TTD or temporary total disability is the pay you receive when you are injured on the job and Illinois and either can’t work at all or have medical restrictions that your employer can’t accommodate. The pay is two-thirds of your gross average weekly wage and is tax free. There are caps on how much you ..read more

No!!!! I really can’t believe how many Illinois employers are trying to make their employees use vacation pay, sick time or other earned PTO after they get hurt on the job. If you get hurt at work and your doctor takes you off of work or gives you restrictions that your employer can’t accommodate, you get work comp benefits. Those benefits are called TTD or temporary total disability. It’s 2/3 of your average weekly wage, tax free. Employers know this, but a lot of them want to screw you over if they can. So if they can get you to take a couple days of sick or vacation pay, that means your cla ..read more

Winning Illinois workers’ compensation cases for a heart attack can be tricky. Typically if you have one, you are older and it’s not unusual for that to happen. When you add in factors like high cholesterol, smoking, being overweight, etc. it’s not a surprise when someone with risk factors has a heart attack. If you are at work and have one, that’s not enough to prove your case and win work comp benefits. You have to show that something about the job increased your risk for having one. Having a stressful job isn’t enough usually without other factors. An example of a winning case would be if y ..read more

One of the basic premises of Illinois workers’ compensation law is that your employer (usually via their insurance company) has a right to send you to a one time medical exam of their choosing. These are called independent medical examinations or IME’s. Those doctors aren’t there to treat you, but instead are supposed to evaluate your injury, treatment plan, discuss if it’s work related, etc. In theory this makes sense. I’m sure when this law was crafted the thought was that the insurance company would pick out a reputable doctor to just double check that everything that is happening makes sen ..read more

Here’s an inquiry we received that I thought people might find interesting. I hurt my knee at work and was eventually diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, ACL injury. I had surgery that the workers’ compensation insurance company paid for. I’m half way through my post surgery physical therapy process. I showed up to PT today and the therapist told me that the adjuster said they were no longer going to pay for my sessions. Any idea why and what I can do? The answer I gave was that I needed to talk to them to learn more, but even before that happened, there were a variety of rea ..read more

My job as an Illinois workers comp attorney and hopefully as a good guy is to tell people the truth. I’m really direct even when I know I’m telling someone something they don’t want to hear. A great example of this is when talking about chiropractors and treatment for job related injuries in Illinois. Now full disclosure, I’m not a chiropractor fan. The thought of someone grabbing me by the neck and quickly twisting it freaks me out a bit. Plus I’ve heard too many stories of patients having strokes from being adjusted negligently. I’m not really a fan of any doctors though. I hurt my knee back ..read more

Sometimes I feel I’m in the middle of a Dr. Seuss book when I hear the variety of bogus reasons that an injured Illinois worker has had their case denied. I’m not the best ryhmer, but it could be: We are looking for more information. We are doing an investigation. We heard a different story. We are just going to ignore ya. We have a doctor who is a hired gun. Wrongly denying your case is lots of fun. I won’t quit my day job. In all seriousness, every day I hear from injured Illinois workers who have clearly compensable work comp claims and are getting jerked around by the insurance company. Th ..read more

To me, the worst thing a lawyer can do is focus on what’s best for them over what is best for their clients. In almost every case that means they worry about money and how they can get more even if it’s not the best thing for the injured worker. The most common way this happens in Illinois workers comp law is when your attorney insists you see a certain doctor. They do that because the doctor refers them clients and they want to scratch each others backs. But this terrible behavior happens in other ways. I came across one example recently and man did this attorney screw their seriously injured ..read more

Here’s a comment I got from a chatter recently. This one has to do with CCMSI and his Illinois workers’ compensation case, but it really could be with any work comp insurance company: I was injured on the job and it has been over 6 weeks and Ccmsi has still not determined if my claim will be covered. This like I said is not unusual for CCMSI or anyone else. You see it with Travelers, Gallagher Basset, Sedgwick, ESIS, etc. They aren’t telling you no and they aren’t telling you yes. They say things like, “It’s under investigation,” or “We are gathering records,” or “We are gathering informat ..read more

A lot of the questions I get about Illinois workers comp law happen because employers put crazy thoughts into the heads of their employees. One recently didn’t think he could go to the ER without a co-worker driving him because his boss said so. Another thought that if you got injured on the job it was a requirement that you sit out for two weeks. He thought that because it’s what his foreman said. So how soon should you return to work if you get injured on the job in Illinois? The answer is relatively simple. Listen to whatever your doctor says. If they say you can’t work due to your injury t ..read more