Under Illinois law, your employer is supposed to post notices of your rights under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act and make it obvious what to do if you get hurt while working. The reality is that doesn’t happen.
If you are a construction worker, you might not have an office you go to to see this posting. If you work in a big warehouse or factory, you might simply not see it or go to the break room where it’s posted. Some employers just blatantly ignore the law.
As a result, we’ve seen a trend of workers getting hurt on the job, but not realizing that work comp benefits are a thing. Shamefully, their employers don’t tell them about their rights either.
Two recent calls to my office show what typically happens. In case one, a woman did a very heavy duty job. In fact she was the only woman who worked with 30 other men. She injured her back due the heavy lifting and was told by her doctor she had a pinched nerve. Her boss told her she could file for short term disability. That ran out. Fortunately six months after she got hurt, a friend mentioned that she should look into getting a work comp lawyer. We explained what her rights are and set the case in motion from there.
In the second case, a guy had worked a similarly heavy duty job for ten years. He hurt his elbow and shoulder and told his employer. They fired him the next day despite this being his first reported work injury ever. He’s been going to his own doctor and community clinics. He overheard someone at the clinic talking about workers comp which was the first he ever heard of it after four months of being out of work. That led him to call us.
While every case is different, you don’t get punished because you didn’t know what work comp was. By that I mean you don’t lose your rights to bring a case just because you didn’t do it right away. There are still time limits for filing a case (three years from the injury date in most cases) and for reporting the injury to the employer (within 45 days of when you know you have a work related injury), but as long as you don’t miss those time limits, you should still be eligible.
The bad news is that both of these workers missed out on getting the quality care that would have come with getting work comp right away. It makes it harder to get a good orthopedic doctor. It means they have to financially struggle while they can’t work. It likely lengthens their recovery time.
The bottom line is that if you found out after the injury that Illinois workers comp laws exist, all is not lost. We can still likely help you and are happy to offer a free consultation to discuss your claim. Call us any time at 312-346-5578 for a free consult covering all of Illinois.
