In an appellate court case an employee of the Elmhurst park district won his workers compensation case for an injury her received while playing Wallyball durring work hours. The petitioner was a fitness director who began playing a walleyball game when there were not enough players to get a game going. When he came down from a shot he injured his knee that required surgery.
His employer denied the claim, stating that section 11 of the workers compensation act barred the claim. Section 11 of the Illinois workers Compensation act states at the relevant part ” accidental injuries incurred while participation in voluntary recreational programs do not arise out of and in the course of the employment.”
The arbitrator and the appellate court held that although wallyball is a recreational activity, his job was to help the customers on there fitness goals and he played wallyball not for his own reasons but to accommodate the employers customers, and awarded the injured employee benefits.
http://illinoisworkinjurylawyer.com/free-book-illinois-workers-comp.html
In a fairly recent case the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission awarded an injured worker future medical benefits for life. This is usually not news worthy except in this case the injured worker as a result of his work injury had to undergo a splenectomy and as a result he had a decreased immune system that made him susceptible to a serious infection.
If he obtained a fever for what ever reason, even if it was wholly unrelated to his work injury such as a cold or the flu, and his fever climbed to over 100.5 degrees he would have to immediately take antibiotics and go to the nearest emergency room. He would then be admitted for at least two days or until the infection could be broughtunder control. The Commission held the respondent employer would be liable for all that medical expense associated with the hospital stay.
We represent Illinois workers compensation clients from Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, McHenry, Woodstock, Crystal Lake, Lakewood, Huntley, Harvard, Hebron, Carpentersville, Cary, Fox River Grove, Elgin, Richmond, Marengo, Spring Grove, Wonder Lake, Barrington, Lake County and Kane County.
In a recent Illinois Workers Compensation decision the commission found that an injured workers injury to his low back while shoveling snow at home several months after his work related low back injury did not bar his recovery for the initial injury. The petitioner injured his back at work in the summer and had an MRI which revealed Disc extrusions at L4-5 and at L5-S1.The petitioner had returned to work on less than full duty restrictions.
In December, while shoveling snow at home, the petitioner re injured his back and was treated at the emergency room and with his regular doctor.
The commission, in holding that the injury to his low back while shoveling snow did not break the causal connection to the work injury and the petitioner was entitled to workers compensation benefits. The commission determined that the original work injury weakened the petitioners condition of his low back, and the subsequent injury to the low back while shoveling snow only aggravated the original injury to the low back and the petitioner was entitled to benefits from the injury to his low back while shoveling snow.
The appellate court recently has held that an injured workers smoking was not sufficient to retard his recovery from the work injury to prevent him from receiving his benefits. In that case the injured worker had a back surgery which did not work. The injured worker then underwent a fusion for the failed back surgery. The fusion did not work, and the surgeon recommended a third surgery. The respondents doctor testified the reason the fusion surgery failed was because the injured worker was a smoker and a third surgery would not help because he was still a smoker.
The court held that although smoking did not help the recovery of the injured worker, and may have been the reason the fusion surgery failed, if it were not for the initial work injury and first surgery there would not have been a second fusion surgery that also failed and found the injured worker entitled to the third surgery and continued benefits under the act.
In a recent Illinois appellate court case the court held that an injured worker was entitled to TTD benefits after he was laid off when working light duty. In the case the petitioner was injured at work and was working for the respondent light duty. The employer laid off the petitioner due to lack of work or economic reasons. The respondent insurance company refused to pay the TTD benefits when the injured worker was laid off. The injured worker fought the case and the arbitrator found in his favor and awarded him TTD benefits. The commission, the trial court and the appellate court affirmed the arbitrators decision in awarding benefits. The court noted the law is clear that neither the ability to do light duty work or not getting medical benefits prohibits the injured worker from getting TTD benefits.
In the case, the injured worker attempted to find work with in his restrictions, and kept track of his attempts to find work. His attempts to find a nother job was unsucessful. Thus the injured worker proved that theree was no work avaliable for him with his work restrictions. As a side note the arbitrator awarded the injured worker penalties for the insurance carriers bad faith in failing to pay benefits.
What is the value of a work related carpal tunnel surgery case in Illinois? As with all workers compensation cases the answer depends on the facts of each case. The permanency award will vary if the injured hand was the dominant hand or the non dominant hand. In 2006 through 2008 the vast majority of carpal tunnel work related injuries with surgery that went to trial had an award of 20% loss of use of a hand. The cases were higher or lower depending upon if the person had any lifting restrictions of if the injured worker had a good recovery and was able to return to her regular job. Most of the reported decisions the carpal tunnel release surgery was done arthroscopicly rather than with an open procedure.
In several reported cases that were tried in Illinois the injured worker also had an ulnar nerve release or a lateral epicondylectomy. In those cases the petitioner recovered more than 20% loss of use of the hand.
The Illinois appellate court recently held in the case of Economy Packing v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission 387 Ill. App. 3d 283 that an illegal alien worker is entitled to receive Illinois Workers Compensation Benefits if he is injured on the job. In that case the court knew that the illegal alien used false documents to obtain the job,and by doing so did in fact violate the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act makes it a crime for an employer to knowingly hire an undocumented alien. The act requires employers to verify that a newly hired person is authorized to work in the United States. It also requires the employer to fire the alien if the employer finds out the employee is illegal or becomes undocumented.
The court in the Economy case awarded substantial benefits to an illegal alien who falsified documents to get a job.
In Illinois if you are injured at work you should be entitled to benefits under the Illiniois Workers Compensation Act.
What happend if you are injured at work while outside of Illinois, Does the Illinois Workers Compensation Act apply to you ?
Illinois has jurisdiction over any work injury claim if 1) the contract for hire was made in Illinois 2) if the accident occurred in Illinois or 3) if the injured worker’s employment was principally located in Illinois.
How do you determine if the contract for hire occurred in Illinois? The contract for hire is made were the last act necessary for the formation of the contract occurred. An example is when an Illinois resident is offered a job over the telephone to work in another state. If All the paperwork to work at the out of state job is done via fax at the workers house in Illinois then the Illinois Workers Compensation act would apply. If they same worker was required to travel to the out of state employer and fill out employment forms and take and pass a drug test then the last act necessary for the contract of employment occurred out of sate and the worker would not enjoy the Protection of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act.
An actual case that went to trial, the arbitrator wrote a decision for 35% loss of a leg. The injured worker was a 19 year old dance instructor. the diagnosis was an anterior cruciate ligament tear coupled with a torn medial meniscus. The surgery she underwent was a meniscectomy and debridement. During the procedure the surgeon noted a very large tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus, in addition a piece of the cartilage was broken off. The case was decided in 2007.
In 2007 an injured worker with a left shoulder rotator cuff tear and a massive acromion tear, that was surgically repaired with an arthroscopic procedure received an award of 25% of an arm. The arbitrator found that the injured employee who was 57 years old and employedas a factory worker returned to work regular duty. The employee reports that he has numbness in his left arm and trouble reaching with his left arm.
Illinois Workers Compensation | admin | 
May 11, 2010 11:10 am | 
Comments (0) 
