Illinois Workers Compensation Rates For 2021, PPD and TTD

By Mike Helfand on February 28, 2021 Posted in Benefits

The amount you get paid for being off work from a work injury in Illinois or for a settlement is based on your average weekly wage. In general, you get 2/3 of your wage, tax free, for the time that you are unable to work due to being injured on the job. There are maximum amounts though that insurance companies have had put in to protect their bottom line. In other words, if you are some rich doctor or stockbroker who makes $30,000.00 a week, if you get injured on the job you won’t get $20,000.00 a week in TTD benefits.

The maximum amount you can receive for work comp pay in Illinois is based on the state wide average weekly wage of all employees. Over time as wages go up, rates of pay for work comp for being off work (TTD benefits) and for a settlement (PPD benefits) go up. In other words, a high wage earner with a back injury in 2021 will have a case worth more than someone with the exact same wages and injury from 2016.

TTD rates are updated every six months. For injuries that happen between January 15, 2021 and July 14, 2021 the new maximum rates for being off work are:

Temporary Total Disability Benefits: $1,613.93

That is also the maximum rate if you become permanently disabled for your settlement, have an amputation or lose an eye.

For all other settlements, the PPD rates are adjusted once a year. For injuries that happened between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the new max rates are:

Permanent Partial Disability Benefits: $871.73

For some Illinois workers, they were injured before the new maximum rates came out. In other words, if you got hurt January 20th this year, if the insurance company is paying you under the old rates, you should retroactively get paid for the increase.

These rates will again change this July. If you have questions about pay rates or anything else related to IL work comp law, please contact us at any time.

Injured Truck Drivers Wrongly Called Owner Operators

By Mike Helfand on February 25, 2021 Posted in Do I Have a Case?

Since 2001 we have helped thousands of truck drivers who had questions about Illinois workers compensation law or who needed to find the right legal representation. There is probably no other industry that is as shady as trucking when it comes to work comp claims.

I say that because many trucking outfits are fly by night operations and they don’t give a crap about their employees based on how they treat them. One of the biggest ways they do that is by mis-classifying drivers as independent contractors. If you aren’t called an employee they avoid payroll taxes, they can break wage laws and they think they can avoid paying anything if you get hurt while working.

I’m not a labor lawyer so I won’t comment on wages or payroll taxes. But when it comes to work comp, calling you an independent contractor or an owner-operator doesn’t get them out of having to provide work comp benefits.

If you are an owner operator, you really own the truck and make decisions about when you will drive, what you will haul, how much you will charge, the route you will take. You can turn down work if you want. You are in control of yourself.

That is way different than what happens in most cases. The trucking company has you sign a contract that says you don’t work for them, but then they tell you that you can only drive for them, set your pay rate, tell you what to do, etc

Control is the most important factor when determining whether or not you are truly an employee at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. The more control they have, the more likely it is you prove you really are an employee and entitled to work comp benefits.

These companies lie about your true status out of greed. They save money by paying you less and if they aren’t responsible for your work injury then they don’t have to pay your medical bills, lost time or give you a settlement. We are there to make sure that you don’t get taken advantage of and that the law is followed.

If you are a truck driver injured while working, either hurt in Illinois, hired in Illinois or based out of Illinois, we would be happy to talk to you for free to see if you have a case. We only get paid if we make a recovery for you. Call 312-346-5578 to speak with a lawyer or fill out our contact form and we will call you.

Why Would Work Comp Insurance Deny Your Case?

By Mike Helfand on February 22, 2021 Posted in Tips if Injured

A lot of my blog posts come from talks with injured workers or attorneys on some interesting cases. When I hear the same question over and over, it’s also a sign that writing about it would be a good idea.

One common query is, “Why would an insurance company deny my case?” It’s often asked in response to me telling people that even though their case is accepted now, don’t be surprised if it’s denied at some point.

The reason they will deny you is to save money. That’s what insurance companies do. They’ll do it in an accepted case when they think they can. By that I mean that if they can get an IME doctor to say you are fine, they will. If they can act friendly to find out what you are doing this weekend to aid their attempts to put you under surveillance, they will. If you have a nurse case manager on your case, she’ll try to discourage the doctor from scheduling a MRI, surgery or taking you completely off of work.

