Workers Compensation Lawyer in Chicago, Illinois Work Injury Attorney

Under Illinois workers' compensation law, if you can no longer return to your old job due to permanent restrictions and suffer a loss of what you can now earn, you might be entitled to wage differential benefits.   That allows you to receive 2/3 the difference of what you would currently have been making under the old job compared to what you can make now.

So let's say that you were an electrician who made $35 an hour when you blew out your knee and now would have been making $40 an hour.  Instead you can only earn $10.00 an hour as a security guard.  Based on a 40 hour work week, it's a difference of $1,200 a week, 2/3 of which is $800.

For accidents that happened prior to February 1, 2006, there was a maximum cap based on the permanent partial disability rate at the time of your injury.  In plain English that means that no matter how big your wage loss, the most you could get compensated if you could do any work is $591.77.  The Workers' Compensation Act was amended to change this rule.  For accidents after February 1, 2006 your maximum pay rate for a wage differential loss became 100% of the state average weekly wage.

So if you were hurt on January 31, 2006, the most you could receive for your loss is $591.77 a week.  If you were hurt on February 2, 2006 you would get up to $822.20 a week.

In the example above it would result in a difference of more than $10,000.00 a year.  Yes, it's crazy what difference a day can make.

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 nice guy came to us looking for a second opinion.  He used to earn $35 an hour as a laborer, but sustained a major knee injury that prevents him from doing anything but a desk job.  He's in his twenties and didn't graduate from high school.  Right now he could probably earn minimum wage at best.

When we consider telling our clients to settle these cases we look at their needs for future medical care, the amount of their loss and what better job might be available for them.   For the sake of easy numbers, let's say that his earnings loss is $30,000.00 a year and he is expected to live for 50 years.  When valuing what a case is worth, we take 2/3 of the earnings loss (which is $20,000.00) and multiply it by the life expectancy.  In this case that would be $1,000,000.00.

We then figure out what the present value of that loss is.  In other words, there is no motivation for the insurance company to pay out that full amount because they could invest it and just pay you weekly hoping that you'll die young.  So for a million dollar loss let's say that the present value of that is $400,000 (we have a tool we use to figure that out.  FYI, we are just making that number up and didn't do it for this example).

So if the insurance company settled for $400,000, the caller who in theory be getting the equivalent of what they would get if they lived their full life.  Insurance companies, reasonably so, never pay more than 80% of present value and depending on the case, the client might get as little as 2/3.   If there are defenses to the case it could be worth less.

In this case, right now the caller is getting around $900 a week, tax free since he can't work.  Our take is that settling the case no matter how big the offer would be a mistake.  Under Illinois workers comp law he can get the insurance company to pay for him to get his GED.  If it's a reasonable plan that would succeed, he might even be able to get them to pay for college or an associates degree so his ultimate earning potential could increase.  The cost of those programs could reach the six figures by themselves.  If he went that route then they would have to continue to pay him at his $900 weekly rate.

In other words, the best thing for this guy to do is nothing right now.  If he can only make $8 an hour now, but with training will be able to land a job making $50,000 a year, doesn't that serve him best?  Of course it does.  I would make more money if this guy settled his case for $300,000.00 now than if he got a college degree and settled for $100,000.00 in five years, but is that best for him?  Of course not.  Any attorney who tells you otherwise is probably selling you out.

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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Everyone knows the economy sucks.  It's not uncommon to get hurt on the job and a year later lose your job because of downsizing.  It's also not uncommon to have permanent restrictions that can't be accommodated by your employer.

If that happens to you, you need to demand vocational rehabilitation.  If you have permanent restrictions and no job the insurance company needs to find you a job within your restrictions or give you training for a new field.  Sometimes they'll send you back to college to get a degree.  Other times they'll teach you a new skill.

If you cooperate with vocational rehabilitation then you will continue to receive TTD benefits.  If the new job doesn't pay as much as the old job would currently (IMPORTANT, we go by what the old job would be paying, not what you used to make so if your old job pays $25 an hour now and it used to pay $20 then we use the $25 figure) then you are entitled to 2/3 of the difference.  This is called a wage differential.

If you have any questions about this please contact us at (312) 346-5578.

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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Presumably it's not that you are a really good football player.  What you have in common is that even NFL players and other professional athletes are covered by Illinois workers' compensation laws.  If they get hurt while playing they are entitled to the same benefits as you or me.  The only major difference is that most pro athletes will exceed the maximum weekly TTD benefits.

One other possible difference is that if a pro athlete has a career ending injury and they are smart, for the rest of their life they should receive the maximum permanent partial disability rate tax free.  That's because in almost any situation they would have a "wage differential" case.  Even if they can work a new job it's unlikely that they could make as much money as they used to.

Most workers on the other hand, even if they have to get a new job, don't lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary.

So the next time you see a pro athlete get hurt on the field it may be an Illinois work injury 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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