Here's something that could be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to you, and most injured workers have no idea it exists: the third-party claim. I've been handling workplace injury cases in Illinois for close to 30 years, and I'd estimate that at least a third of the slip-and-fall-at-work cases that come through my door have a viable third-party claim that the worker didn't even know about. The workers' comp insurance company sure isn't going to tell you about it. Your employer isn't going to mention it. And if your lawyer only handles workers' comp and doesn't do personal injury, they might miss it entirely.
Let me explain how this works with a real-world example. Say you work in a warehouse in the Chicago suburbs. You slip on a wet floor near the loading dock and blow out your knee. You file a workers' comp claim, and you're entitled to your medical bills, TTD while you're off work, and a permanent disability settlement for the knee. That's the baseline — and depending on the severity of the injury, it could be a decent amount of money.
But here's the question nobody asks: why was the floor wet? Did a cleaning company mop the area and not put up warning signs? Did a plumbing contractor leave a leak unrepaired? Does your employer lease the warehouse from a property owner who's responsible for maintaining the building? Did a defective floor drain back up because the manufacturer's product was poorly designed? Each one of those scenarios creates a potential third-party claim — a separate personal injury lawsuit against the party whose negligence caused the dangerous condition.
And here's why that matters financially. Workers' comp doesn't pay for pain and suffering. It pays two-thirds of your wages, not full wages. It uses a formula to calculate your permanent disability that may undervalue what you've actually lost. A third-party personal injury claim has none of those limitations. You can recover full lost wages, full pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and in some cases punitive damages. I've handled cases where the workers' comp settlement was $60,000 and the third-party claim settled for $250,000. Same fall. Same knee injury. The difference was that we identified a responsible third party and pursued a separate lawsuit.
The investigation is key, and it needs to happen quickly. Evidence at a workplace changes fast. The wet floor gets mopped up. The maintenance records get filed away. The cleaning company's schedule gets lost. If your lawyer doesn't start investigating the cause of your fall immediately, the evidence you need for a third-party claim may disappear.
Here's what we do in every workplace slip-and-fall case. First, we file the workers' comp claim to get your benefits flowing. Second, we investigate the cause of the fall. We look at who owns the building, who maintains it, who provides cleaning and janitorial services, who handles snow and ice removal, and whether any equipment or products contributed to the hazard. Third, if we identify a responsible third party, we file a separate personal injury lawsuit against them — and we pursue both claims simultaneously to maximize your total recovery.
If you slipped and fell at work, don't assume workers' comp is all you can get. There may be a third-party claim sitting right there that nobody told you about. Call us at 312-500-4500 and let us investigate. It costs you nothing, and it could be worth a lot more than you think.
If you got hurt at work, you CAN sue. But it is a little different than many other kinds of cases.
When you get hurt while doing your job in Illinois, you are automatically covered by the law called "The Illinois Workers' Compensation Act". This law (in theory) makes it easier and faster to make sure injured workers get paid, get the medical care they need, get back to work as fast as possible and are taken care of if they can't get back to work after an on the job injury.
So instead of filing a law suit in Court, you file a claim at the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission. In some wayss, a work injury case is similarto for example a car accident. But in many ways, it is not. Procedure and law are different in a work injury or "Workers Comp" case, so make sure you read articles like this to know your rights.
Or talk to a lawyer who knows how work injury cases work if you want to know more about "if you get hurt at work can you sue"?
Any time you get hurt in a fall at work, you probably have a valid Workers Comp case. In Illinois, being hurt on the job almost automatically means you have a Workers Comp case.
Here's how that works:
...then you are very likely to have a good Workers Comp case. It's almost that simple.
But you may also have what is called a 'third party' case in addition to your Workers Comp case.
A 'third party' case is just a regular law suit that gets heard at the Courthouse. Car crashes, dog bites and fall down cases are all examples of third party cases.
