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​Experienced ILLINOIS Workers’ Compensation Lawyers
& CHICAGO Injury Lawyers

Injured Airline Office Workers

Chicago Lawyers for Workers’ Compensation Claimants

Most people don’t think of airline offices as dangerous work environments. However, there are numerous injuries that are common in airline offices even if a worker’s job consists mostly of sitting in front of a computer. The job may not be an obvious source of physical strain, but it may entail repetitive motions. If you suffered a work-related injury in an airline office, our experienced Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys can assess your potential claim.

Injured Airline Office Workers

Employers need to provide safe workplace environments to workers, and this includes following detailed guidelines of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Airline office workers who suffer illness or injury on the job may be entitled to compensation. Common airline office injuries include slip and falls. Sometimes workers injure themselves on rolling office chairs or broken stepladders. They may trip on wires or cords that have been stretched across workstations. Slippery floor tiles or curled up edges of flooring can also cause falls.

Many office workers have to spend multiple hours seated in front of a computer screen, and making numerous repetitive movements with the mouse. They may experience weakness, numbness, fatigue, and pain due to having to use a workstation that isn’t ergonomic. Desks and chairs should be used according to OSHA’s guidelines, but all too often, they aren’t. Moreover, office environments may have inadequate ventilation, poor cleanliness, overcrowding, improper maintenance, or inadequate lighting. Also, little attention is often paid to the risk of office fires, which can be caused by space heaters placed near flammable objects, frayed power cords, and overloaded extension cords.

Workers’ Compensation Benefits

The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act allows workers that are injured on the job to obtain benefits. These may include emergency room care, medication, doctors’ visits, medical equipment, and surgeries. Other benefits could include disability benefits, whether these are total disability benefits, temporary partial benefits, vocational rehabilitation, or permanent total or partial disability benefits. A skilled workers’ compensation lawyer can help you pursue the benefits to which you may be entitled.

Choosing a Provider

The airline that employs you can ask you go be examined by a doctor of its choice. The doctor will evaluate your injuries, but you need not be treated by that doctor. The employer should pay for the exam, and the exam needs to be performed at a reasonable time and place. If you use an employer’s preferred provider network, you’ll have two choices. The doctor you choose in one of those choices may refer you to another doctor, and the doctor to whom you were referred can be included as one of the choices.

However, if you don’t choose somebody from a preferred provider network, you will only have one choice including the referral of whatever doctor you chose. After suffering injuries in the office, you may need to obtain emergency medical care. Emergency medical care doesn’t count as a choice, so you needn’t fear that you are giving up one of your two choices in seeking emergency care.

Pre-Existing Conditions

Some injured airline office workers have their workers’ compensation claims denied, supposedly because the worker was suffering from a pre-existing condition. However, many workers who suffer from a pre-existing condition are still able to get workers’ compensation benefits. If you were denied due to a pre-existing condition, you should be aware that all you are required to show is that the workplace injury aggravated or exacerbated your pre-existing condition. The mere fact of a pre-existing condition is not an adequate reason to deny your claim.

Consult a Workers’ Compensation Attorney in Chicago

If you are an airline office worker injured on the job in Chicago, you should consider retaining an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer to help you pursue benefits. It can be especially difficult to recover benefits for injuries arising out of repetitive motions, as insurers may try to suggest the injury isn’t job-related, but insurers also sometimes deny valid claims arising out of acute injuries observed by coworkers or supervisors. Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca represents injured airline office workers workers in cities including Springfield, Quincy, Rockford, Aurora, and Champaign, as well as Adams, Sangamon, Cook, Champaign, Winnebago, and Kane Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846, or contact us online for a free consultation.