Katz Friedman | Eisenstein Johnson Bareck Bertuca

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Katz Friedman Eisenstein Johnson Bareck Bertuca

FREE CONSULTATION  312-724-5846

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En Español

312-724-5846

​Experienced ILLINOIS Workers’ Compensation Lawyers
& CHICAGO Injury Lawyers

Workers’ Compensation For Injured UPS Drivers

Those who drive for a living are at risk for serious, acute injuries as well as repetitive motion injuries. Sometimes UPS drivers are to blame for their own injuries, while in other cases, they may be injured through the fault of another. If you are hurt on the job as a UPS driver in Illinois, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Workers’ compensation benefits are no-fault benefits; you do not need to show that anyone else was at fault for your injuries. Often, valid workers’ compensation claims are denied or workers are denied a benefit they need, even though they receive others. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we represent injured UPS drivers. We are seasoned workers’ compensation attorneys who can look closely at your situation to help you seek relief after you’ve been injured on the job.

Call 312-724-5846 or email us for your free initial consultation.

helping injured ups drivers throughout Illinois with an AI-generated image of a UPS driver

Table of Contents

UPS Truck Drivers’ Accidents

UPS drivers may be hurt in many different ways. They may be acutely injured in a crash while driving. They may be hurt while lifting heavy packages or putting them down. They may be injured as a result of repetitive motion. Work-related injuries can be very expensive and prevent a worker from doing his or her job. As an injured UPS driver and classified as an employee, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation.

The workers’ compensation system was designed to make it easier for injured workers to obtain compensation after an accident on the job or in the course of employment. If you are a UPS driver in or around Chicago who was injured on the job, you may be able to obtain these benefits even if you are partly to blame for the accident. Your employer, UPS, cannot legitimately deny you benefits in situations where your own negligence caused the accident. Nor do you need to show that your employer was at fault for the accident in order to recover benefits. Although the system was set up to make it easier to obtain benefits, many insurers are more interested in profits than people and you may be denied benefits even where your claim clearly entitles you to them.

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Workers’ Compensation Benefits For Injured UPS Drivers

Workers’ compensation benefits in Illinois address items such as lost wages and medical bills. They may include temporary total or partial disability benefits, permanent partial or total disability benefits, and any reasonable medical care needed to relieve or cure the harm done by injury. If an injured UPS driver dies as a result of injuries sustained on the job, their family can recover death benefits, which include funeral and burial costs.

Generally, in order to obtain benefits you will need to report your injury and file a claim within a narrow window of time, and if you miss that narrow window within which to provide notice, your claim might be denied automatically. A knowledgeable workers’ compensation lawyer can help you with the process of giving notice after a driver’s work injury.

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Third Party Claims For Injured UPS Drivers

Often UPS drivers are injured in vehicle accidents. If you were seriously injured in an accident caused by another driver, you may be able to recover damages by bringing a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver. Usually, vehicle accident lawsuits are brought under a theory of negligence. These elements of negligence must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence:

  1. you were owed a duty of reasonable care
  2. breach of the duty of reasonable care
  3. causation
  4. damages

The other driver may claim that you were at fault for the accident. Under the doctrine of comparative negligence, your damages can be reduced by your percentage of fault. Illinois follows a modified form of comparative negligence whereby you can collect damages only so long as you are not more at fault than the defendant.

If you are able to establish that the other driver was liable, you may be able to recover compensatory damages, which are meant to place you back into the position you would have been in had you not been injured. Compensatory damages include economic losses like lost wages. In a personal injury lawsuit, unlike a workers’ compensation claim, you can recover your full lost wages, along with other related expenses like out-of-pocket costs and replacement services.

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Initial Claims For Injured UPS Drivers

You should notify your employer of your injury within 45 days of getting hurt. Although you have a full 45 days, it is wise to let your employer know right away so that its insurer doesn’t become skeptical about where you sustained your injuries.

Technically, you can give oral or written notice, but it’s wise to give the notice in writing so that you have evidence about what you told your employer and the date you gave the notice. The writing should include the date, time, and details of the work accident that resulted in your injuries. For example, if you were T-boned in an intersection accident with a drunk commercial truck driver, you should specify the date and time of the accident and briefly describe the accident including at what intersection it occurred. A knowledgeable work injury lawyer can help you make sure you include all of the appropriate details in your notice to your employer.

Notice of Hearing

Although you don’t need to file an Application for Adjustment of Claim if the insurer immediately starts paying benefits, you may wish to get an Application on file in case the insurer stops paying benefits. Once your Application for Adjustment of Claim is filed, you’ll be sent a Notice of Hearing. It will specify which arbitrator was assigned to your case and the date of a first status call. Status calls occur every 3 months for three years. After three years, the case will need to go to trial or be dismissed, unless you can show that it should stay open.

