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Chicago Illinois Accident Lawyers

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FMLA in a Worker’s Comp Case – Not a Good Sign ….

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So, you’re off work with an injury and you get a call from the office to sign some FMLA paperwork ….

Getting that call is one of those things that should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up.

Why?

Because they are greasing the skids to fire you, and the best way to protect your job is to get legal help.

Here’s why:  FMLA was supposed to work to help employees deal with family and medical emergencies.  It required the employer to keep the person’s job while they were off work without pay.  If the person could not return after the FMLA period expired, the employer could go ahead and fill their job.

Keep in mind – the statute was intended to help an employee protect their job – but what they are planning to do is say that you did not return after your FMLA period and therefore they are justified in filling your job and denying you any other benefits after you are cleared to return to work.

Good for them, not good for you – and that is not what FMLA was supposed to do.

It’s a new tactic, and is one that employers are latching onto like a hungry dog with a meaty bone.  If you get a call about FMLA from your employer, you can bet that they are pulling a page from that playbook.

The only way to effectively protect your job when you get cleared to go back to work is to get qualified legal help, because even if FMLA says that it is okay, the Worker’s Compensation Act says otherwise ….

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!

Do I Need to Hire a Worker’s Compensation Lawyer?

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If you have not yet hired a lawyer and want to handle your own case, you are free to do so.  You are an adult and free to make your own decisions, including bad ones which can cost you thousands of dollars and access to quality medical care.

But there are 5 questions that you should ask yourself before deciding that is what you want to do, and if you answer “no” to any of these questions, it is time to seriously consider getting a lawyer to help you with your worker’s compensation case:

  • Do you understand the legal framework for how worker’s compensation cases are resolved? 
  • Do you understand the procedures that must be followed to move your worker’s compensation case forward? 
  • Do you know what the deadlines (statutes of limitations) are for filing your case?
  • Do you have the time and ability to attend any hearings that are held up through the time that your worker’s compensation case is resolved? 
  • Have you obtained our medical records, reviewed them, and understand the significance of what is in your medical records? 
  • Do you understand how worker’s compensation cases are evaluated to determined what is a fair and reasonable settlement?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no” then it is time to get a lawyer because you are fighting an uphill battle against the insurance company. A “no” answer to any of those questions tells the insurance company that you are not going to be able to fully assert your rights because you don’t know what they are and/or how to stand up for them.

Moving forward with your case without the help of a lawyer when the answer to any of those questions is “no” will likely cost you thousands of dollars of benefits over the life of your case.

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 as 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!

“A” Cause Is All You Need to Show in a Worker’s Comp Case ….

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“A” is not just a letter but a word, in worker’s compensation cases, it is a REALLY important word.  I’ll explain …..

In order to get worker’s comp benefits, you have to show that the work accident was “A” cause of your injury – not “THE” cause, the major cause, the most important cause, the predominant cause, or anything like that.

There is a world of difference between “A” cause and “THE” cause when it comes to making sure that people who get hurt on the job get the benefits they are entitled to after on the job injury because it means that in a world where people wake up every day with bad backs, creaky knees, and a host of other problems, they do not get put out on the scrap heap when they have an on-the-job injury.

When you get hurt on the job “A” cause is an important protection for you to help ensure that you are able to keep food on the table, to keep a roof over your head, and to get access to quality medical care.

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!

Cause and Worker’s Comp – A Battleground Issue

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There aren’t a lot of defenses in worker’s compensation cases, and that is how the system is designed – if you get hurt on the job, you get your benefits.

But there is one key issue that stands between what happened to you on the job and getting the benefits you need to keep food on the table and get the medical care you need to get back to work.

That is the issue of causation – meaning that you have to show that the accident at work caused your injury.  If there is no causal connection between your medical issues and your job, the company does not have to pay you any benefits at all – no disability checks while you are off, no medical care.

It is a make or break issue in every worker’s compensation case.  A showing of “no causation” is the get-out-of-jail-free card for the company.

There are certainly plenty of cases where the issue of causation is not going to be a serious issue, for example if you fell off a trailer and broke your wrist.  But there are plenty of kinds of cases where the issue of causation will be disputed – neck and back injuries, torn cartilage in your knees, rotator cuff injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome.

Here is the kicker – a determination that there is no causal connection is made based on the medical records, and usually with the help of a medical “expert” hand-picked by the insurance company.  Unless you know what is in your medical records and can argue about the significance of what is in there, you are fighting a battle you are likely not equipped to win.

