The theme of the blog lately has been emphasizing how we always tell the truth, even if that means telling you what you don’t want to hear. Usually that means letting you know that we don’t think you have a case. Here are seven calls we’ve received lately that aren’t compensable cases. That didn’t make us any money, but we aren’t liars:
- A woman called us because she was put on probation at her teaching job, which lead to a nervous breakdown. She felt that the probation was for made up reasons. That may be true, but to get workers’ compensation benefits in Illinois for stress, you need to show something severe, sudden and shocking caused your breakdown. That didn’t happen to her.
- A factory worker with an accepted carpal tunnel injury wanted to also bring a claim for his cubital tunnel syndrome. The problem is that both his surgeon and treating doctor said that problem was not in any way related to his job activities. If your doctor is against you then you will lose.
- In what will be a shock to nobody that we declined the case, a guy that fell down the stairs after snorting cocaine while he was working, broke his arm. Uhm, that is not a case any day of the week.
- While walking in to work at the county building, a worker slipped on a wet floor, hurting his knee. He hadn’t yet punched in and was in a common area for the public. An old case against the Chicago Tribune makes clear that this isn’t covered under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.
- An injured restaurant employee wanted us to take over his back injury case after his lawyer dropped him. Apparently they caught him on video playing tackle football with some buddies. That was a couple of days after he told his doctor that he could barely walk up the stairs at his apartment. When they get you lying on video like that, your credibility is shot. We’d never touch a case like that because it would make all of our other clients look like liars by association.
- A caller had broken his hand in a fight with a co-worker. The problem was that they weren’t arguing about work, but instead were arguing because the other guy had slept with my callers’ wife. And the caller threw the first punch. So this case was a double loser. You can’t get work comp for a work fight when you aren’t battling over work issues. In addition, the aggressor in a fight (usually the guy who started it) does not get to pursue a case either.
- Finally, we were contacted by a really nice guy that lives in the south burbs. He had a forklift smash into him on the job and he is seriously injured. It’s definitely a work related injury, but unfortunately he can’t bring the case in Illinois. Even though he lives here, the factory is in Indiana, the accident was in Indiana and the last act to hire him also took place in the Hoosier State. So there is no legal basis for bringing a case in IL.
The good news is that most of the calls we get are from people with legitimate on the job injury cases and questions. But when they aren’t we will tell you. If you have questions as to whether or not you have a case or about anything else, you can call us at any time.
We are workers’ compensation attorneys who 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.