When proving an accident at work, it’s important to understand the difference between the employer not doing their job and cleaning up, and being careless and not paying attention. When suing someone, the burden of proof remains on you to show that you weren’t at fault for what occurred.
If you don’t look where you’re going, ignore signs that are clearly up around a wet or damaged area noting it is dangerous. Or simply didn’t see someone who was working on the area, this creates an issue. It’s important to show that none of these things were present when your accident happened.
When understanding slip and fall injuries at work, here are certain factors that contribute to them:
Keep in mind other factors such as if you:
Being aware of your surroundings and what caused you to have a problem is crucial to your case. You’ll need to give your lawyer complete information when you file a slip and fall at work suit against your company.
Certain accidents, especially those caused by you, cannot be used when suing for slip and fall. This is because you are the one responsible for what caused the accident.
Let’s say you start mopping and get called away to do something else without putting up signs alerting others to a wet floor, and you come back and slip. The fault becomes yours since you were responsible for addressing what caused the slip to begin with.
But if an outside company is at your workplace, and they mop the floor without warning anyone that the floor is wet? This can lead to a good case.
Proving fault in slip and fall lawsuit is difficult for some folks. This is true for those that played a role in creating the conditions that lead to the accident.
Some examples of problems that weren’t created by you are:
You’ll also need to show that there was no reasonable understanding of the problem or condition. For example, someone who saw signs up about slippery surfaces would infer not to walk quickly in that area.
When pursuing a slip and fall at work, documentation is one of the most important things. This helps your attorney build a strong case, and show how the manager or owner left the area in a state of neglect.
Make a note of:
The more you can prove you weren’t at fault for what occurred, you’re likely to win a slip and fall case against the third party.
Generally, no — you can't sue your employer directly because Illinois workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries. But that doesn't mean you're limited to workers' comp benefits. If your fall was caused by a third party — someone other than your employer — you can file a separate personal injury lawsuit against that third party AND collect workers' comp benefits. The combination of both claims can result in significantly more money than workers' comp alone.
A third party is anyone other than your direct employer who contributed to the dangerous condition that caused your fall. Examples include a property owner (if your employer doesn't own the building), a cleaning or maintenance company that left floors wet or failed to address hazards, a general contractor on a construction site, a product manufacturer whose defective flooring or equipment caused the fall, and a snow removal company that failed to properly treat icy walkways. We investigate every possible third party in workplace fall cases.
Workers' comp pays your medical bills, two-thirds of your lost wages (TTD), and a permanent disability settlement — but it does NOT cover pain and suffering. A third-party lawsuit allows you to recover full lost wages, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and potentially punitive damages. There are no caps on what you can recover in a third-party claim. That's why identifying a viable third party can dramatically increase your total recovery — sometimes by two or three times what workers' comp alone would pay.
No — you can pursue both simultaneously. In fact, that's exactly what we recommend. You file your workers' comp claim against your employer's insurance to get your medical bills paid and your TTD checks flowing while we investigate and pursue the third-party claim. The only catch is that if you recover money from the third-party lawsuit, your employer's workers' comp insurance company may have a lien — a right to be reimbursed for some of the benefits they already paid you. Your attorney negotiates that lien down to maximize what you keep.
In almost all cases, no. The workers' compensation system in Illinois is a trade-off: your employer provides no-fault benefits regardless of who caused the injury, and in exchange, they're protected from personal injury lawsuits by their employees. There are very narrow exceptions — like if your employer intentionally harmed you or committed fraud — but for a standard slip and fall, your remedy against your employer is limited to workers' comp. The third-party lawsuit is where the additional recovery comes from. Call 312-500-4500 to find out if a third party may be responsible for your fall.
Would you like to know more about can you sue for slip and fall at work?
If you or a loved one is dealing with a situation like this, give us a call any time, day or night. We are here to help. 312-500-4500
Scott DeSalvo founded DeSalvo Law to help injured people throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, IARDC #6244452, Scott has represented over 3,000 clients in personal injury, workers compensation, and accident cases.
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