No matter where you are located, these questions from clients would apply to your Illinois work injury case.

1. I live in Peoria, but the insurance company is sending me to see one of their doctors in Chicago.  They sent me an expense check, but how do I know how much it should be for?

Travel expenses for these doctor visits are based on how far you have to drive, round-trip.  The payment per mile is currently 55 cents per mile.

2. What does it mean when a case is "above the red line?"

That means the case has been filed at the Commission for more than three years.  After that time it must be set for trial unless there is good reason not to such as the injured worker is still receiving medical care.  Basically it's a way of preventing lazy lawyers from ignoring a case. 

3. How long does it take before the Arbitrator makes his decision following a trial?

It depends on the Arbitrator.  Some do it in a week or two.  Others take months.   One time we were in a case where the Arbitrator took almost a year.  We'd save the average time is 45 days though.

4. Once a settlement is approved when do I get paid?

There is no set time limit, but it shouldn't take more than 30 days.  On average it probably takes two weeks.

5. Do I pay taxes on my settlement?

No, that money is tax free.

6. If my case is appealed will I have to testify again?

No, appeals are handled by lawyers submitting written arguments and then appearing at a hearing where they make a verbal argument for you and answer questions.

7. Can I be fired while on workers' compensation?

Yes, but you can't be fired because you filed a claim.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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If you want to bring an Illinois workers' compensation claim you must do it within the later of three years from the accident date or two years from the last payment of compensation related to the claim.  Three years from the accident date is pretty clear except when you have a repetitive trauma injury.  The last payment of compensation can be trickier.

The exception to this rule that not everyone knows about is that last payment of benefits can also include health insurance so long as it is through the employer where you got hurt.  So if your employer has Blue Cross and you get insurance through that, if they have made payments in the last two years toward your work injury then it is likely not too late to file a case.

This also holds true if the workers comp insurance company has paid medical bills or TTD benefits within the last two years.

Of course you can avoid any statute of limitations defense by formally filing an application for adjustment of claim which is the paperwork filed at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission to formally notify your employer that you are bringing a case.   This is typically the first thing an attorney does for his clients.  You don't want to lose the ability to pursue a case because of a technicality.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Testimony is given at trial in workers' compensation cases.  There are no depositions except for doctors who aren't forced to show up and testify. For many people, giving testimony is a first-time thing and it makes them very nervous. Don’t let your nerves get the best of you. Be honest, straightforward and ask your attorney to help you prepare beforehand.

Most importantly, speak carefully.

Be clear, and be concise. When you are questioned by the opposing attorney, only answer what you are asked. Do not offer extra information beyond the question (it could be used against you). Tell the truth and do not embellish. The judge will not appreciate it, and the opposing attorney can use it to make you look bad. If your attorney objects to a question, don’t answer. In fact, many attorneys advise their clients to pause briefly before starting to answer so that they have time to object if it’s appropriate. If you don’t understand the question, say so. If you don’t know the answer or don’t remember, you are allowed to say so. And take your time, especially if you’re feeling nervous.

It can be hard to remember all of this when you’re in the spotlight. This is why you should ask your attorney to practice with you (they should offer to do so anyway). They can help you anticipate the questions you’ll be asked, and explain the procedure so you feel more in control and less anxious.

You can relax. People give testimony every day. It looks dramatic on television, but it’s usually pretty low key.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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A new case was decided on Friday at the Illinois Supreme Court.  For those who are interested you can read the whole thing here:  Interstate Scaffolding v. The Workers' Compensation Commission .

The gist of the case is that the law used to be that if you were hurt on the job, but working with restrictions, if you got fired for "cause" then you didn't collect workers' compensation benefits.  Cause would be skipping work, showing up drunk, punching your boss, etc.  On the other hand if you were fired for bogus reasons then they'd still have to pay you.

The Illinois Supreme Court changed all that.  The law as it now stands says that if you are fired for cause, but have a work related injury that has not stabilized then you are entitled to TTD benefits until your condition does stabilize.

And while we are not encouraging you to do this, theoretically you could return to work on light duty, smack your boss in the face or drop your pants or get high while working and after they fired you, you'd get paid workers' compensation benefits until your condition stabilized.

