Every worker in the state of Illinois has the right to a reasonably safe workplace. When someone is injured or becomes sick while on the job, they are entitled to benefits that cover their medical bills and lost wages.

Few people have a full understanding of every right they have as an employee, though. And when you’re hurt, or you’ve just received a life-changing diagnosis, you don’t have the time or mental capacity to sort through pages and pages of complex legal information.

We hope that this Illinois workers’ compensation settlement guide will provide clear and simple information that will be helpful to your claim. And if you need any additional help or guidance, a compassionate workers’ compensation lawyer from our Marion office will meet with you for a completely free consultation.

After learning more about preventing serious workplace injuries, reach out to Prince Law Firm if you need help with a workers’ compensation claim. Our personal injury law firm advocates for victims of workplace accidents in Marion and surrounding areas of Southern Illinois.

Accidents involving lift trucks like forklifts, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial trucks can cause severe and even permanent damage to workers. If you’ve been injured on the job and need help obtaining the benefits you need to recover, reach out to a workers’ compensation attorney from Prince Law Firm for expert legal assistance on your claim.

After being injured at work, you likely filed a workers’ compensation claim so that you can recover financially for your physical damages. You might have expected your claim to go smoothly and that you would easily get a resolution that you were happy with. However, one of the options for what could happen is that your workers’ comp claim could be denied.

While some people are tempted to associate on-the-job injury with physically intensive occupations such as construction or agriculture, employees who hold office jobs are just as likely to sustain injuries deserving of workers’ compensation. In the difficult period of recovery after injury, it can be overwhelming to make sure that you are taking all the right steps toward being compensated fairly.

If you were injured at work, you might not know where to turn next for help. Workers’ compensation is in place so that you can recover financially for the injuries that you got at work, regardless of who was at fault. You might be considering filing a workers’ comp claim to get compensation for your harm and damages that you suffered.

When a person is hurt on the job and needs help obtaining compensation for their injuries, the first thought is to file a workers’ compensation claim. That is certainly an appropriate starting place, but at Prince Law Firm we do not stop there if you decide to reach out to us. Instead, our team carefully studies your case to determine whether there are other potential avenues of recovery. Our goal at Prince Law Firm is to help our client put their life back together after a serious injury. One way that we help accomplish this is to look beyond the obvious to maximize the injured worker’s monetary compensation.

In some cases, the injured worker’s injuries may have been caused by someone other than just the employer. If an injured worker is hurt on the job, and the injury was caused in some part by the wrongful actions of another person or company, then you might have what is called a “third-party” case. In addition to pursuing a workers’ compensation claim, you might also be able to pursue monetary compensation from the “third-party.” For instance, if a worker is driving a vehicle while performing their employment duties and they get rear-ended by another driver, then they can pursue both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate claim against the driver who caused the car crash.

If you’ve been injured at work and are planning on filing for workers’ compensation benefits, you may be wondering if you need to hire a lawyer. While there are certain situations where you can probably represent yourself, it’s often in your best interests to at least seek legal guidance from a skilled attorney.

Situations where you may be able to get the benefits you need without a lawyer include minor workplace injuries, injuries that require you miss no work, or accidents where your employer has admitted the injury happened at work. Even if you fall into a situation like that, there are still benefits to having a lawyer help you with your claim. Let’s take a look at the possibility of complications arising during the claims process.

When you sustain an injury at work, it’s typical for you to follow up with a workers’ compensation claim. After documenting what happened, you go to a doctor for a medical evaluation, and then you start working on getting your compensation so you can cover the costs of treatment and care.

Protecting your rights should be your number one priority. When you’re going to file a workers’ compensation claim, having a legal representative at your side will allow you to make sure you’re getting fair compensation and you’re not jeopardizing your future. A  workers’ compensation lawyer from Prince Law Firm can help you with your claim or fight a claim denial.

With the Governor of Illinois pressing for significant worker’s compensation “reform,” I have been giving a great deal of thought to the many and varied differences between a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim in Illinois.  Many people, including legislators in Illinois, really do not understand the significant differences between the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act and a Personal Injury case.  The differences are astonishing in terms of proving a case and the types of damages that are recoverable.  If one understands just how limited and restricted damages are in a worker’s compensation claim, then maybe, just maybe, the Governor and General Assembly will not be so quick to enact additional reforms that further reduce the injured worker’s rights under the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act.

Let’s look at the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act.  This Act was enacted as a result of many significant compromises between labor and business.  The main compromise was that business (the employers) agreed that liability would be easier to prove in exchange for labor (employees) agreeing to limit the amount and types of monetary compensation that could be recovered.  Put another way, the employers agreed to lessen the burden on an employee to prove he was entitled to receive compensation.  For this promise, the employees agreed to limit the amount of money they could obtain as compensation.  Business now is looking to change this bargain by making it harder for an injured employee to prove that he is entitled to an award and if he is entitled to an award to further limit the amount of it.

In essence, under the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act, the employee has to prove that his injury was the result of an on-the-job accident.  The employee does not have to prove “fault” on the part of the employer.  He does not have to prove that the employer caused his injury.  Rather, he has to establish that the injury occurred while he was on-the-job doing what he was supposed to be doing.  With certain exceptions, if an employee can prove this then he is entitled to receive an award under the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act.  If he cannot prove this, then he is not entitled to make a recovery under the Act.