Can You Get Workers’ Compensation for Injuries Caused By Other Employees?

When an employee is injured by a co-worker, the victim is entitled to workers' compensation benefits as long as the negligent worker was acting within the scope of employment when the accident occurred.

Liability for Work Place Injuries

In Illinois, employers are required to provide workers' compensation to their employees. In most cases, injured employees receive workers’ compensation benefits regardless of who is at fault for the injury as long as the injury occurs within the scope of normal employment.

Business owners are required to provide a safe work environment by following OSHA safety rules to protect employees from undue harm within the workplace. Even when a workplace safety rule violation occurs, if one employee is injured by another during the scope of employment, workers' compensation will cover the injury. As long as the violation is not an intentional act to cause an injury, workplace injuries are generally covered by workers' compensation benefits.

Under the scope of duty regulations, an employee who causes an injury to another employee must have caused the injury while performing his job according to stated job responsibilities and proper operations. In an injury claim, this is often the most contentious part of a case handled by a Chicago personal injury lawyer. If the employer or the workers' compensation insurer argues that the employee who caused the injury was not performing his/her job properly according to his/her job description, workers' compensation benefits may be affected.

Illinois Accident and Injury Claims

Under the Illinois Workers Compensation Act, the terms “accident” and “injury” are not clearly defined. The Act only states that a claimant has the burden of proof. In complex workers' compensation cases, a personal injury lawyer can navigate state restrictions and limitations that often impact the outcome of a workers' compensation claim.

To receive workers' compensation benefits for an accidental injury, an employee must show that the injury occurred during the course of his/her normal employment. Illinois is not a positional risk state, instead, it adopts the minority rule. To prove that an accident is compensable, an employee must show that the accident and injury were related to a specific job, not simply because of employment. The employee must show that the accident occurred as a result of a risk related specifically to his/her job, and not a common risk to the general public.