Illinois law does not permit a law suit against an employer for a work related injury (there are very limited exceptions). Your sole remedy is to file a workers compensation claim. But what if your injury was actually caused by someone other than your employer? For instance, you are a truck driver, and are injured in a traffic accident due to the negligence of another driver, or injured while making a delivery because of the condition of the property? In this event, you will be entitled to pursue two cases: the first is a workers comp claim against your employer; the second is a personal injury lawsuit against the person who caused your accident. If you recover in both cases, you will have to repay workers compensation part of what they paid you, but the total compensation from both cases will exceed, and generally far exceed, that of either one alone.
We have had numerous cases where a client has received substantial sums from both his/her
workers compensation and personal injury case. Our cases involved:
- A client who injured his knee on the job which required surgery. Unfortunately, his surgeon operated on the wrong leg. We filed a medical malpractice case against the surgeon. Read the full case here.
- A forklift truck repairman who was injured in a car accident on his way to a repair job. He was compensated both by his employer, and the driver of the other car. Read the full case here.
- A truck driver who injured his low back bouncing up and down over a rough road, which led to a herniated disc and surgery. The surgeon committed malpractice giving rise to a suit. Read the full case here.
- A construction worker who fell from a scaffold on a project supervised by a general contractor. A workers comp claim was filed against the employer, and a personal injury suit against the general contractor. Read the full case here.
In each such case, our client was able to be compensated both from his workman's compensation and personal injury cases.
Whenever our workers compensation attorneys accept a new case, we evaluate it to see if there are grounds against a non-employer 3rd party that would warrant a personal injury suit. In so doing we are fulfilling our mission statement of obtaining all reasonable compensation to which our clients are entitled under the law. For more information about work related injuries turning into two cases, contact our Chicago law firm to discuss your potential case with our injury lawyers.