Suing for Personal Injury Damages While on Workers’ Compensation in Illinois or Indiana
Hurt on the job after a catastrophic work accident is often a life-altering event for the injured worker and their loved ones, and quickly filing for benefits under a worker’s compensation policy can be very important in order to pay the bills. For instance, under Illinois law, a severely injured worker may get their first “temporary total disability check” within two weeks (14 days) of their filing a notice of injury with the appropriate medical info. See, e.g., The 2006 Handbook of Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Diseases published by the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Commission, Section 6, page 17.
Later, that injured worker and their family members may consider the possibility of investigating the event to determine if there is civil liability for what has happened. Illinois and Indiana workers hurt on the job have the legal right to conduct an independent investigation with accident reconstruction experts and legal advocates, and these investigations may reveal that there are causes of action with monetary damages available against one or more third parties in the case. For more, read Accident Reconstruction Experts and Injury Claims.
Worker victims and their families are not barred from filing these legal claims and lawsuits in the courts for civil damages even if they are collecting benefits under the employer’s workers’ compensation policy. These are two independent legal systems, providing help and justice to the injured worker in distinctly different ways.
What is Workers’ Compensation?
Employers in both Illinois and Indiana are legally mandated to pay for specific liability insurance policies that provide benefits to employees hurt in the course and scope of their employment. State law demands these policies be current, and it also defines who is covered by this insurance, and what benefits are to be paid. For details, read Job Site Injury in Illinois or Indiana: When Accidents at Work Are Not Worker’s Compensation Claims.
However, the workers’ compensation laws of Illinois and Indiana both include what is called an “exclusive remedy rule,” which means that unless there is an exception in the specific situation, the employee cannot file an injury lawsuit against their employer for harm sustained on the job. Instead, the benefits provided under the employers’ workers’ compensation insurance policy are the sole recovery allowed to the worker. An example of an exception is if the facts show that the employee was intentionally hurt on the worksite by the employer in some way (it was not an accident).
The employer usually does not face a lawsuit after a work accident unless they have failed to keep up with their workers’ compensation policy or if they are not in compliance with workers’ compensation state law in other ways. This does not mean the worker has no avenue for justice in the civil courts after being severely hurt on the jobsite.
Personal Injury Lawsuits After Work Accident: Parties Other Than Employer
In both Illinois and Indiana, someone hurt while working can file and get their workers’ compensation benefits and still file a personal injury lawsuit against one or more third parties who have breached legal duties of care and safety and caused the worker’s bodily harm in the accident. The “exclusive remedy rule” applies only to the employer who provides the injured worker’s paychecks.
Suing Third Parties after Work Accident
Working with experts in the industry involved (think construction, steel, warehousing, transportation, etc.) as well as those with expertise in the type of accident (falls; struck-by; crushing; electrocution; etc.) will be needed to work with legal advocates in order to comb through all the details and form final opinions on causation and fault. See, Construction Accident Expert Witnesses in Work Accident Claims.
In complex workplace accidents, more than one third party may be found to have failed to have acted in a reasonable and prudent manner and therefore incurred legal liability for the accident and the injuries sustained by the worker victim. All these third parties may be sued in a single lawsuit under the state laws of Indiana and Illinois.
The worker victim will have the legal duty to file this lawsuit. The worker victim will also have the legal duty to compile enough admissible evidence to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that these third parties are wrongdoers who are legally obligated to pay civil damages to the worker and their family members (as defined by law).
Each case is different. For instance, common work accident causes of action may be based upon defects in equipment or machinery at the site, where a defect or malfunction caused the accident. The manufacturer and designer of that item may be liable for product liability damages. The company responsible for maintenance and repair may likewise be at fault, as well as others on site with duties to inspect the worksite (including housekeeping).
For more, read Are There Civil Claims for Damages Against Third-Parties for Your Work Accident?
What About Being Paid Twice? Double Recovery Is Prevented Under the Law
Obviously, injured workers receiving their workers’ compensation benefits will ultimately get paid their civil claims for damages upon settlement or trial of their personal injury claims involving the same work accident. The dovetailing of benefits and damages might be a windfall for the worker if not for state statutes that prevent a “double recovery.”
Incomplete Overlap
However, workers’ compensation benefits will not be duplicated dollar for dollar in a civil claim because not everything is the same: only some things overlap. For instance, physical pain and suffering and other “non-economic damages” are not paid under workers’ compensation, which provides benefits for things like lost earnings and medical expenses. The only way that bodily pain and suffering is paid to the worker victim is through a personal injury claim.
Reduction Defense Not Allowed in the Civil Case
In both states, a personal injury lawsuit seeks claims for the worker’s full recovery (both economic and non-economic damages). The third-party defendants cannot use the benefits as a defense to paying damages, reducing their liability because of the workers’ compensation coverage. This is called the “collateral source doctrine.”
Subrogation: Policy Benefits Reimbursed
However, once the worker victim has won their civil matter in settlement or in trial, their workers’ compensation carrier has a legal right to seek reimbursement of the damages awarded in the civil matter that were paid by them already as policy benefits.
Read, 10 Types of Workers Compensation Benefits After a Work Accident in Illinois or Indiana and 10 Types of Injury Damages That May Be Awarded to Accident Victims.
Worker Filing Third Party Injury Claims After Getting Workers’ Compensation Benefits
In both Illinois and Indiana, someone hurt while at work has a right to file for benefits with their employer’s workers compensation insurance policy for financial help. There are all sorts of legal details here, overseen by either the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission or the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana.
The injured worker also has the right to pursue an independent injury lawsuit in the state courts of Illinois and Indiana for civil damages against individuals and businesses who have violated legal duties of care and have legal responsibility for the worker’s harm.
Usually, due to the speed with which the workers’ compensation benefits can be obtained, the civil claims are filed afterwards. Workers need to be aware that there are significant deadlines for both, and that statutes of limitations exist in both states that will bar their civil claims as a matter of law if these deadlines are not met. Read, Deadlines for Injury Victims to File Lawsuits: Statutes of Limitations.
For more on workers’ compensation benefits and personal injury damages, read:
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- The Two Main Differences Between Workers Compensation and Personal Injury Claims for Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois
- Mini-Mill Steelworker Work Accidents: Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Claims
- Operating Engineer Work Accidents: Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Claims
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents.
Hurt on the job in our part of the country means that the worker victim and their loved ones have legal rights for both workers’ compensation benefits as well as for civil damages from third parties determined to be liable under the law for their accident. It is a tragedy to find that someone is hurt at work in a totally preventable accident caused by the negligence or bad acts of another. Please be careful out there!
