The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.

Chicago Illinois Accident Lawyers

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You Can’t Drive a Truck Anymore ….

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Sometimes after a work-related accident, a driver gets the sad news, “It’s time for you to look for another line of work.  You just can’t drive a truck anymore ….”

It’s the kind of news that no one ever wants to hear, especially if they have found a line of work that they truly enjoy.

So, what do you do if you still have some work left in you, but you can’t drive a truck anymore?

The answer to that is in vocational rehabilitation or jib retraining which is one of the benefits your employer must provide for you if you are capable of working but are no longer capable of driving a truck.  Your employer must provide you with the assistance you need to gain new skills to re-enter the workforce.

While you are undergoing job retraining, you are entitled to get disability checks of two-third of your average weekly wage while you are off work.  If the new job you find does not pay you as much as your old position as a truck driver, you are entitled to a wage differential beneft of 60% of the difference between your old job and your new one .

Being told that you cannot go back to work as a truck drive is obviously disheartening news, but it is also a warning to you that you should be getting a lawyer to help you.  Once you are eligible for job retraining, the company will certainly find every reason it can to cut you off of benefits, even if you have not found a new line of work.  Getting qualified legal help can protect you against being treated unfairly by the insurance company.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling our office at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have.  There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this information.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident.  Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Overtime in Worker’s Compensation Cases

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Most, but not all truck drivers, are FLSA exempt which means that they do not get paid overtime for working more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.  Which has you thinking, “Tell me something I don’t know …”

Your Average Weekly Wage is the most important number in your worker’s compensation case.  It serves as the basis for computing the amount of the disability check you get while you are off work.  It also is one of the key factors in determining how much your case will be settled for.

Getting shorted on your Average Weekly Wage can cost you thousands of dollars over life of your case.

For the drivers who are not FLSA exempt (and for anyone else who isn’t a truck driver), the risk of getting shorted on your Average Weekly Wage is really acute if overtime is a significant art of what you normally take home. 

The rule is that overtime hours are only included if it is regular and mandatory part of your job.  If it isn’t then your Average Weekly Wage is based on what you received for 40 hours of work.

This provides a lot of room for mischief on the part of the insurance company, all of which can cost you A LOT of money over the life of your case.

If you have any doubt as to whether your Average Weekly Wage is being calculated properly, then it is time to get legal help with your case.  Every week that you go without getting legal help is just money out of your pocket.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling us at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have.  There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident.  Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Everyone’s Fear: What If I Can’t Go Back to Work?

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It’s one of those things you don’t even want to think about, but you have to face facts too – it happens – what happens if you can’t go back to work?

There are really two different kinds of “not being able to go back to work” – one is that you can’t go back to driving a truck (and we will look at that in a few weeks), but the other is being completely unable to work at all, and that is what we are talking about this week.

You would think that being totally unable to work is one of those things that is so obvious, but is an issue that is almost always hotly contested.

There are two ways that someone could be totally disabled –

1.     Totally physically incapable of any form of gainful employment.  And you would be surprised how often this is contested, but they always bring up people who are blind or in wheelchairs or have some terrible physical affliction who have high level jobs. 

2.     The “odd lot” category.  What this means is that taking the injured worker and his background and aptitude for various forms of work, is there any reasonably stable labor market in which he could find gainful employment?  If the answer is no, the injured worker is considered permanently and totally disabled even if he finds periodic work.

What does this mean for an employer?  It means that they have to pay the injured worker 60% of his Average Weekly Wage for the rest of his life.  Frequently, this is reduced to a single lump sum payment, but will often be several hundred thousand dollars.

The key thing to know is that the issue of being permanently totally disabled from working is something that will often be contested – because it costs the insurance company a lot of money.  Because there is a lot money at stake, it is worth getting well-qualified legal help.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling our office at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have.  There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident.  Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Bad Backs, Bad Knees, Bad Shoulders …. Pre-Existing Conditions and Worker’s Comp

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So you get hurt on the job and the next thing you know, the insurance adjuster is talking about the arthritis you had in your back.  Which is news to you because you never had a back problem.

Now you’ve got a problem of a different kind all together – a legal one.

The insurance company is required to pay your worker’s compensation benefits if your work accident was “A” cause of your injuries.  It doesn’t have to be the main cause, a major cause, or anything else other than one of the contributing causes to your injuries.

A lot of people – in fact virtually everyone over the age of 30 – has some degree of arthritis in their neck or low back, and the more you age and the more you do hard physical work, the more likely it is that you will have what the medical profession calls “degenerative changes” in your back, neck, knees, and/or shoulders.

