Illinois workers’ compensation laws are some of the most worker friendly ones in the country and still fair to employers and insurance companies who make billions off of these cases every year. When it comes to border states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and especially Indiana, you’d be way better off having your case in Illinois if you can. When the case is in Illinois that means it falls under Illinois law. That will entitle you to higher pay for your time off work, better medical treatment and a bigger settlement when you are ready to resolve your case.
So how do you bring a case in Illinois?
The most common way is to be hurt while working here. Anyone in that situation can file their case here even if they were just here on business and primarily work elsewhere. You can also file your case in IL if you primarily work out of Illinois. The third way to file a case here is if your “contract for hire” took place while you were in Illinois.
In plain English that means that the last act needed to hire you occurred while you were in Illinois. You might get offered a job over the phone, but if you have to travel to an out of state facility for a physical or to complete paper work then you can’t file in Illinois. But if they offer you the job over the phone while you are living in Illinois or you get hired in Illinois but later move out of state for the company, you can likely bring your case here. That would almost always be in your best interests.
I bring this up because with Covid over the past year, many people are not only working from home, but also getting hired by out of state companies after only having Zoom interviews. You might stay in Illinois or you might move to the city where the job is located, but if all of the hiring work happened while you lived in Illinois, if you get hurt then you can bring a case in Illinois. That is potentially really great news for you if you are injured. It gives you a much better chance of getting the best medical care possible and not going bankrupt if the case injury lingers for a while and you can’t work.
There are of course some exceptions and variables in these situations. We are happy to provide you a free consultation to see if you can bring your case in Illinois and help you make an educated decision. If you’d like to talk with a lawyer for free, call us at 312-346-5578. We cover all of Illinois.
