Alan Hampton was a police officer for the Village of Bolingbrook. Hampton was on duty on December 20, 2016 when he responded to an accident with injuries in the center of an intersection. Hampton’s lights and sirens were on. There was a fire vehicle on the scene with activated lights. Hampton tried to position his vehicle to protect the scene by blocking traffic from entering the intersection, and while positioning his patrol car was struck…
Governor JB Pritzker has activated 250 members of the Illinois National Guard for State Active Duty in response to the warnings issued this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding threats to state capital cities in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. At the request of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Governor also activated an additional 100 members of the Illinois National Guard in support of the…
The purpose of the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act (PSEBA) is to ensure the health benefits of public safety employees who have suffered catastrophic injuries in the line of duty. Nowak v. City of Country Club Hills, 2011 IL 111838, ¶16. Section 10(a) of PSEBA provides in relevant part:
“An employer who employs a full-time ***firefighter, who ***suffers a catastrophic injury or is killed in the line of duty shall pay the entire premium of…
In order to qualify for a line-of-duty disability pension, a police officer in Illinois must be disabled as the result of an injury resulting from an “act of duty” as defined by the Pension Code. The mere fact that an officer is on duty at the time he or she is injured is not enough to qualify the officer for a line-of-duty disability pension.
Paul Griffin, a detective with the New Lenox Police Department, injured…
Can you have your wage differential and your perm total, too? In the case of Chlada v. Ill. Workers’ Comp. Comm’n, 58 N.E.3d 848, 405 Ill.Dec. 587 (Ill. App. 2016) , the answer from the Appellate Court was a resounding YES. In this case, the petitioner was employed as a beer truck driver / salesman. He suffered two separate work injuries. The first injury occurred on July 15, 1999. This led to permanent restrictions and…
(From the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission) Arbitrator Anthony (Tony) Erbacci will retire effective December 31, 2020, after a long and distinguished career with the State of Illinois and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
Arbitrator Erbacci began his career with the State of Illinois on December 1, 1982 and has continuously served the people of Illinois for a period of 38 years. At the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, Tony has served as an Arbitrator from 1997,…
In this case, the Illinois Appellate Court addressed the denial of a line of duty disability to a fireman who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Gregory Prawdzik (Prawdzik) was employed as a firefighter for the Homer Township Fire Protection District Fire Department (District) starting on May 8, 2006. He also served in the Air National Guard. In 2008-2009, during his employment as a firefighter, Prawdzik was deployed for military duty in Afghanistan for 10…
If there is a third party case associated with your workers’ compensation claim, you need to be careful about what body parts you list in that contract at the time of settlement! The third district of the Illinois Appellate Court recently decided the case of Clifton Armstead v. National Freight, 2020 IL App (3d) 170777. In that case the court addressed the question of whether plaintiff’s workers’ compensation settlement contract estopped the plaintiff from…
With all the talk about COVID19 vaccinations in the news, have you thought about how vaccinations in the workplace could result in workers’ compensation and occupational disease claims? The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act has a section that deals directly with vaccinations in the workplace:
Any injury to or disease or death of an employee arising from the administration of a vaccine, including without limitation smallpox vaccine, to prepare for, or as a response to, a…
Before the battle, a general will run through countless scenarios as to what might happen on the battlefield. Often, the keys to victory lie in lessons learned from past conflicts. It’s very much the same in any legal battle, including workers’ compensation litigation. I have yet to see any COVID19 decisions from the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, but rest assured that litigation is pending as we speak. As is often the case in workers’ compensation…