In Illinois you do not get paid for pain and suffering in your Workers’ Compensation settlement.
When the law was first put in place in the early 1900’s there was a trade off. You do not have to prove your employer was negligent in causing your injury, but in turn you are not able to be awarded damages for your pain and suffering. The other trade off was speed. Compared to other types of civil cases Workers Comp is much faster. You get your money sooner and it is tax free.
The way Workers Comp settlements and awards are figured are based on your average weekly wage for the 52 weeks before you were injured times 60 percent. This is what is called your permanency rate. The injury is then given a number of weeks times the permanency rate. The number of weeks determined is not based on any hard and fast schedule that you find in some states. It is more art than science.
As you can tell from the formula, the higher your wage the better off you will do on the settlement or award. The injured workers who do the worst in most cases are minimum wage people and part time workers.
If you think your wage was calculated incorrectly or the offer does not seem right, give Attorney Dirk May a call at 309-827-4371.