This is a huge decision and if you had a crystal ball you can bet that you will see at some point a law will be introduced to overturn this decision. 

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This is just very sad.  From the Chicago Suntimes:

Swimmer drowns at indoor pool on NW Side

A man who was in the county on business dove into an indoor swimming pool at an apartment complex on the Northwest Side and apparently drowned Thursday night on the Northwest Side.

At 6:35 p.m. a 911 call after the man -- who was  identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office as 25-year-old Ashish Kumar -- was found at an indoor swimming pool at the Pavilion Apartments, at 5461 N. East River Rd., police said.

Pictures from a video camera showed the pool and a man walking out of the area, leaving Kumar by himself. Then Kumar dove into the deep end of the pool which is about 8 feet deep and the video showed him struggling to swim, panicking and then sinking to the bottom of the pool, police said.

The man who was there earlier came back and called someone from the building, who called 911. 

Kumar, 25, was was pronounced dead at 7:36 p.m. at Resurrection Medical Center, according to the medical examiner's office.

Police said Kumar was here on business and was staying at a corporate residence at 5441 N. East River Rd., police said.

Police said there is not a lifeguard on duty, but warning signs are posted.

Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said police began a death investigation at 6:50 p.m.

Foul play is not suspected and Grand Central Area detectives are investigating.

Not to be insensitive, but the purpose of this blog is education.  Since Mr. Kumar was here on business and was doing a reasonably foreseeable activity, his estate would have a workers' compensation claim in Illinois.  At the least like any other death case in Illinois they would have to pay all of his medical bills and $8,000 toward funeral costs.  If he had a wife or children they would get a minimum of $500,000.00 as a death benefit, likely more given his young age.

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Let’s say your employer is based in State A, you were hired in State B, and you suffered a work injury in State C. You’re probably confused about where to file a workers’ compensation claim.

Our advice: file in Illinois if you can.

Illinois has worker-friendly laws when it comes to workers’ compensation. And you can generally file your claim here even if you haven’t been to Illinois in years. If your only connection to Illinois is that you were hired here when you first joined the company, even if it was 15 years ago, you can file your workers’ compensation claim here.

If you weren’t aware of this rule, and you filed a claim in another state, it may not be too late. If Illinois law entitles you to more benefits than you got in the other state, you can file here as well. Even if you closed your case in that other state, and even if you signed something saying that you couldn’t seek additional benefits, you can still file here. Only the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission can close out your Illinois work injury claim.

 We are workers' compensation  attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attornwyes.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Man as a whole refers to injuries to your back, neck, chest and head.  So using the chart above, if your entire leg was cut off on January 2nd this year, you would receive 215 weeks of permanency benefits.  Of course that doesn't happen to most people.  If you had a knee surgery and we determined your leg was 20% disabled then you would receive 43 weeks of benefits (215 weeks x 20% = 43).

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attoneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Under Illinois workers' compensation law not only must your employer provide you with all reasonable and related medical treatment, you also must cooperate with all reasonable medical treatment.   A failure to do so could result in you having your benefits suspended or terminated.

For example, if your doctor suggests that you have physical therapy, you have to do it.  It isn't invasive and can help you recover.  If you repeatedly blow it off not only will you harm your health, but you will harm your case.

You also can't do what is called "injurious practices."  In plain English that means that you can't do something that will make your health worse.  For example, if you are a smoker, smoking is known to cause surgeries like a lumbar fusion to fail.  If you keep smoking an Arbitrator might stop your benefits until you stop.

For a lot of workers, having a surgery is the only chance they have to get better.  But no insurance company can make you have any surgery.  We have had clients who have had recommendations for back surgery that just didn't want it because of the associated risks.  Their doctors have said that with the surgery it is likely that they will make a complete recovery, but without it they can't work their normal job.

In that situation they don't have to have the surgery and the employer would have to keep paying them benefits.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your question or find the right lawyer for your situation. 

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Although Illinois is probably the most employee friendly state for injured workers, one injury that usually is not covered is stress.  I'm talking about the stress that comes from your boss yelling at you, having to work long hours, being under pressure for deadlines, etc..  That type of stress is legitimate, but under Illinois workers' compensation laws you can't receive compensation for any problem related to it unless it is part of a physical injury.  e.g. If your boss pushes you in the chest while yelling at you and that leads to panic attacks, that would be a case because of the physical act of touching you.  But if it's just yelling then it's probably not covered.

