If you are reading this, a popup box has hopefully offered you the chance to chat with a lawyer. During most hours, that chat is actually manned by an experienced Illinois workers compensation attorney. When we are sleeping or otherwise occupied, it’s run by an answering service which will get your questions to us and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

I’ve really enjoyed this chat feature because many people are more comfortable with it as a first reach out to an attorney. And for others, they do it during their work when they can’t be talking on the phone. We get so many great questions.

A recent one was from a cook in Chicago. He simply started the chat by asking:

Does knee bursitis qualify for workers’ comp in Illinois?

I like people who are direct. That’s how I am. The answer to his question, like many questions we get, is it depends on the facts of your unique situation.

When someone asks me if their injury is a work comp case, the first thing I want to know is how they injured themselves. In a case like this, I have worked in restaurants and know what cooks have to, but I didn’t want to assume anything and wanted to hear (or in this case, read) what he had to say.

He confirmed my assumption that over 20 years he’s not just cooking. He’s bending down around 50 times a day to get items, he’s lifting a lot of heavy items and walking and he’s banged his knee a ton on counters.

Based on that, it seems clear to me that if he has a knee issue, his job duties have contributed to it. And if that’s the case, it’s a work comp case. This is true even if he’s heavy or a runner or anything else. If your job plays a role, it should be a case.

Now he still needs an orthopedic doctor to agree with my assessment. And it’s important not to just say to your doctor something like, “I’m a cook with a bad knee, do you think it’s related to my job?” Instead you’d want to give a detailed description of all of your job duties that impact your knee. How often you bend? How often you carry items and walk with them. What is the weight range of those items? How often have you hit your knee? What else could have contributed to it?

And this is the process no matter what your job is or what your injury is.

So I do think he has a case and we connected him to a great Chicago work injury lawyer who has represented a lot of restaurant workers. I don’t think the insurance company will just roll over, but I do think when push comes to shove he wins the case.