Here’s a good one to know. When you are a traveling employee in Illinois, if your employer can “reasonably forsee” that you might do an activity, if you get hurt while doing that you have a case.
What does “reasonably forsee” mean? It’s been pretty broadly interpreted to mean that most injuries you have while traveling for work, even when off the clock, are covered unless you are acting recklessly.
In a recent case, an over the road truck driver was usually gone from home 5-6 nights at a time. When he returned he would park the truck at a location a few miles from his home and his wife would pick him up. One night he got home, did an inspection on the truck and went to dinner with his wife. After eating they came back to the truck so he could retrieve some personal belongings. While exiting the truck he slipped and fell to the ground, hurting his elbow and shoulder.
The Court ruled in his favor because he was a traveling employee and it was reasonably forseeable that he would return to his truck to gather some personal belongings for the weekend.
In other cases workers have been injured at the hotel gym after a long day and won benefits even though working out had nothing to do with their job activities. In the most famous case of all, a worker was in Hawaii on business and after a meeting went on a bike ride tour that went in to a volcano. He was hurt while biking and the Court ruled that the employer could anticipate that while he was away for work he’d take some time to do some touristy activities.
The cases that lose are usually when someone is highly intoxicated or does something like drive 100 mph.
For all other workers, if you are hurt while traveling to a meeting or on a business trip or anywhere that is not your usual office, you likely have a case. Call us at 312-346-5578 if you want to discuss the facts of what happened to you.