At the Hearing

During a workers’ compensation hearing, the assigned arbitrator will hear arguments from both you and UPS’ insurer. The insurer may argue you shouldn’t receive benefits at all or may contest your entitlement to a particular benefit or treatment.

You may need to testify at your hearing. Your lawyer can help you prepare for this testimony beforehand. Often there are critical aspects of your case that you’ll need to have in the front of your mind so you can provide beneficial testimony for yourself. Among other things, you’ll likely be asked how you were injured. If you were injured in a collision with another vehicle, for instance, you may be asked the details of that accident. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, but you may still be asked for details because they may help to establish or disprove whether you were on the job when you were injured.

Petition for Immediate Hearing

In some cases, it is appropriate to request an emergency hearing under section 19(b). An emergency hearing is conducted to determine certain issues, such as whether the insurer must pay for a surgery or whether you’re owed temporary disability benefits. You can’t get this kind of emergency hearing if you’ve already gone back to driving for UPS and its insurer owes you less than 12 weeks of temporary total disability benefits.

UPS’ insurer has 15 days to file a response to your petition. A hearing will be scheduled before an arbitrator.

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Utilization Review for UPS Drivers

Under Section 8.7 of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, utilization review can be ordered for a range of different medical procedures, including hospitalizations or office visits, in connection with your workers’ compensation claim. A utilization review will evaluate whether certain health care services are medically necessary, and the quality of services being given to you as a patient, including an evaluation of whether your treatment is efficacious, efficient or appropriate.

Our lawyers can make sure that the utilization review is conducted properly, and your rights are protected. UPS is required to use a utilization review program that the Illinois Department of Insurance has already registered. Medical treatment can be denied or certified. If your treatment is certified, treatment will proceed. However, if it’s denied, you can appeal the decision.

Often a utilization review is used to lower medical expenses. It assumes health care providers won’t violate fee schedule restrictions by increasing the number and kind of treatment. In other words, UPS and its insurer may argue that the medical treatment you’re receiving or for which your doctor requests authorization is unnecessary.

There are different sorts of utilization reviews that could apply to your situation. Utilization techniques may involve prospective review, concurrent review, second opinion, peer review, discharge planning, and retrospective review. Evaluation needs to be accomplished through the use of a system that identifies the utilization of health care services based on standards of care or nationally recognized peer review guidelines.

Whether treatment has already occurred will determine the kind of utilization review UPS’ workers’ compensation insurer will order. For instance, if you get into a crash while delivering a package, and you suffer complex fractures, a prospective review may be ordered to determine whether an especially expensive surgery is appropriate. However, utilization review cannot be used to prospectively review of necessary first aid or emergency treatment.

Current reviews may be ordered to look at ongoing treatment. For example, if you’re receiving ongoing chiropractic care, a utilization review will examine this treatment. Meanwhile, a retrospective review will look at medical information your treating doctor needed at the time of making a decision about what treatment would be appropriate. A utilization review may be ordered in addition to an independent medical exam (IME). Unlike an IME, there are restrictions on utilization reviews. Unlike an IME, the person conducting the review must decide what treatment is reasonable only through a medical records review. He or she will not examine you. Further, there may be no medical intake performed at all. Rather the reviewer’s opinion on whether to deny your treatment or tests will be restricted to information given by the insurer. Our attorneys may be able to help you surmount the hurdles placed by UPS’s insurer.

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Lost Wages for an Injured UPS Driver

The Illinois workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system through which you may be able to obtain a portion of your lost wages as disability benefits. Whether you’re entitled to temporary total disability benefits or permanent disability benefits, the calculation of your average weekly wage will be crucial. Temporary total disability benefits are calculated by looking at 2/3 of your average weekly wage. Permanent total disability benefits are calculated the same way. There are four ways used to determine permanent partial disability benefits, and two of these depend on your average weekly wage as well.

Different methods are used to calculate an injured UPS worker’s average weekly wage. Usually, your actual earnings with UPS over the last 52 weeks divided by 52 will determine your average weekly wage for purposes of determining the amount of your disability benefit. Bonuses or overtime won’t be included in most cases. If you missed work for five or more days in the 52 weeks before getting injured, however, your income would be divided by the number of weeks you actually did work minus the lost time. And if you worked for less than 52 weeks before getting injured, your earnings would be divided by the number of weeks, including fractions of weeks, during which you earned wages. If you worked only casually or briefly for UPS, the calculation will look at what another UPS driver in the same grade would have earned for each of the past 52 weeks working the same number of hours as you did.