When causation is being disputed it becomes a justification for cutting off all of your benefits – whether you are working or not.  The are procedures available for getting them reinstated, but it doesn’t happen overnight, and when you are not getting anything, the wolf arrives at the door very quickly.

Bottom line:  if you start to hear that there are questions about whether your medical issues are related to or were caused your worker, the time has come to get well-qualified legal help

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!

Worker’s compensation and Medicare Set Asides – Time to Get Help!

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You may think that dealing with the medical issues related to your worker’s comp case may be simpler if you are eligible for Medicare …. but you would be wrong, very wrong.

The way that Medicare works is that it considers itself a secondary payer to other responsible parties which would include worker’s compensation and liability insurance carriers.  This means that where there is someone else who is responsible for paying medical expenses, Medicare expects that entity to pay before it ever will. 

And most of the time, that is just how it works.  Since payment of medical expenses related to your work injury is one of the basic benefits you get in a worker’s compensation case, Medicare doesn’t have to pay for your care.

Where this gets very complicated is where there is the potential for future accident-related medical care after the conclusion of your case.  In that case you are required to create a “Medicare set-aside” which would fund your future medical care before Medicare would step in and pay additional medical expenses.

Without going into the subject too deeply, this is one area where you should get help from a well-qualified worker’s compensation lawyer about how to get one set up and how to handle the money that is out into the Medicare set aside. 

It is too important for you to try to go it alone or to rely on the insurance company to protect your interests.

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 the 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!

Worker’s comp claims and worker’s comp cases – what’s the difference?

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There are worker’s comp cases and worker’s comp claims, and the two are not the same thing.  Not recognizing the difference between the two can cost you in a big way.

Your employer is required to have worker’s comp insurance or to be certified as a self-insurer by the State of Illinois (which applies generally only to the largest companies in the state).  When you are dealing directly with the insurance company you have a claim that is open with them, and that can get you your disability checks while you are off work and get your medical expenses paid.

Having an actual worker’s compensation case means that you have filed a formal document called an Application for Adjustment of Claim with the administrative agency in Illinois that hears worker’s compensation cases, the Worker’s Compensation Commission.  There is no fee for filing the case.  Filing the case stops the running of the statute of limitations.

What is the difference between having a worker’s compensation case and a worker’s compensation claim?

1.      Having a case on file provides a framework for resolving any disputes with the insurance company over the benefits you are entitled to, such as whether you should be getting disability checks or the amount of the disability check and whether the insurance company should be covering some or all of your medical care

2.     If you want to receive a settlement for permanency associated with the injury, you musty have a case on file.  No worker’s comp settlement is valid without it being approved by an arbitrator, so the insurance company will not settle the case without a case being on file because settling your case without the approval of the arbitrator will not close out their exposure.

You do not need to hire a lawyer to handle file your case with the Commission, but once you do, you need to be able to follow the procedures for having your case work its way forward in the system.  Not knowing how to handle your case once it is on file can cause all kinds of problems going forward.

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.

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!

Flying Blind and Settling Your Worker’s Comp Case

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When it comes to flying an airplane, “flying blind” is an especially dangerous thing to do if you are not a skilled pilot.  If you aren’t at the top of your game, flying blind is the kind of thing that has a better than average chance of you crashing the plane into power lines, a building, the side of a mountain … you get the point.

When it comes to trying to settle your worker’s compensation case, flying blind is likely to have similarly disastrous results.

When it comes to negotiating a settlement, it is the most important skill that a worker’s compensation lawyer has.  It brings into play the lawyer’s knowledge of the particular facts of your case, the medical issues in your case, and the overall legal framework of the worker’s compensation system.  It also takes into account the lawyer’s knowledge about the lawyers and insurance companies on the other side, and the arbitrator assigned to hear the case.  There are lots of variables to be taken into account.

Do you know how to account for all of those things?  If not, you are flying blind and the overwhelming likelihood is that trying to handle settlement negotiations yourself will cost you thousands of dollars and delay the final resolution of your case.

Give you an example: let’s say that the fair settlement value of your case is $25,000, however that is computed.  Let’s look at how settlement negotiations might play out if you handle the case yourself.

Example #1: You start by demanding $80,000. 