They do all of this because for them they want to close your case as quickly as possible and spend as little as possible on it. It’s math and a business decision for them. People are literally compensated based on how well they screw you over. They might not seem like terrible people and they might be nice in their regular life. But their job is to reduce the costs on your case even when it is to your detriment.

So they will constantly be looking for reasons to fight you. Every time you go to the doctor they get a copy of your medical records. They are always reviewed to see if they give them any leverage. When I used to work for an insurance defense law firm, we constantly got emails asking us if we thought they had enough reason to cut someone off.

And sometimes they’ll just deny you without reason and hope that you don’t do anything about it. It must work because I often get calls from people who were hurt years ago and now realize they should have done something about it.

Because a denial can happen at any time, it’s best to be pro-active and prepared for it. This means having a case officially on file and getting assigned to an Arbitrator. That way if you are unjustly denied you can get a court hearing much faster. So whether it’s through us or finding an attorney on your own, the safest thing you can do for your case is free. Hire an experienced, competent Illinois work comp attorney and have them in your corner for when something goes wrong.

Bonus tip. It’s not fair, but many of the games that insurance companies play don’t happen when a lawyer is on the case because they know we’ll punish them for not following the law. We’ve also saved many an injured worker by warning them about surveillance tricks, nurse case managers and other tactics used to harm you.

What Does Vocational Rehabilitation Pay For?

By Mike Helfand on February 19, 2021 Posted in Benefits

We are experienced Illinois workers’ compensation attorneys who will talk to you for free about your case. Call us any time at 888-705-1766. We cover all of Illinois.

Vocational rehabilitation does not occur in most work comp cases. It happens when injured workers have permanent restrictions that can not be accommodated by their employer. A common scenario is someone in a heavy duty job like construction work or a union electrician who sustains a serious back injury. Often after a surgery such as a fusion their orthopedic doctor will place them through physical therapy and other treatment, only to determine that they’ll never get back to their pre-injury level.

When a doctor tells you “this is as good as you are going to get” you are at what’s called maximum medical improvement or MMI. If you aren’t fully recovered and likely never will be, you might get a work restrictions such as no lifting more than 20 pounds, mandatory sitting for ten minutes every hour or no driving for more than 30 minutes without rest. All of these types of restrictions can make your old job impossible to do.

For Illinois workers you aren’t left out in the cold. You can get vocational rehabilitation which is a process by which a vocational counselor will help you look for work within your restrictions as well as assess what type of work you can reasonably do and how much you will make.

This work is considered a medical benefit and should be paid for by the insurance company. And just as you get to choose your own doctor, you can and should choose your own vocational rehab counselor. The ones that the insurance companies choose are often looking out for them, not you.

Part of what you will receive can include:

Meetings with the counselor.
Resume writing help.
A labor market survey to see what types of jobs exist within your restrictions.
Retraining for you to start a new career.
Potentially college or other classes if they can increase your earning potential and doing so makes sense.
Help on how to interview with employers as well as contact them.

While you are in this process you should continue to receive work comp benefits called maintenance. It’s essentially the same thing as TTD payments, e.g. 2/3 of your average weekly wage, tax free. These benefits do not expire.

At some point the voc counselor will write a report which will state what you can reasonably earn or report what you are able to earn based on your job success. If it turns out you can only make much less in a new job, you don’t have to take it, but that will be used to show that you are entitled to a wage differential payment which is 2/3 of what you could make if you were able to work your old job vs what you can make now.

Bottom line is that this a great benefit that hopefully you don’t ever need. But it’s good to know that Illinois workers aren’t left to fend for themselves if their injuries are this serious. It sadly does happen in other states.

IL Work Comp, Need A Knee Replacement But Have Arthritis

By Mike Helfand on February 16, 2021 Posted in Injuries

We are Chicago attorneys who help with workers’ compensation cases throughout Illinois. Call us at 888-705-1766 any time for a free consultation.

As I approach 50, I can attest that even in a relatively fit person, your body breaks down as it gets older. I used to stay out until 2 a.m. when I was 23 and then wake up five hours later and run 20 miles. Now I’m in bed at 9:30 p.m. most nights and it takes me about 30 minutes to get loose in the morning. Even when I have a good run, I feel it the next day.

For most people, this phenomenon is called arthritis. Whatever you refer to it as, it happens.