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Medical Benefits for Injured UPS Drivers

It’s important to seek medical care once you realize you’re injured. You should follow any recommendations suggested by the doctor who treats you. It’s also important to let the doctor know that you are being treated for an injury sustained on the job.

You may be asked by your employer to fill out an accident report. You should fill this out accurately. Even if you’ve filled out an accident report, you should give your employer written notice of your work-related injury within 45 days. Failure to provide timely notice can result in you losing your workers’ compensation benefits. Your written notice should specify the place and date of the accident that caused your injuries.

Reasonable Medical Care

Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. You can generally obtain benefits even if you are to blame for the accident that resulted in your injuries. Among the benefits available through workers’ compensation are the reasonable medical services you need to address your injuries. These medical benefits are important because they cover all of your medical bills, including doctors’ visits, medications, physical therapy, and surgery.

Choosing a Medical Provider

You are entitled to choose your own medical provider after a work injury, and you should make your decision carefully. You may receive a suggestion of a medical provider from your employer or insurer, but you are not required to take that suggestion.

Often employers participate in a Preferred Provider Program. They may ask you to choose an in-network doctor. You will have two choices within that system. Each choice includes any referral made by the doctor you chose. For example, if you suffer spinal cord damage and the first doctor you chose for treatment refers you to a spine specialist, that referral will count as part of your first choice. If you decide not to select a medical provider from within network, you will be limited to one choice of provider. A skilled workers’ compensation lawyer can help you navigate these and other rules related to your claim for benefits.

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Vocational Rehabilitation for UPS Drivers

When most people think of workers’ compensation, they think of getting their medical bills paid for or obtaining disability pay while they’re unable to work. However, Section 8(a) provides for another important benefit. Employees who are injured on the job are entitled to instruction, training, and treatment that they need in order to rehabilitate physically, mentally, and jobwise. Your lawyer can explain the benefits covered under workers’ compensation insurance. These include education, counseling and retraining, as well as maintenance costs and expenses.

Rule 7110.10 mandates that employers prepare a vocational rehabilitation plan. UPS should prepare such a plan if you’re not able to drive or lift packages, or if you’re unable to work for more than 120 continuous days. In some cases, it’s clear you won’t be able to drive for UPS for a long time or at all right after a serious crash. However, there are also situations in which your medical prognosis is somewhat unclear. In that case, UPS may decide to hold off on evaluating you for vocational rehabilitation. Similarly, if UPS expects you to come back to work after sustaining a shoulder injury, it may not plan for a loss of earning ability that would entitle you to vocational rehabilitation.

How to Obtain Vocational Rehabilitation for UPS Drivers

In some cases, UPS and its insurer will not want to pay the benefit. Courts do not have a bright-line rule for when a worker becomes entitled to vocational rehabilitation. Rather, UPS or its insurer needs to pay for your vocational rehabilitation when you need it. You may need to go before an arbitrator with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission in order to obtain this benefit. Factors to be considered are: (1) whether you sustained a work-related injury that reduces your earning capacity, (2) whether there’s evidence your earning capacity would be increased by rehabilitation, (3) likelihood of getting employment once you obtain retraining, (4) whether you’ve previously done a program like this in the past, (5) whether you can’t be trained due to your occupation, training, education or age, (6) whether you have enough skills to get a job without additional training, (7) job security, (8) costs and benefits of the program, (9) how many more working years you have left, and (10) your capacity and motivation to do the program.

UPS may ask you to demonstrate a good faith effort to find another job and that this search didn’t yield a job you could do with your physical restrictions. For instance, if you sustained a severe disc herniation that wouldn’t respond to physical therapy and medication, and as a result you could no longer drive for a living, you might need to search for jobs that would allow you to sit or perform other tasks like reading or talking. You may apply to those jobs, and yet receive rejections because you don’t have the right credentials. In that case, you would be entitled to ask for vocational rehabilitation.

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Injured UPS Drivers, Consult a Skilled Attorney

If you’re an injured UPS driver hoping to secure workers’ compensation benefits in Chicago, you can call the lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We represent workers in Champaign, Rockford, Quincy, and Aurora, as well as Cook, Adams, Sangamon, Kane and Winnebago Counties. We evaluate our client’s disabilities to figure out whether there are also forms of relief available, such as fighting for damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Contact us at 312-724-5846 or via our online form.

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Additional Information For Injured UPS Drivers

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WORKERS WE REPRESENT