The adjuster laughs, says let me know when you get serious.  And you are left guessing as to where you should have started negotiations. In the meantime the adjuster has to report the settlement demand, and his supervisor refers your case to the “special investigations” (aka fraud) unit for special scrutiny or has your medical records sent out for a medical review to drive down your settlement value.

Example #2:  You start by demanding $15,000. 

This is less than the fair value, so you would think that they would jump on it.  The thing is that the below-market number simply tells the adjuster that you don’t have the foggiest idea what you are doing and he can negotiate you down further.  He starts by offering you $9,000 and ends up topping out $10,500.

Example #3:  You start by demanding $25,000. 

This is the “right” number to settle the case, but you should know that they won’t offer it to you.  Instead, the adjuster will ask you a question: how did you come up with that figure?  Whatever your answer is, unless you know the right way to figure that number, that answer will confirm what the adjuster suspects anyway: you don’t know what in the world you are doing, but have decided that you want to handle the case yourself.  His response: to keep driving your figure down, so you end up with a final settlement well short of the $25,000.

The bottom line on this is that even if you hit on the right figure by blind luck, you are not going to get paid it any way.

Flying blind is a bad idea when you are trying to fly an airplane and just a bad idea when you are trying to do it with the settlement negotiations on your worker’s compensation case.

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 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!

Deadlines – The 45 Day Notice Requirement

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The worker’s compensation system is supposed to be pretty simple, but for a simple system, it puts in place not one, but two deadlines that an injured worker must comply with in order for their case to move forward.

This week we will talk about the first deadline – the notice deadline.

The Worker’s Compensation Act requires that you give notice of the accidental injury as soon as practicable but no later than 45 days after the injury.  The notice should be given to a supervisor.  It is better if it is in writing to avoid any dispute as whether you gave notice or when you gave notice.

Both deadlines have to be complied with in order for your case to proceed.  There are some injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, some lifting injuries, and hernias where the injury may not be immediately obvious or its connection to your work. In that case, the right course of action is to give your company notice as soon as possible and then let the system work out whether you provided timely notice or not.

Anytime you have the company or its insurer denying coverage based on lack of proper notice, you should get skilled legal help as soon as possible.

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 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!

A Spy in Your Camp – The Nurse Case Manager

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When a case has gone on for a while or serious medical care is being recommended or the injured worker is not progressing as hoped in therapy, it fairly common for the insurance company to assign a nurse case manager to the file.

The way that a nurse case manager is described to a worker who is representing himself is that it will help get care approved, keep things running smoothly etc., but what happens should fill your heart with dread.  I have read enough reports from nurse case managers to know that they are not there to help you, but to limit the insurance company’s costs.  That means your benefits!

Some nurse case managers will be involved in your claim from afar, but others will get intimately involved in your situation, visiting your home, showing up at your doctor’s office, and even trying to speak with your doctors.

Some nurse case managers will report things back to the company that would never make a doctor’s medical records (“Claimant’s hands were oil-stained. When questioned, claimant reported that he changed his oil ..”).  Others will try to speak with your doctors, suggesting that care will not continue to be approved without faster progress or providing the doctor with incomplete or deceptive information about your medical history to undermine the doctor’s beliefs about the causal connection between your work accident and the care he is providing.

Good worker’s compensation lawyers set firm limits on what a nurse case manager is allowed to do, educates his client on how to deal with the nurse case manager, and enforces those limits with the nurse case manager.  Without that kind of help and guidance, a nurse case manager can cause havoc with your case … and with that your disability checks and your access to quality medical care.

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 is 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!

Filling Out Accident Reports

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One of the most common things you will be asked to do after you report an on-the-job injury is to fill out an accident report.  These are things that can be minefields for the unwary. 

First, you should know that there is no legal requirement from a worker’s comp perspective that you complete an accident report.  You can still have a worker’s comp case without completing one.  However, refusing to do one for your employer on request could subject you to discipline or even being fired.

If you do complete one, you should strive to be complete, accurate, and concise, meaning that you should include everything that is true, but not go overboard in being descriptive.

This means that you should include all of the parts of your body that are hurting even if it seems minor at first.  It is much easier to discount things that turn out to be nothing than explain why you didn’t include something that turned out to be quite serious.

As for the cause of the accident, you should include what caused your injury without being overly descriptive.  “Slipped in grease and fell off a loading dock” is much more complete than “fell off a loading dock,” but at the same time you do not want to go through a whole narrative about what happened.