Illinois workers are of course not immune to getting arthritis. And it causes some insurance companies to try and deny their work comp benefits in bad faith.

For example, a while back I talked to a guy who has been working a heavy-duty labor job for quite some time. He bends. He crawls in tight spaces. He is on his knees a lot. He carries heavy equipment. He works on uneven ground. His job often places him in tight spaces. And he’s been doing this for over 20 years.

If it isn’t clear, all the work he does puts a lot of stress on his knees. He needs a knee replacement and his doctor says it’s due to the repetitive nature of his job. It should be approved, right?

In a normal world, the surgery would have been paid for by work comp. But of course, the insurance company found a hired gun IME doctor to state that the real problem is arthritis and the fact that he’s a bit overweight. Well, where do they think the arthritis came from? Perhaps it’s from the bending, kneeling, uneven ground, etc.

Common sense tells you that it’s a work comp case but that doesn’t stop some insurance companies from trying to screw you over. It works enough that they keep doing it, but usually, it only works when legitimately injured workers roll over. The good news is that in most cases similar to this one we are able to eventually prevail and get all of your bills paid, all of your time off paid, and significant compensation due to how serious of an injury a knee replacement is. This includes compensation in the likely event you have to change careers.

It all comes down to the fact that pre-existing problems do not strip away your rights to work comp benefits in Illinois. And your employer “takes you as they find you” which means that even if you are heavy, if your job contributed to your problems, then you still get benefits.

It can be frustrating, but I promise that we will try to help and make sure you have an attorney in your corner who will fight for you and only gets paid if they win.

Settling Your Illinois Workers’ Comp Case – 40 Things To Know

By Mike Helfand on February 13, 2021 Posted in Benefits

We are experienced Illinois work comp attorneys who care about our clients. If you would like a a free consultation, call us at 888-705-1766 or fill out our contact form and we will call you

By far the most popular questions we get from injured Illinois workers have to do with settling their case. Whether it’s wanting to know how much a case is worth or when the right time to settle is, we hear a lot of similar questions. We thought it would be a good idea to put together a list of tips relating to settlement of work comp cases. In no particular order, here are 40 things we think you should know:

In almost every instance, once you settle a case, it’s over. That means no more medical care or time off work at their expense. So don’t settle until you are all better.
Work comp settlements in Illinois are tax free.
There is no requirement that a settlement offer be made at all, but an attorney can force the issue to make one happen.
Once a settlement agreement is reached, each party has to sign pink settlement contracts and have them approved by an Arbitrator at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
After a settlement has been approved, you typically get paid within 30 days.
If you have a work comp case that can be filed in Illinois and another state, if you settle the case in that other state, you still might be able to get a settlement in Illinois.
Any attorney who tells you what your case is worth right after an accident is lying. Nobody can say what a case is worth until they see what recovery you make.
If it’s anticipated you will need future medical care (e.g. you had screws put in to your wrist that might have to come out someday), you can still settle and can compensated separately for the medical bills through a Medicare Set Aside.
In every case there isn’t a hard figure of what a case is worth, but instead a high end and low end of what it could be worth.
If you don’t like what the insurance company is offering, but don’t want to go to trial, having a pre-trial before the Arbitrator is a great idea. That is a conference with the lawyers where they say what they think the evidence will show and the Arbitrator makes a non-binding recommendation of how they’d likely rule.
The two most important factors in what a case is worth are your medical care and the recovery you make.
Those aren’t the only factors though. Some others include whether or not there are any defenses by the insurance company, your wages, age, subjective complaints of pain and if a job is still available for you.
The first settlement offer is almost never the best one.
Before settling you should call every medical provider to make sure there are no outstanding medical bills.
If you go to trial that doesn’t mean you can’t someday still settle and sometime winning a trial gives you leverage to get more money some day.
If there is a settlement, your lawyer will likely ask you to sign a power of attorney form so they can endorse your name to the check. Assuming they aren’t a crook, this is very common and is just a way for them to pay you faster.
Benefits for a settlement are called permanent partial disability or PPD.
60% of your average weekly wage is called your PPD rate.
Each body part is assigned a certain value and your settlement is determined by multiplying your PPD rate and the value of your loss of use of that body part.
If you have a large loss of what you could make in your old job compared to what you are able to make now, you are eligible to wage differential benefits.
Wage differential is payment for 2/3 of what you’d be making currently in the old job vs what you now make.
Payments for a wage differential continue for five years or until you reach age 65, whichever is longer.
It’s possible to have a settlement for injuries to more than one body part in the same case.
If you are permanently disabled from working, you can receive payments for that for the rest of your life. Those cases usually have the highest value.
There is a cap on attorney fees in settlements which is essentially 20% of seven years of permanent disability benefits. Basically if your case is worth in the mid six figures it’s likely this cap will kick in.
Lawyer fees generally are 20% less and they get reimbursed for expenses. So if your attorney gets you a $50,000.00 settlement and spent $300.00 on your case for getting medical records, you’d receive $39,700.00.
Most work comp cases have less than $100 in expenses. The biggest one is if they have to pay a doctor for a deposition which can cost a couple thousand.
Money for expenses is your money, even when the lawyer advances the costs. So they shouldn’t spend that money without telling you first.
Ending one case doesn’t prevent you from bringing a new claim for a new accident.
There is no “pain and suffering” compensation in IL work comp cases.
If there is a personal injury case that goes along with your work comp case (such as a car accident on the job), work comp insurance might be entitled to a partial reimbursement of what they’ve paid you.
If you have an amputation from a work injury, you should be automatically paid when you return to work and don’t have to wait until you sign a settlement contract. You might still get more in the end but there is a minimum they have to pay you by law.
If someone dies from a work injury, the minimum their dependents would get if they didn’t settle is $500,000.00. Those cases essentially get negotiated the same way a permanent disability case would.
Death benefits should also include payment of medical bills and $10,000 for burial expenses.
Sometimes insurance companies will try to get you to take an annuity which pays you your settlement over a period of years. We almost never recommend that. It’s your money, you can manage it.
Comparing your case to what someone else got is not realistic. Every case is different because your facts are different even if the injury is the same.
Working for a big company like Walmart or Amazon doesn’t make your case worth more just because they are worth billions. And your case isn’t worth less because you work for a small company.
If you used vacation pay during a time when you were taken off work by your doctor for the work injury, you can get that paid time off reinstated as part of a settlement.
No attorney should try to settle your case without discussing it with you first.
Most important of all, the choice to settle or not is yours. Your lawyer should make a recommendation and then you make an educated decision about what you want to do. Don’t feel rushed or pressured.

I hope these tips help. If you have any questions please get in touch.

Tips For When Your Lawyer Leaves Their Firm

By Mike Helfand on February 10, 2021 Posted in Tips if Injured

There is no law that requires your attorney to have any amount of experience to handle your case. If you have an Illinois law license, you can sign up an Illinois workers’ compensation case.

Now if you are an injured worker, while you can hire anyone you want, you’d certainly want an attorney that has some experience and focuses on work comp law. It’s no different than wanting to have an experienced doctor for your surgery instead of someone who has only done a handful. The price in both situations is the same, but the results and your confidence in them would likely be different.

This is one big reason why we don’t recommend newly licensed attorneys or ever work with them. It’s not that they can’t do a good job, especially if they are under supervision. It’s that they really don’t know what they don’t know so the chances of them screwing up your case are much greater than someone with at least ten years of experience handling it.

Some Chicago workers’ compensation law firms like to hire brand new attorneys and assign them to handle cases right away. They’ll tell them that they should expect to be in court within a week of being sworn in to practice law. Some brag that these new attorneys will try a case within their first month. It all sounds great for the lawyer who wants to build a resume, but it’s terrible for the clients. The bigger the injury, the worse it is. A new lawyer isn’t going to know anything about Medicare or nurse case managers or fair settlements or how to conduct an evidence deposition or about 100 other things. And even as they learn, they’ll still have a lot to learn.

One caller to my office hired one of these notorious firms that hires a lot of young lawyers and throws them in to the fire. They do this because you don’t have to pay a young attorney very much money. This worker has a very serious injury that resulted in a back fusion. In the few years his case has been open, he’s been re-assigned to six (SIX!) new lawyers at the firm. They hire new ones who get frustrated because they get no training and quit. Then they hire another and the cycle continues.

So here is a guy whose case might be worth a few hundred thousand dollars and he keeps on getting recycled to young, inexperienced lawyers. Now one of them is recommending a settlement in the low five figures and telling him that any unpaid bills are his responsibility.

