What is a workers compensation injury – What injuries are covered?
For an injury to be covered under the Illinois Workers Compensation Act, your Illinois workers compensation attorney must determine if an accident or accidental injury arose out of and in the course of the worker’s employment. It is very common for the employer’s insurance company to argue about whether the worker’s injury meets these requirements. If the employer’s insurance company can show that the injury is not covered, it stands to save a great deal of money. On the other hand, experienced workers compensation lawyers will fight to make sure your work injury is covered and eligible for compensation.
The first requirement is that the injury must be an accident arising out of the worker’s employment. This merely means that the injury can be traced to a specific place, time, and cause, and that it happened in the course of employment. The injury must also arise out of the employment, meaning that it happened from a risk connected to or incidental to the employment. It is not enough that the injury or accident just happened at work. The worker must have been performing some task for the employer or incidental to this job, and may require that this task placed the employee at a greater risk for this to happen than the general public.
The injury must also arise in the course of the worker’s employment. This question has to do with the work that the employee was doing. If there is any doubt whether the work was the employer’s work or whether the employee was performing some personal matter, then this question may be an issue that could result in the injury not being covered. Most skilled Illinois workers compensation attorneys will endeavor to bring their client’s work injury under the umbrella of the Workers Compensation Act.
Even if the injury accident is determined to have arisen out of and in the course of employment, there are many more issues that may be in dispute. The workers compensation insurance company may choose to argue over injuries involving repetitive trauma, suicide, psychological disabilities, heart attack, stroke, thrombophlebitis, aneurysm, pulmonary embolism, unexplained falls, assaults, intoxication, exposure to heat/cold, preexisting injuries or preexisting diseases.
The workers compensation insurance company may also choose to dispute injuries occurring during employee sponsored outings / social events, injuries occurring in vehicles going to / from work, and injuries occurring during lunch.
Experienced workers compensation attorneys, such as those affiliated with a good law firm, are essential to the proper prosecution of an on-the-job injury.
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