A reader of our blog asked us the following:

I was hurt on the job and have a back injury. I’ve been off work for three weeks now. When do I start getting paid work comp benefits. I have bills!

This is a really common situation. The answer is that you should get paid within the first two weeks of missed time. Under Illinois workers’ compensation law, benefits start on the 4th calendar day of missed work. Once you miss 14 calendar days, you get those first three days back too.

It’s important to remember, calendar days is not actual work days missed. In other words, if you get hurt on a Thursday, miss work on Friday and Monday, but are back to work on Tuesday, you are still owed for the one calendar missed even though you don’t work on the weekend. These lost time payments are called temporary total disability or TTD benefits.

Insurance companies will often delay payment of TTD benefits like they did in the above example. It often happens for bogus reasons such as them saying they are still investigating, need more information, are waiting on medical records or for no reason at all. They can’t just not pay until they feel like it.

Unfortunately they will delay or deny benefits to put pressure on you. In longer term injuries with a lot of missed time, some checks will be late or “lost” or they’ll refuse to do things which can result in you being paid quickly such as direct deposit.

The only efficient way to push back if this happens is to hire an attorney and have them file a 19b petition as well as a petition for penalties and fees. The first petition gets your case before an Arbitrator much faster than it could otherwise. The second punishes the insurance company for their unreasonable delay in making the payments that they owe you.

And it is unreasonable and unlawful for them not to pay you if a doctor takes you off work for a work injury and they don’t have any actual evidence to counter that. Fortunately, Illinois work comp laws are really strong and there is a good way to push back. Beyond that, getting an attorney who knows what they are doing helps stop any other nonsense you might not be aware of such as them talking directly to your doctor.

If you have been hurt on the job in Illinois and have any questions or want an attorney referral, please fill out our contact form or call us to speak with a lawyer for free at 312-346-5320.