If there is someone else to blame for your accident other than a co-worker or your employer or there was a defective piece of equipment which caused your injury, you should be especially careful to note that as it can be a valuable piece of evidence if there is a later civil lawsuit.

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 or send them to our web site www.RightsOfInjuredTruckers.com.

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, andthere 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!

“Tell them it happened some other way …..”

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Tell ’em it happened some other way ….

When your supervisor tells you that is what you should do after an on-the-job accident, that should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up.  And doing it is just the kind of thing that can kill your case – costing you thousands of dollars and access to quality medical care.

If someone asks you to do that, you should absolutely refuse to go along with it.

Why would a supervisor ask you to do that?  There are a bunch of reasons:

  • It will cause the company’s worker’s comp insurance to go up;
  • It could trigger an internal investigation;
  • It could wreck your division’s safety record.

Whatever the reason, none of them have anything to do with looking out for your best interests. 

The scary thing is that people go along with it.  Maybe they want to be a team player, maybe they like and trust their supervisor … whatever the reason it is a bad, bad idea.

I’ll give you a hypothetical: you hurt your back lifting something.  Clearly on the job, clearly work-related.  You report it to your supervisor, and he says to go see your primary care doctor the next day and tell him that you did it getting a bag of dog food out of your trunk.

You do just that because you want to be a team player, and the doctor writes down on your chart, “Patient reports that he began having low back pain last night after getting a bag of dog food out of the trunk of his car.”  Because you are not saying that the low back pain was work related, your health insurance pays the bill.

Your expect to get better, but it just doesn’t happen.  You get a prescription for physical therapy and that just makes things worse.  You get a referral to a specialist who tells you to stay off work while he does a series of injections into your low back. 

You know that your family can’t go without money while you are off work, so you tell your supervisor that you need to go on comp.  He says OK and you get the claim started, and things look okay, for a little while.

Then you get the letter from the insurance company denying the claim, pointing to the record your primary care doctor made noting that your back pain started with lifting a bag of dog food.  Then your health insurance stops paying bills because they now know that the injury was work-related, and health insurance doesn’t pay bills worker’s comp is supposed to pay.

No income, no way get care to get you better so you can go back to work.

When you try to get your benefits reinstated, your testimony has to be that you lied to your doctor the first time you saw him, but you are telling the truth now when you say it was work-related.  You may guess that kind of testimony does not go down well.

The question for you: do you think that being a team player is worth putting yourself at risk for having that happen?

The only rational answer to that is “no.”  If anyone ever suggests that to you, keep the stakes in mind before you agree to that.

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 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!

Putting Medical Bills Through Health Insurance – Not a Good Idea ….

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Most companies would just as soon that you never make a worker’s compensation claim, thankyouverymuch …

Why not? Because one of the  variables that is used to set the rates for their worker’s compensation coverage is their claims experience, which is how many claims have been made against them. The more claims, the more money the insurance company spends, the higher their bill is the next time around.

Everyone basically knows this, and if you are trying to be a team player and avoid sticking the company with a higher tab for worker’s comp, you may be tempted to just try to run the bill for your medical care through your health insurance or through the health insurance you got though your spouse.

That may make you a good team player, but it isn’t such a good idea.

Why?  Because all health insurance policies have a provision in it which says that they are not responsible for paying bills that are covered by worker’s comp.  They put that in there because they know that your employer is responsible for paying your medical bills through worker’s comp, and your health insurer doesn’t want to pay anything it doesn’t have to.

What is the consequence of putting it through your health insurance?  At a minimum, there will be a delay in payment which will not make your doctor happy.  And if your employer asks you to say that you hurt yourself doing something else (like saying you hurt your back gardening when you did it strapping down a load on your trailer), you may be setting yourself up for a denial of the claim when it turns out that things were worse than you thought.

The best move: be honest about what happened and put the responsibility on your employer’s worker’s compensation carrier to pay your accident related bills.  After all, that is why they have to have it.

If you have a current worker’s compensation issue which you need help on, please feel free to reach out to our office by clicking here  and completing the questionnaire.  One of the attorneys in our office will be in touch with you as soon possible to discuss your issues and what options you have.  There is no obligation to hire our law firm.  You can also just call us at 312-263-1080. 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!

