Every few weeks there is a publication of recent cases that went to trial at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. A recent one about a Chicago nurse shows that details are important in winning, but so is credibility. She won and then she lost.
In this case, the nurse was walking near the operating room control desk when a clerk pushed her rolling chair backwards. The nurse’s foot got caught in the wheels, causing her to fall and injure her left leg and wrist.
The hospital fought the case saying that the tripping over the chair had nothing to do with her employment. That is absurd because it was a risk of her job that a clerk could push the chair in to her pathway. So she won in proving that she sustained a work related injury. But in the end she lost.
What ended up happening is that while the story she testified to at trial made sense, the medical records showed that she told her doctors a different story about how she got hurt. So while the facts she described at trial made for a winning case, they weren’t believable so she lost.
The lesson from this is that the case facts are what they are. If you lie, embellish, etc. you will likely hurt yourself in the end. We see this most when an employer tells an injured worker to lie about how they got hurt and (falsely) promises that they will pay the bills.
Lying or lack of credibility is the number one reason people lose their case, even in cases like this one when they have the facts on their side.