The exception to this is if the stress you experience is severe and shocking.  A recent caller to our office provides a good example of what we mean.

The caller bravely served our country in Iraq.   When he was there he was a medic and saw some terrible things such as bodies that had literally been torn apart.  He received counseling for that years ago, but has had that trauma pretty much under control for years.

Flash forward to 2009 and he works as an EMT downstate.  Long story short is that there was a fire with some charred bodies and he was part of the response team.  Seeing these bodies led to severe post traumatic stress disorder due to the memories of Iraq flooding back to him.  He has received psychological counseling that confirms this and is under a doctor's care and authorized off work.  It has been suggested that he change careers.

Seeing charred or dead bodies qualifies as severe and shocking.  Not everyone will have a stress reaction to that just as not everyone that lifts a heavy box at work hurts their back.  But if you do have a reaction and it's legitimate, then you have a case.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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The #1 thing we tell our clients is to be honest with us, honest with their doctors and honest with themselves.  A case will blow up if you do anything else.  You will get caught under surveillance or by a company doctor.   We've seen cases where neighbors have turned in liars and it's resulted in an arrest for workers' compensation fraud.

But a story we heard from an attorney we know takes the cake for worst liar ever, even worse than Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton or the family of the balloon boy.  Long story short is that his client had an arm injury and told her doctor that she couldn't lift it above her head.  Well the insurance company contested the case and forced a trial.  No big deal, happens all the time.

Well at trial the defense attorney asks her what happens if she tries to lift her arm above her head and she described a terrible pain that shoots through her whole body.  He then proceeds to play a video tape of her on a trashy talk show about men who cheat and it showed her just months prior lifting her arm above her head and repeatedly striking her ex.

Most lawyers will tell you that Matlock moments like this just don't happen and they really don't happen at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission.  But it did because she was a liar.  And she killed her case because she actually had a legitimate injury to begin with.

If our clients lie to us we drop them.  Period.

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation. 

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Quick primer on who is covered and who isn't when they get hurt:

Volunteers:  Not covered under the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act because they are not employees.

Part-timers: Covered like regular employees.

Illegal aliens: Covered because the Government does not want to reward companies that break the law.

Cash workers: Covered, but their wages will be hard to prove.

Firefighters: Not covered if there are more than 200,000 people in  your City.  In other words, most are covered unless they work in Chicago.

Postal workers- Not covered under Illinois law because they are Federal employees.

Professional golfers- Not covered unless they are really an employee, not an independent contractor.

New hires- covered the moment you start working.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of atttorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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It's not uncommon if you get hurt on the job in Illinois for your company to send you to one of their doctors.  This could be for a one time independent medical examination or it could be a company clinic.   There are two important things to know about this.

1. You don't have to receive treatment with their doctor on an ongoing basis, but you can.  You are allowed two choices of physicians in an Illinois work comp case and since they are sending you to that doctor that is not considered one of your choices.

2. If their doctor says your injury is work related, you need surgery, etc., the opinion of that doctor is held against the company.  It's not a slam dunk that a Judge would agree with that opinion, but that is usually the case unless one of your choices says something different.  We often see a company doctor go against the company and then the insurance carrier tries to send you to another doctor to fight that opinion.  Technically they can do this, but it is seen as "doctor shopping" and would work against them at trial.  In fact while we don't guarantee a result, we have never lost a case where the company doctor was in the corner of our clients.

If your company wants to send you to a doctor of their choosing you should go, be honest and after it's over write down what happened.  A lot of our clients report that an independent medical examination took less than five minutes and that the doctor hardly asked any questions and didn't perform much of an exam.  These same doctors are the first to say whatever the company wants them to say.

Again, we can't guarantee a result, but we find that when our clients testify as to what really happened at these quick exams as compared with their doctor who spent more time with them, things usually work out for the best.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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The key to hiring the right Chicago workers' compensation law firm???  It's just like real estate, location is key.  Well it's not as important as finding someone who makes handling work injuries the majority of their practice and it's not as important as finding someone who will deliver you customer service (return phone calls, answer questions, not talk down to you, etc), but it matters.

