In workers compensation, you can tell the truth and do the right thing, yet still make innocent mistakes that foul up your claim. You can protect yourself and your family if you:

• Start a diary, keep a file. Record all conversations and appointments with doctors, company representatives, witnesses, etc., and keep track of all time you lose from your job. Put all appointment cards, letters, receipts, and bills in one place. Keep them organized. Do not throw anything away!
• Get an off work, light-duty, or return to work slip from your doctor, every time! You are entitled to temporary disability pay under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act only if your doctor certifies that your injury prevents you from working.
• Unless you have a written doctor’s excuse for all the time you miss, the Company will not pay disability benefits. Your doctor must cover every single day you miss from work with a written excuse for as long as you are off.
• Always make sure the Company has a current off-work slip, signed by your doctor excusing your absence. This is the only way to keep yourself paid while you are off work! We recommend that you get a fresh off-work slip from your doctor at least every four weeks.
• File your claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission within three years of your injury date, or you may lose your rights forever! Three years + one day = you lose!
• Keep careful track of all of your medical bills, charges and payments from the first day of your case to the last.

Never completely stop seeing your doctor until you are 200% sure you are healed or as good as you are going to get. If you stop treatment to “see how you feel,” the law presumes you have recovered fully.

Once you stop treating, it is very difficult to re-start. Make monthly or weekly follow-up appointments with your doctor until you are 100% certain you are going to be okay. Cancel the appointment if you are doing well.

You must prove your medical expenses relate to you injury before your employer is obligated to pay for it. There are no deductibles or co-pays in Workers’ Compensation. Even if your employer has paid a medical bill related to your injury, your employer is not necessarily obligated to pay any other bills in the future.

Take all your work-related medical bills straight to your employer.

If your claim is disputed, denied, or contested, turn all the medical bills in to your regular insurance. Be sure to tell your regular insurance the bills are for work-related medical care, but that workers compensation claim refuses to pay them.

• Within three years from the date of the accident,
  Or
• Within two years from the date of the last payment of related compensation (TTD, TPD, Maintenance, medical bill payment, etc.)

Therefore, if you had an accident on the job within the last three years, you may still be eligible to receive some form of compensation. Do not delay, because even one day late is too late.

Filing an accident report at work, or filing out insurance claim forms, is not the same thing as filing a Workers’ Compensation claim with the Workers Compensation Commission.

If you have questions or concerns about what to file, when to file, and where to file, you ought to consult with a legal representative.

For “repetitive trauma” injuries [tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, etc.], say “Overuse at my regular job caused pain.” If you do not report your accident to the Company right away, you can lose all your rights.

Insurance companies love it when injured workers do not report their accidents promptly. This innocent mistake (”I’ll just wait and see how I feel tomorrow . . .”) saves insurance companies millions of dollars every year.

Even if you do not consider yourself seriously hurt, play it safe. Report every injury immediately. Literally, every hour counts. Delayed reporting seriously endangers your wage protection and medical care benefits you need them.

You cannot go wrong if you report all injuries and accidents immediately!

Such employer misconduct may give rise to separate lawsuit for damages in the Circuit Court, on top of the underlying workers’ compensation case. An employer’s workers compensation insurance may not cover costs and damages arising from retaliation lawsuits.

On the other hand, having a workers compensation claim pending does not automatically protect you from discipline or discharge because of misconduct.

If you have questions or concerns about discipline and retaliation, you ought to consult with a legal representative.

In general, if you wonder whether you need a lawyer you probably do.

If you have questions or concerns about qualifying for benefits, you ought to consult with a legal representative.

It is illegal for employers to charge workers for any part of a workers’ compensation insurance premium or for any workers compensation benefits, even by passing it through on a payroll check.