Lifting Injuries at United Airlines

Chicago Lawyers Experienced in Aviation Injury Claims

Airline workers may suffer serious lifting injuries at United Airlines. Lifting injuries can include disc herniation, tendonitis, Superior Labrum Anterior and Posterior tears, tennis elbow, hamstring pulls and tears, patellar tendonitis, and knee pain. These can be painful and require significant medical treatment. If you suffer lifting injuries at United Airlines, you may be able to obtain workers’ compensation benefits under Illinois law. Our Chicago United Airlines workers’ compensation lawyers can help you recover benefits for medical costs, wages from work missed because of injuries, and also disability payments.

Benefits for Lifting Injuries at United Airlines

People who work for airlines are at risk of being injured before, during, or after a flight. The injuries sustained can affect their ability to work and affect their wages and health care costs. Lifting injuries are especially likely to involve the shoulder or back, and they can temporarily or permanently incapacitate a worker. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act was designed to make it easier for injured workers to obtain some compensation than it would be in the civil judicial system.

Unlike with a civil lawsuit, your attorney will not need to establish anyone’s fault, and you will not be precluded from obtaining benefits if you were partially to blame. For example, if you lifted a passenger’s heavy bag improperly to put it in an overhead compartment and suffered a disc herniation, your compensation would not be reduced as a result, as it might be in a personal injury lawsuit. However, even if there are multiple witnesses to your lifting injuries, you can still face difficulties obtaining the workers’ compensation benefits to which you are entitled.

Sometimes insurers deny a claim or partially deny a claim on the basis that a worker has a pre-existing injury. This is not necessarily an appropriate denial. You are entitled to workers’ compensation if a work-related lifting injury aggravated a pre-existing condition. For example, even if you have degenerative disc disease, if your disc ruptures while lifting a heavy bag, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation for the rupture.

Under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, you are entitled to have the insurer cover your medical bills, including bills for emergency care, medications, doctor’s visits, medical equipment, and surgeries. Many employers have a preferred provider network. They may ask you to pick a provider from the network. You can choose your own doctor within the network, but you are only permitted to choose your provider twice for a single lifting injury.

Your two choices do not include any referrals by a doctor whom you chose to see another doctor. For example, if you chose your family practice doctor, and she referred you to an orthopedic surgeon for back injuries, seeing the orthopedic surgeon is part of the first choice. If you opted out of the network, you will have only one choice. If you receive emergency care, this does not count as a choice, and it is important to seek out emergency care as soon as possible if you have suffered a serious work injury.

You may be concerned that the doctors within your employer’s preferred provider network are mostly focused on your employer’s interest in your getting back to work as soon as possible. It is crucial to choose a doctor whom you believe will put your best interests first. However, your employer can require you to get examined by a doctor whom it chooses. The employer must pay for this exam, and it should be scheduled for a reasonable time and place. You do not need to accept treatment from this doctor, and you are entitled to be reimbursed for medical mileage.

Consult an Airline Accident Attorney in Chicago

If you have suffered a lifting injury at United Airlines, you should consult an experienced work injury attorney. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we represent accident victims in Chicago, Champaign, Quincy, Aurora, Rockford, and Springfield, as well as other areas of Cook, Adams, Sangamon, Champaign, Winnebago, and Kane Counties. You can call us at 312-724-5846 for a free consultation.