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​Experienced ILLINOIS Workers’ Compensation Lawyers
& CHICAGO Injury Lawyers

Permanent Disability Benefits

Chicago Lawyers for Permanent Disability Benefits

Sometimes municipal workers suffer permanent disability as the result of a work injury. As a loyal City worker, you might assume that it will be easy to obtain benefits. The City of Chicago is self-insured, meaning that it is approved to pay its own workers’ compensation claims rather than pay an outside insurance company and its team of adjustors to do so. But like private insurers, the City of Chicago is interested in protecting its resources and may be suspicious of your claim, particularly if you seek permanent disability benefits or expensive procedures. If you are a City of Chicago worker who needs permanent disability benefits, you should call the seasoned Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have more than 60 years of experience and a track record of success at advocating for best legal results for our clients.

Attorneys for Permanent Disability Benefits

Permanent disability benefits are for workers who’ve sustained serious injuries. You can obtain permanent disability benefits in a range of circumstances as a city worker. They may be appropriate, for instance, if you lose both your arms, hands, legs, eyes or a complete and permanent loss of use of any body parts. For instance, if you drive a truck for the city and were in a vehicle accident involving crushing and amputation injuries, thereby losing both your legs, you would be eligible for permanent disability benefits. Similarly, if you were working with toxic materials at a city site, and lost your eyesight as a result, you would be eligible for permanent disability benefits.

Generally, permanent disability is determined at the point of a worker’s maximum medical improvement. This is the point at which your injuries have stabilized such that you cannot improve any further, but you are also not likely to suffer additional physical losses. Your treating physician may determine you have a permanent and total disability if you are left unable to do many normal activities of daily living as a result of a work accident.

Often the City of Chicago will ask you to go through an independent medical exam (IME) at that point. Despite its name, the IME is not conducted entirely independently. The City will retain a doctor to perform an evaluation of your injuries or other aspects of your case, and in many cases, that doctor will be someone who has a history of recommending conservative, less expensive care, or otherwise siding with employers.

Odd-lot Permanent Total

An odd-lot permanent total is when a person is released from care but possesses permanent medical restrictions such as needing to lie down for 15 minutes every three hours or not lifting more than five pounds, and then undergoes vocational rehabilitation. If, after a good faith efforts, you’re given permanent medical restrictions by your doctors, but our lawyers can show you’re unable to get work based on a combination of permanent restrictions, age, education, and lack of transferable skills, you can receive permanent disability pay in an odd-lot claim. Odd-lot claims are more common than regular permanent total disability claims, which arise out of 100% loss of two body parts. To make your claim successful, our lawyers will need to prove that your condition, permanent restrictions, and other factors have left you unable to perform jobs for which there is a reasonably stable labor market. The City of Chicago, hoping to deny your claim, would need to prove that you’re actually able to do work for which there is a reasonably steady labor market.

Amount of Benefits

Permanent disability benefits are paid at a rate of 2/3 or 66.6% of your average weekly wage, subject to minimums and maximums, according to the state average weekly wage. You may be offered a lump sum settlement to resolve the case, and you should seek counsel about whether there are disadvantages to taking that settlement.

Consult a Seasoned Chicago Lawyer

If you need to obtain permanent disability benefits as a City employee, you should call our workers’ compensation lawyers. Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca represents workers in Aurora, Champaign, Rockford, Quincy, as well as Sangamon, Winnebago, Kane, Cook, and Adams Counties. In addition to workers’ compensation claims, we also handle third party lawsuits and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claims, so we have you covered for legal representation regardless of the circumstances surrounding your accident. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete our online form.