If you are driving while working and get in to a car accident that is someone else’s fault, you can sue the other driver and file for Illinois work comp benefits. The question is should you do both? I was asked this recently by a suburban Chicago man who was badly injured in a car accident while driving for work and had surgery.  He had hired a Chicago auto accident lawyer, but hadn’t done anything…

Every attorney representation agreement  in an Illinois workers compensation case is the same. It’s a standard contract that says attorney fees are 20% of the recovery they get for you plus reasonable expenses.  So if your case settles for $40,000, the attorney will get $8,000 and you will get $32,000 less any expenses in the case. So the question is what are the fees that the attorney can charge that you have to reimburse them…

I had an injured worker recently call me after he hurt his back at work.  The issue was that he had smoked pot over the weekend before the accident and failed a drug test after the accident.  The work comp insurance adjuster told him that he was ineligible for benefits because of the failed test and there was nothing he could do. He wanted to know if this is true. The quick answer is that…

I love to run.  I’m also a klutz so I get injured a lot.  I’ve had problems with my foot, ankle, knee, thigh, calf, hamstring and back, all from running.  It sounds like I need a new hobby, but I’m addicted to exercise.  Whenever I’ve gone to a doctor about the problems I get the same advice that I can’t take. They tell me to stop doing the thing that is hurting me. So what…

One defense to an injured worker claiming that they got hurt on the job is to say that they weren’t really an employee, but rather an independent contractor.  Many businesses do this falsely to help themselves cheat on their taxes, avoid paying benefits and full wages and in some cases avoid workers’ compensation claims. We see this the most with trucking companies, but a suburban Chicago bar tried to call one of their bartenders a…