It will probably happen to all of us at one time or another: that unexpected fall that seems to come out of nowhere. When such a fall happens at work and causes an injury, will you then be able to receive workers’ compensation benefits from your employer? The answer depends on the specific circumstances of your fall.
For an accident to be work-related, it should be closely related enough to your employment that there is a causal connection between the two. Determining whether an unexpected fall, with no apparent provocation, is related to your employment, is not always clear-cut. An accident such as a fall would generally be held to arise out of your employment if occurred in the performance of your job duties, or while doing something that is reasonably expected to perform your job. Also, an accident can be work-related where it occurred because of some risk related to your employment that the general public would not be exposed to.
In the case of the random, unexplained fall, this can be a bit more tricky to determine. Illinois courts have found a work injury where a worker fell on stairs for no apparent reason other than possibly misjudging where the bottom of the stairs was. In this case, the court said that the fact of how she fell did not prevent workers’ compensation benefits from being awarded. Of greater importance was the fact that she was on those stairs in the course of her job, and had items in her hands preventing her from being able to catch her fall—items which she would reasonably be expected to be carrying for work at that time.
In contrast, however, in a recent Illinois decision, an unexpected fall at work with similar facts was determined not to arise out of the worker’s employment. In this case, the main difference was that the items the worker had in her hand were not necessarily related to her job performance, and there was no evidence the items related to the fall at all by distracting her or preventing her from catching her balance. In addition, the fall occurred in a hallway used by the general public, and there were no physical conditions which contributed to the accident. In fact, the worker allegedly said that she just tripped over her own feet.
Two workers with accidents that may have seemed, on the surface, to be the same and likely to produce the same result, in fact yielded different results. The specifics of each situation have to be looked at closely to make the determination whether an accident would be covered under Illinois workers’ compensation benefits.
Like any posting on this blog, please don’t make a final conclusion about whether or not you have a case just by reading what I said here. Call or e-mail us and we’ll go over the unique facts of your claim for free.
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.
