Workers Compensation case value tripled based on concurrent employment for Sunday School teacher
In this case our client tripped over a student while teaching Sunday School at a religious institution where she made a very small amount of money. She suffered a complex fracture of her left forearm requiring emergency surgical repair with plates and screws. Her compensation for time missed from work, and for permanent partial disability, would have been minimal because of this.
Under the Illinois Workers Compensation Act, the value of an employee's claim depends largely on what the employee earned (known as their "Average Weekly Wage" (AWW)) in the 52 weeks before the accident. That means that if the general manager at the restaurant cuts his thumb off at work, the cook who also cuts the same thumb off and suffers the exact same disability will recover less, because their Average Weekly Wage is lower.
However, the Workers Compensation Act provides that the wages from concurrent employment at another job may be added to the wages earned at the job where the accident happened. This only allowed if the employer where the accident happened knew about the concurrent employment.
We were able to prove that the Sunday School knew that our client also worked full time for a public school district in DuPage County where she earned more than enough to transform her average weekly wage from the state minimum to the state maximum, more than tripling the value of her case. Then we retained the treating surgeon to prepare a narrative report describing the nature of the permanent restrictions arising from the injury.
We were able to settle the matter for $65,000 plus payment of all medical bills after filing.
