Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

Ok, that sounds like a cheesy anti-DUI commercial, but it's true, at least when it comes to Illinois workers' compensation.

If you are drunk on the job and get in an accident because you were drunk (or high), you will not win a claim for workers' compensation benefits.  Strangely enough, if you are just sitting at your desk drunk and something happens (e.g. a forklift crashes in to you) that has nothing to do with your drunk state of mind then you'd probably have a case.

Traveling employees are actually allowed to drink on business trips and still win benefits if they get hurt unless they are sloshed.  In other words, if you are out of town for business and have a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, but then fall in the parking lot, you'd probably have a case if you didn't fall because of the drinking. 

On the flip side, a few years ago we got called by a trucker whose rig broke down at a rest stop.  He was stranded so he drank about 30 beers and fell out of his truck and blew out his knee.  That case is not a winner because while it's foreseeable you might have a beer, it's not foreseeable that you'd drink that much and put yourself in harms way.

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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After you are hurt on the job, it is not uncommon for your employer to ask you to take a drug test, especially if you are operating machinery.  This is legal unless you have a union agreement that prevents them from doing so.

That said, if you test positive for marijuana, cocaine or anything else, unless the insurance company can prove that you were under the influence of those drugs when you got hurt, there is no basis to deny your benefits.

It's not uncommon for us to have a client that took drugs on a Friday or Saturday only to get in an accident on Monday or Tuesday.  Those clients fail their drug tests, but that doesn't kill their case.

In fact, unless they have a witness that says you have been acting erratic or someone that will say they saw you take drugs or alcohol before you got hurt then it's for the most part a non-issue or at least it should be.

Alcohol is different in that if you are found to have a blood alcohol count above 0.0 then it's at least a sign that you weren't all there.  In that case we'd have to look at how you got hurt.  If you were just talking to a co-worker when someone hit you with a forklift then you'd still have a case.   But if you were driving a forklift and crashed in to a wall then you have some problems.

 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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