The thing about it is this: you can have all of those degenerative changes and still not have a bit of symptoms from it, and it isn’t until you have your work accident that these start to produce symptoms.  When that happens, the insurance company is still required to pay your benefits – but you are likely to have a fight over it.

If the insurance company believes that they can attribute all of your medical problems to preexisting degenerative changes, then they don’t have to pay for anything.  It is going to take well-qualified legal help to make sure that you continue to get disability checks that will keep food on your table and a roof over your head and that you continue to get access to quality medical care so that you can return to your normal life.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by calling us at 312-263-1080 to discuss your issues and what options you have.  There is no obligation to hire our law firm, and there is no charge for the call.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who can benefit from this kind of information, please feel free to share this.

We are here to help truck drivers after an on-the-job accident.  Knowledge is power, and the first step in protecting your rights is to know what they are.

Stay safe!

Your Second Job and Worker’s Comp Cases

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There are a lot of people who work a second job – sometimes, it is something that they enjoy, sometimes it is a necessity to meet the needs of their family.  Either way, the income that you bring in from that second job is a part of your regular income.  What happens to that income when you get hurt and aren’t able to work?

When you get hurt on the job and are unable to work, you are entitled to get two-thirds of your average weekly wage.  You average weekly wage is then one of the things that forms the basis of your settlement at the end of the case.  Having all of your wages – including the wages you make at your second gig – included in the average weekly wage calculation can make a huge difference over the life of your case.

Do the wages from your other gig have to included in the average weekly wage calculation?  Here’s the answer: they do if your employer was aware that you had a second job and consented to your continued employment outside of the company.

Give you an example: our firm represented a young woman whose main job was that she was a nurse in a hospital.  Outside of her regular shifts at the hospital, she picked a few shifts a week as a waitress at a restaurant in order to help pay off some of her student loan debt.  Her average weekly wage at the hospital was over $1,000 per week, while she made about $250 per week at the restaurant.  She slipped on spilled ice one day while working at the restaurant and hurt her knee requiring surgery.  Because the restaurant knew that she worked at the hospital (they had to schedule around her shifts at the hospital), the average weekly wage was based on both job, which over the course of the life of the case made a difference in how much money she received to the tune of $20,000 or more.

Unless you know your rights, the odds are good that the company will not include wages earned outside of your employment with them.  Knowledge is power, and you can choose to know your rights and exercise them … or you can trust that someone else will respect your rights.  The choice is yours.

We hope that this has been helpful, and if you know anyone who could use this information, please feel free to share it.

We also welcome calls to our office at 312-263-1080.  There is no charge for the call and no obligation to hire our firm to represent you.

Stay safe!

 

The Most Important Number in Your Worker’s Comp Case

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The single most important number in your worker’s compensation case is your Average Weekly Wage.  If your Average Weekly Wage is being understated by the company or their insurance company, you could be getting shorted thousands of dollars over the life of your case.

You get three basic benefits.  Two of them are based on your Average Weekly Wage.  One  is Temporary Total Disability which is the benefit you get while you are off work due to the injuries.  It is 2/3 of your Average Weekly Wage. The other is Permanent Partial Disability, which is the settlement you receive at the end of the case.  It is based on the part of the body injured and degree of permanent impairment you have following the on-the-job injury.  Without diving into too much detail, you get a number of weeks pay at the permanency rate which is 60% of your Average Weekly Wage.

For the sake of illustration, let’s assume that the company calculated your Average Weekly Wage in a way that was $150 less than it was supposed to be and you were off work for 5 months, or 20 weeks.  At 2/3 of your Average Weekly Wage, the $150 differential in your Average Weekly Wage means that your weekly check is $100 less than it should be, and over the course of 20 weeks, that means that you would be shortchanged $2,000.

Take it to the next step … the settlement.  Assume for the sake of discussion that your case was going to be settled for 50 weeks pay at the permanency rate of 60% of your Average Weekly Wage.  That $150 differential between what your rate should be and what the company says it is amounts to $90 per week, and over 50 weeks, that is a $4,500 differential in what you would be getting for a settlement.

The $150 differential between your disability checks ($2,000) and your settlement ($4,500) is $6,500.

Do insurance companies do that?  You bet.  Little hinges swing big doors.  If they manage to do this to one driver a week, that would amount to $338,000 per year.  Do they do it?  They probably pay adjusters bonuses for it.

One of the basic services you get when you hire us as your attorney is that we verify that your Average Weekly Wage is being computed properly so that you don’t get short-changed that way.

The Law Officecs of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.

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(312) 263-1080

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Skokie, IL
  • Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. 4709 West Golf Road, Suite 1140
    Skokie, IL 60076
  • Phone: (312) 263-1080
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