The letters “IME” Should Make the Hairs on the Back of Your Neck Stand Straight Up

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In a worker’s compensation case, one doctor appointment could strip you of the disability payments which is putting food on your table and a roof over your family’s head.  One doctor appointment could rob you of your access to quality medical care to help you recover from your injuries.

That’s what an IME is …. and if the insurance company is sending you for an IME, they are taking a hard look at your file looking for a way to contain their costs. 

“IME” is short for “independent medical examination” which is an exam where you are sent to a doctor who has been selected by the insurance company.  There is really nothing “independent” about an “independent medical examination,”  the doctor involved has been selected by the insurance company without any input from anyone else.

For you, the result of the exam can be life-changing.  Following the IME, the doctor will issue a report which may conclude one or more of the following things:

  • That your medical problems were not related to your work;
  • That you have fully recovered from your injuries and can return to full, unrestricted duty at work;
  • That the treatment which is being recommended for you is unnecessary.

If the doctor writes a report that says any one of those things, that could justify the insurance company cutting you off of benefits, including disability payments and medical care, and telling you to return to work immediately … even if your own doctor says that the injuries he is treating you for are work-related and that you cannot work because of it. 

Having you examined by a doctor of their choosing is an expensive proposition – doctors doing these exams routinely charged thousands of dollars for the exam and reviewing the records beforehand.  I recently saw an invoice for an exam where the examining doctor charged $3,300 for the exam.

When an insurance company is paying out that kind of money, you can bet that they aren’t doing hoping blindly that the doctor is going to say something favorable to their case.  They will have a pretty darn good idea what the result of that exam will be before you set foot in the doctor’s waiting room, and they are not going to be investing their money in making your case stronger.

In short, when you get sent for an IME, you can be reasonably certain that the insurance company is papering up their file with a justification for cutting off your benefits.  That is what should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The good news is that there are processes which allows you to get your benefits reinstated – if there is a case on file with the Worker’s Compensation Commission and if the appropriate petition has been filed with the required supporting documentation – but all of that still takes time under the best of circumstances. 

Our recommendation to anyone who is being sent for an independent medical exam is that the time to hire a well-qualified worker’s compensation lawyer is before you actually attend the IME.  That way, you have a lawyer who is on board and can start doing the things that are needed as soon possible to get your benefits reinstated because when and if you get cut off from benefits, every day is a struggle.

We hope this Tip has been helpful information.  If you suffered an on-the-job injury and would like to learn more about what your options are, please contact us, and we will be in touch with you promptly.  Please feel free to share this Tip with anyone who you think would benefit from this.  We strongly believe that knowledge is power, and the more information someone has about the rights and options after an on-the-job injury, the better things will be for them. 

Worried About Getting Fired for Making a Comp Claim?

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One of the things that drivers fear most about filing a worker’s compensation claim is that they are going to make their employer angry and they are going to get fired.

I would never tell anyone that they should never be concerned about that, but it is a fear which is often overblown.

Here’s the deal:  Illinois is an employment at-will state which means that you can be fired for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all, as long as it is not being done on a discriminatory basis and the discharge does not violate public policy.  The Illinois Supreme Court has declared that firing an employee for asserting his/her rights violates public policy.  That means that you can sue your employer for firing you in retaliation for filing a worker’s compensation case.

The fact that they can be sued for firing you for filing a worker’s compensation case means that once you file a worker’s compensation case, your employer and their insurance company will have to be very careful about how your employment status is handled.  Because they know that firing you after you file a worker’s compensation case opens the door to getting sued, there is a reasonable chance that they won’t.  Of course, these decisions are made by human beings ….

The fact that you had an on-the-job injury and are making a worker’s compensation case doesn’t mean that you can’t be discharged for other reasons, like having an at-fault accident, violating a safety rule, or failing a drug test.  However, those are reasons that exist independent of whether or not you file a worker’s compensation case or not, and in some respects, having filed a worker’s compensation case may protect you against an otherwise justifiable dismissal.

Note:  employment law is a matter of state law, and if your place of employment is outside of Illinois, this Tip may not apply.

We hope this Tip has been helpful information.  If you suffered an on-the-job injury and would like to learn more about what your options are, please complete this form  [link to intake form], and we will be in touch with you promptly.  Please feel free to share this Tip with anyone who you think would benefit from this.  We strongly believe that knowledge is power, and the more information someone has about the rights and options after an on-the-job injury, the better things will be for them.

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

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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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