Case in point a recent client who had been working with a law firm that is based up in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago.  It's a wonderful place to live, eat and do touristy things like go to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Head a few blocks north and you can catch a game at Wrigley Field or this time of year go ice skating outside of Wrigley.  But it's not a very popular area for finding workers' compensation attorneys.

The reason that is true is because all Cook County work injuries are heard at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission which is the 8th floor of the Thompson Center.   The Thompson Center is located downtown at 100 W. Randolph St.

It's not uncommon for an attorney who focuses their practice on representing injured workers to have to be at the Thompson Center five days in a row, sometimes for hours on end or both in the morning and the afternoon.  If your law firm is based in Lincoln Park or on the south side or out by O'Hare it would be a real disruption to your practice and clients if you were commuting back and forth or spending your whole day out of the office.

On the flip side, a downtown lawyer can get in to the office at 8 a.m., leave for the Commission at 9:00 a.m., get there by 9:05 and if they need to come back later in the day it's no big deal.  This leads to an easier practice life and better customer service for their clients.

It's not that a non-loop lawyer couldn't handle a work injury case, it's just that it's more likely that a downtown attorney has more experience with these cases, better relationships with the Arbitrators and probably makes work comp their focus.  This is what gives you the best chance of success in your case.  And since you only get one shot at this and your lawyer fee is 20% no matter who you hire, it makes sense to go with someone who really focuses on Illinois work injuries.  The firm in Lincoln Park the caller was with handled work injuries plus traffic, divorce, civil litigation, real estate transactions, personal injury and landlord tenant problems.  Jack of all trades master of none is our guess.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer you questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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Straight from the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, FYI 

New Galesburg and Joliet arbitration hearing locations

Effective January 1, 2010, Galesburg arbitration hearings will be held at the Best Western Prairie Inn, 300 S. Soangetaha Rd. Note: Review hearings will continue to be held at the VFW Hall.

Effective January 1, 2010, Joliet arbitration hearings will be held at

the Will County Court Annex Building, 57 N. Ottawa St. Ste 201. Note:

Review hearings will continue to be held at the Will County Courthouse.

Open house announced

The Commission will hold an open house in Chicago on January 14, 2010 from 9 am to 12 noon.

After a brief explanation of our court process, visitors will observe arbitration hearings and review-level oral arguments. After oral arguments end, there will be a question-and-answer period with commissioners.

There is no charge to attend, but registration is limited. If there is sufficient interest, we'll hold these regularly. To sign up, please send an email with the subject "open house" to susan.piha@illinois.gov .

 Workers' Compensation Fraud Unit issues annual report

In 2008, the Illinois Department of Insurance investigated 41 reports of possible workers' compensation fraud, and referred 35 cases for prosecution.Working on referrals from prior years, the Illinois Attorney General and county State's Attorneys obtained seven convictions.

To read the report, go to http://www.iwcc.il.gov/WCFU-09report.pdf

We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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A new client came to us after having had one surgery for his knee from a work injury.  After months of therapy it wasn't getting better and his doctor suggested that he have an additional surgery based on a review of a MRI.

As is their right, the insurance company sent this worker to an independent medical examination (IME) with a doctor of their choosing.   Quite often these are hired guns, but many of these doctors are honest as was this one.  In fact the doctor in his report said that he agreed 100% that the worker needed a new surgery and that it was related to the work injury.

Seems pretty obvious that the insurance company should pay for this surgery and the worker can get better, right?  Well apparently the insurance adjuster felt that he should do more therapy first so even though two orthopedic surgeons agreed surgery was needed, the adjuster put her medical "expertise" above them.

Should he just sit there and get screwed?  NO!!!  Not only can we get the surgery ordered by an Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission Arbitrator, but we can find out how much the surgery costs and the insurance company should have to pay a 50% penalty to our client.  In other words, if the surgery is going to cost $50,000, they should pay this guy $25,000 because their behavior is so unreasonable.

If you are hurt and the evidence is on your side the system will protect you.  You just have to proceed forward.

 We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys.  Contact Us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.

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