Initial Claims for Injured Amazon Workers

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. Often it obtains customer business by promising faster shipping and a greater range of goods than other businesses do. However, workplace conditions can be stressful. Amazon employees can be injured on the job, and may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. You should be aware that sometimes valid claims are denied. If you have questions about filing an initial claim as an injured Amazon worker, you can speak with a skilled Chicago workers’ compensation attorney. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we represent clients in both work injury claims and personal injury lawsuits.

Depending on your job tasks, you may suffer significant and acute injuries as an Amazon employee, and you may also face the risk of repetitive stress injuries. If you’re injured on the job, you should let Amazon know within 45 days of the accident that caused the injuries. You’ll need to include the date and place of the accident within the notification, and to be on the safe side, you should provide this notice in writing. If you fail to provide this notice immediately, your benefits can be delayed, and if you wait beyond 45 days to give notice, you could lose your right to benefits altogether. If the injury is a repetitive motion injury, you should let your employer know once you realize you have a condition that’s work-related and that you are disabled by it.

If Amazon’s workers’ compensation insurer is paying the benefits to which you’re entitled, you do not necessarily need to file an Application for Adjustment of Claim. However, even if you start receiving payments, it is wise to file an Application for Adjustment of Claim because insurers sometimes pay benefits initially but stop paying them later. Filing and keeping a claim on file allows you to ask for an emergency hearing more quickly in the event that you lose benefits abruptly, or if you don’t receive certain benefits to which you believe you’re entitled. For example, you may get temporary total disability benefits without an award from an arbitrator, but you may not receive permanent total disability benefits. In that case, you would need to request a hearing, which could happen more quickly with a claim on file.

You need to file the Application for Adjustment of Claim within 3 years of your injury or within 2 years of the last compensation payment you received. There are exceptions to this rule, but they usually don’t apply to injured Amazon workers. A seasoned work injury lawyer can help you navigate the procedures that may apply to your case.

You may be able to recover damages through a lawsuit if you were injured by a third party in an accident while you were working. In a personal injury lawsuit, unlike a claim related to workers’ compensation, you must establish another party’s fault. Often a personal injury lawsuit arising out of an accident such as a car crash is brought under a theory of negligence. To establish negligence, you’ll need to show: (1) the driver owed you a duty to use reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty to use reasonable care, (3) causation and (4) damages. Drivers can breach the duty to use reasonable care in many different ways, including by speeding, tailgating, reckless driving, drunk driving, weaving, or failing to obey traffic signs and signals. In a personal injury lawsuit, unlike a workers’ compensation claim, your damages may be reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault for the accident because Illinois follows a modified comparative negligence rule.

If you are concerned about your initial claim as an injured Amazon worker in Chicago, you can talk to Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca about your situation. The lawyers at our firm can represent workers’ compensation clients in Rockford, Quincy, Aurora, and Champaign, as well as across Cook, Kane, Sangamon, Adams, and Winnebago Counties. We can look at your situation closely to determine whether you are also eligible for relief in addition to workers’ compensation benefits. Contact us at 312-263-6330 or 800-444-1525, or through our online form.