Quick answer: Usually, yes. If you were driving for your job when another driver caused the crash, you can claim Illinois workers' compensation benefits from your employer and also bring a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver. Workers' compensation pays...
Quick answer: If your Illinois temporary total disability (TTD) checks stop before you actually return to work, your employer or its insurer must explain the cutoff in writing. Get that explanation, update your medical evidence, and demand payment in writing. If...
Hurt at work but offered short-term disability? Learn how it differs from Illinois workers’ comp and how to protect your claim.
One of the first questions injured workers ask us is a simple one: how much will a lawyer cost? The short answer is that in Illinois you generally pay no attorney fee up front. The fee comes out of what the lawyer recovers for you, it is usually capped at 20 percent,...
It is 6:40 in the morning in January. You pull into the lot behind the plant, step out of your car, and your feet go out from under you on a sheet of ice. You have not clocked in yet. You have not touched a machine. Is that a work injury? Under Illinois workers'...
A forty-eight-year-old millwright crushes his dominant hand in a press. After three surgeries he has partial grip, chronic nerve pain, and a permanent restriction against repetitive gripping or lifting more than ten pounds. He reads at a ninth-grade level, has done...
Your doctor has taken you off your regular job and written a set of restrictions: no lifting over fifteen pounds, no overhead reaching, no ladders. A few days later your supervisor calls and tells you to report Monday morning for light duty. You are still in pain, you...
In Illinois, workers injured on the job have the right to medical care and disability benefits. However, insurance companies do not simply write a fair check and move on. Adjusters often follow a deliberate strategy built to reduce your settlement. Understanding these...
A roofer falls from a ladder and shatters his wrist. A line worker at a food processing plant catches her hand in a machine and needs surgery. Both are hurt badly enough that they cannot work, and both decide to say nothing to anyone, because they are not authorized...
A journeyman electrician earns $48 an hour. After a shoulder injury and two surgeries, his doctor releases him with a permanent twenty-pound lifting restriction and no overhead work. The union hall has nothing that fits those limits. He eventually takes a job behind a...