This is madness, but unfortunately it’s not a unique story. So here are some things I think you should know.

You have a right to ask who will be handling your case. If it’s a young attorney, you can tell them you don’t want that and certainly in my opinion should go elsewhere if they tell you too bad.
In almost every Illinois work comp case, you hire an attorney and are with them beginning to end. Occasionally your lawyer will leave their firm or die and it will be necessary for a new attorney at the firm to pick it up. This shouldn’t happen multiple times. If it does it’s a red flag.
If your lawyer does change, I highly recommend that you get together with the new attorney ASAP. What typically happens is a lawyer will leave a bunch of cases behind and either the remaining lawyers divide them up or a new attorney gets hired to take over. Whatever happens, no matter what they tell you, that new attorney can’t just pick up your case and know what they need to know.
Aside from getting together with the new lawyer, you should be your own biggest advocate. To me that means putting together, in writing, a summary of everything that’s happened so far. When you were hurt, how it happened, who saw it, who you reported it to, what medical treatment you’ve received, etc. Not every lawyer does a good job of writing down conversations with their clients and whoever is taking over these cases is likely to be overwhelmed. Any help you give them helps you.
If it happens more than once that a new lawyer takes over, it’s a bad sign for that law firm and I’d think about getting a whole new law firm altogether.

This is probably one of the most important posts I’ve written because it happens a lot, but isn’t talked about a lot. If you have any questions, you can call or email us any time. We help with work injuries everywhere in Illinois via our state wide network.

When You Have A Pre-Existing Injury You Never Knew About

By Mike Helfand on February 7, 2021 Posted in Injuries

Dealing with insurance companies on Illinois workers’ compensation cases often feels like a game of cat and mouse. We only represent honest workers with legitimate claims. Insurance companies will still treat some of these people like scammers and fight cases that shouldn’t be denied. They will also use questionable and sometimes outright gross tactics to deny benefits.

One tactic they try to use deals with injured workers who have a “pre-existing” injury. Of course if you go to a doctor on Monday for back pain and then report a work related back injury that Tuesday, it makes sense they’d fight your case. Those aren’t the tactics that concern me.

The ones that bother me are injured workers in IL who hurt their back two years ago, have been fine since and then had a big aggravation of that prior problem at work today. Under Illinois work comp law, any argument that the prior problem should prevent you from getting benefits is ridiculous.

But the worst one of all is for people who didn’t even know about a prior injury? How is that possible? Let me explain.

Let’s say that you break your leg a month ago at work. It happens when a forklift runs in to you. Pretty straight forward case, right? Should be. But then you go for X-rays or a MRI and it reveals an “old fracture” which seems odd to you because you never broke your leg before. The reality is that maybe something happened to you as a baby or what you thought was a sprain in your later years was really a small bone fracture. You never notice it because it required no treatment and hardly limited you. We see this a lot with former athletes and people who have been in car accidents. You can imagine a teenager playing football gets hit in the leg, has some pain, but plays through it.

Now 20-30 years later you are a regular working person and have this accident. You go to the mail one day and see a denial letter from the insurance company because some doctor says your need for surgery is really related to this old fracture, not getting hit by a forklift the other day.

It sounds absurd but it really happens. People are stunned to be denied for a pre-existing problem they never knew about. And sadly some people fall for this and stop pursuing their work comp case. That’s why these insurance companies do it. It’s simply a gamble they take to try and save money. You end up with out-of-pocket expenses you’d otherwise not have.

The good news is that even in a system where insurance companies tend to get away with a lot, I can’t recall a time in my 24 years of being an attorney with this tactic has worked if they get called out on it. It’s simply not defendable and defies logic. What it really is though is a warning sign to any injured worker that you always need to be cautious and look at insurance company claims with a skeptical eye. They don’t pull this nonsense on every case, but on most claims, they will try something to deny your case even when they shouldn’t if they are following the law.

We are Illinois work comp attorneys who will talk to you for free about your case. Call us any time in confidence at 888-705-1766.

Illinois Work Comp When Injured Off The Clock

By Mike Helfand on February 4, 2021 Posted in Do I Have a Case?

The reality is that many Illinois work comp cases are not 100% straight forward. By that I mean most cases aren’t caught on film or have an insurance company giving you everything you want. Even when it’s crystal clear that you were hurt at work, at some point the insurance company will try to fight you or limit your benefits through an IME, surveillance or just denying your claim for no reason.

