re thinking medical care,” said Zakrison. “But what if a patient is about to be evicted, or can’t feed their children, or can’t get a job because of an old criminal record? Unless we address those financial and legal needs – the root causes that predispose individuals to violence in the first place – healing can’t really happen.”
Over two years, Recovery Legal Care helped secure $1.2 million in payments to patients in the program. Most of those payments related to public benefits that the patients qualified for but were not receiving. Through this financial return, the program aims to disrupt cycles of violence by stabilizing housing, food access, and employment.
“When patients lose benefits or face eviction, it increases their risk of being injured again,” Zakrison said. “Helping people access their rights isn’t just financial, it’s about dignity and community safety.
The study also found that patients from highly disadvantaged neighborhoods had greater difficulty obtaining benefits. Barriers may stem from a lack of awareness of legal entitlements, to difficulty navigating complex systems, to denials rooted in administrative or discriminatory policies that disproportionately impact Black and brown communities.
Compensation claims for crime victims following a violent injury can often be time consuming, and most claims are denied. Another recent study conducted by Zakrison and Franklin Cosey-Gay, PHD, MPH, Director of the Violence Recovery Program at UChicago Medicine found that only 36.7% of claims were awarded in Illinois from 2012-2024.
“We think of this as exclusion from the public benefits economy,” Tung said. “That exclusion carries adverse consequences for health and increases the risk of firearm injury. By addressing it, we’re reframing violence as not just an individual issue, but as a societal one.”
Building a model for the future
Although Recovery Legal Care is the first trauma-based medical-legal partnership, similar models have been implemented in other areas of healthcare, including pediatrics and primary care. The researchers believe the approach can and should expand.
“It definitely can be scaled,” said Tung. “Legal services aren’t cheap, but they’re far less expensive than repeat trauma care. Addressing root causes, like housing instability or income insecurity, can prevent re-injury and actually save money long-term. What’s needed is political will.”
Zakrison added, “I would argue this should be standard of care for all trauma centers. Just as accreditation requires having an injury prevention program, it should also require a medical-legal partnership.”
As healthcare systems increasingly recognize the importance of addressing social determinants of health, programs like Recovery Legal Care highlight the role of legal advocacy.
“Healthcare alone can’t fix food insecurity, unemployment, or housing instability,” Tung said. “But lawyers working with clinicians can remove structural barriers that block access to benefits and opportunities.”
The team is now conducting the nation’s first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of medical-legal partnerships on rates of re-injury and long-term outcomes.
“We’ve already shown the financial benefit,” Zakrison said. “Now we’re studying whether Recovery Legal Care reduces re-injury rates—and early data suggests it does. But we also want to hear directly from patients: Did this make a difference in your life? What else do you need? That feedback will help us make the program even stronger.”
The study also underscores that healing is shaped as much by systems and policies as by clinical care, making legal advocacy a practical tool for improving patient outcomes.
“By helping patients secure the resources they need, we’re not just aiding recovery—we’re preventing future harm,” Tung said. “That’s what makes medical-legal partnerships such a powerful tool for health systems.”