Nobody gets up and heads to work, thinking that they will suffer a serious on-the-job injury. Yet, each year, nearly 105,000 employees are injured and over 150 killed in Illinois workplace accidents. Over 55 percent of Illinois work accidents result in an employee being limited in their ability to work, either by missing one or more days of work or requiring a transfer or reassignment. Most of these accidents are preventable.
When you go to work, you trust that your employer is doing everything they can to provide a safe workplace. And most employers do. However, sometimes an employer overlooks a crucial safety point. Other times, a third party unrelated to your employer causes an accident. Whether an accident is caused by another motorist, a contractor, or a building or job site owner, injured workers have options.
Workers who suffer injuries related to their employment can pursue a claim for compensation through either a workers’ compensation claim or a personal injury claim, depending on the circumstances. While there is some overlap between these two types of cases, they are very different.
Workers’ compensation in a no-fault system allowing injured employees to obtain medical benefits and income benefits due to a work-related accident. A personal injury case, on the other hand, requires an injured worker to prove someone else other than their employer was responsible for their injuries. However, personal injury cases typically allow for an accident victim to recover more significant damages.
The question is whether a workers’ compensation claim or a personal injury claim is best for your particular situation. At Briskman Briskman & Greenberg, our dedicated team of personal injury and workers’ compensation lawyers represents injured workers and grieving families in all types of Illinois work injury cases.