If you are injured on the job in DuPage County and are having trouble getting your benefits, do not file a lawsuit. Instead, file a claim with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission in Wheaton.
The commission has many locations throughout the state. Your claim is assigned to the location closest to the place of injury. If you suffer a work-related injury in DuPage County, your claim will be assigned to an arbitrator at the DuPage County Government Center in Wheaton, located at 421 N. County Farm Road, 1-500A JTK Bldg. injured out of state, your claim will be assigned to the location closest to your home. So if you were injured in Indiana, but live in DuPage County, your case will still be assigned to the government center in Wheaton.
You should file a claim with the Commission as soon as possible after an injury. There are strict time limits for notifying your employer and filing claims in these cases. It is important not to miss the deadline because you may lose your only opportunity to file a claim. The time limit for filing a claim is generally three years from the date of injury, but be sure to consult with an experienced attorney.
Your claim will be assigned to an arbitrator in Wheaton. Once every two months, the arbitrator will review your case. These are called status hearings, where both parties and their attorneys appear before the arbitrator to discuss the status of the case. This process continues until there is a settlement or a trial. Either party can request a trial during a state hearing.
If the case continues for a long time without progress, usually three years, the arbitrator may dismiss the claim. The arbitrators are very busy, possibly with a thousand cases or more, so it is your responsibility and that of your attorney to move the case forward and take action when a problem arises.
If the parties reach an agreement, the arbitrator must approve it before it becomes final. If there is a trial, the arbitrator will make a decision within 60 days of the completion of the trial. The process can take a couple of years. However, emergency hearings are available in certain situations, such as when it comes to medical payments or loss of time.
The commission is neutral, like a court, so I recommend hiring a lawyer to fight for you. I believe you will get the best results with a lawyer who specializes in work injury, appears regularly before DuPage County arbitrators, and is respected by insurance companies.
There are attorneys all over the state accepting work injury cases. However, most attorneys who specialize exclusively in work injuries are located in Chicago. In fact, if you go to the Wheaton Workers’ Compensation Commission, about 90% of the attorneys you will see are not DuPage work injury attorneys, but rather are based in Chicago. This is different than other areas of the law, such as divorce and criminal defense.
Attorney fees in Illinois work injury cases are limited to 20% of what you recover, but that generally excludes recovery for medical bills or time off work. That means you will not pay the travel costs to hire a lawyer to represent you.