In some cases, the initial facts can cause good cases to get denied because they look a little off. The best example I can give of that is when someone is injured after clocking out.

If you are an hourly worker, while your pay may be tied to when you are clocked in or out, it doesn’t work that way when it comes to Illinois workers’ compensation law. Let’s say your shift is done at a hospital and you’ve clocked out from your nursing job. You are walking out of the facility when you hear a co-worker asking for help with a heavy patient. You aren’t a jerk, so you go over and help lift that person and injure your back. That would be a good work comp case because your actions are benefiting your employer.

Even if you’ve clocked out and aren’t doing job duties, you can still get benefits if you get hurt. I’ve seen workers who punched out and then while walking down a hallway slipped on a wet floor. Any resulting injury would be a good Illinois workers’ compensation claim. That’s true because you had to walk down that hallway as part of your job and the wet floor put you at an increased risk of injury. The fact that you weren’t “working” when it happened is irrelevant.

This can also be true if you are hurt before you start your shift. Any of the same facts I listed would have the same result of you having a good case. If you are required to park in an employee parking lot and get hurt their at the start or end of the day, you’d likely win too.

You can even potentially get benefits when you are nowhere near the job site. The most common example is if you have a job where you drive a company car that has an advertisement for the business on the vehicle. Your job is promoted by your driving so accidents in that car could be considered work related.

Where you don’t win when you are hurt off the clock is when you greatly deviate from the job. By that I mean if at the end of your shift you stick around and have a bunch of drinks, falling off your chair wouldn’t be a great case for work comp.

Bottom line is that you should talk to a lawyer about any accident, no matter what the insurance company tells you. We are happy to discuss your situation for free any time. Call us at 888-705-1766. We handle cases all over Illinois.

How To Prove Your Injury Is Work Related

By Mike Helfand on February 1, 2021 Posted in Do I Have a Case?

We are experienced Illinois work comp attorneys who will talk to you for free. Call us any time at 888-705-1766 to speak with a lawyer. We cover all of Illinois.

One of the basics of the legal system, no matter what your case is, is that if you are bringing the case, you have to prove you deserve to win. The defendant generally speaking doesn’t need to disprove anything.

So how do you prove in Illinois that your injury is related to your job?

Like most work comp questions, the answer depends on the facts of your case. In general though, these are the factors that Arbitrators consider in deciding whether or not to say you won your case. They are the same factors that insurance companies consider when deciding whether or not to accept your case or offer you a settlement.

What do you say happened? If you hurt your back lifting a box, is your version of what happened credible. In many cases you are the only witness so your reliability is a big issue.
Did anyone see what happened to you? If you slip on a wet floor, did someone see it? If they did, their statements can help or hurt you.
When did you report the accident to your employer? While under Illinois law you have 45 days from your accident to report your case, telling them about it right away enhances your credibility. Not doing so gives them a potential defense.
What did you tell your doctor about how you were hurt? Insurance companies will look at your medical records when making a decision to accept or deny your case. If you tell your doctor on your first visit that you were hurt on the job, it enhances your credibility. If you say you don’t know how you got hurt, even if you change your story later, it will hurt you.
When claiming that you are injured due to the repetitive nature of your job duties, you prove you were hurt at work by your doctor stating it’s true. In those cases, it comes down to their credibility. You enhance that by making sure they have an accurate job description of what you do, how often you are doing it, how heavy the stuff you lift is, how much force you use when using your hands, etc. The number of cases that are lost because workers don’t tell their doctor an accurate description is shocking. Often it’s a sign of a bad lawyer representing them.
What is your medical history? Pre-existing conditions don’t prevent you from getting Illinois work comp benefits. But you still have to prove that your work injury was more than a temporary aggravation. If you’ve been treating for a back injury continuously for months and then say your job made it worse, the only way to prove that is likely through a new MRI. On the other hand if you last had treatment for your back a year ago, if a new work injury causes you to need medical care, your old problems won’t likely be a huge factor. The insurance company might try to make it one, but in most cases it shouldn’t be a problem.

These are in my opinion the six big issues in proving you did get hurt on the job and are entitled to benefits. As always, please call us any time with questions or concerns about your case.