8-5-2019; Shawn Biery's Famous and Free IL WC Rate Sheet Update; Odd and Endless Retaliatory Discharge Denial Follows Psych Claim Denial at WC Div of Appellate Court and more

Synopsis: AUGUST IN IL—BENEFIT RATES RISE WITH THE HUMIDITY??—UPDATED RATE SHEETS AVAILABLE SOON FOR ILLINOIS WC RATE INCREASE!!! 

Editor’s comment: Illinois WC Rates Have Updated Again So Please Be Aware Of The New Rates or Your Claims Handling Will Suffer and Penalties May Ensue.

Email Marissa at mpatel@keefe-law.com to Get a Free and Complimentary Email or Hard Copy of Shawn R. Biery’s Updated IL WC Rate-Sheet! You can also send any questions to Shawn at sbiery@keefe-law.com

We note that the recent legislation to increase the statewide minimum wage eventually to $15/hr will lead to the continued rate increase in every cycle, so continue to watch the growth of IL WC rates. As we have mentioned in the past, since in the 1980’s, the IL WC Act provides a formula which effectively insures no matter how poor the IL economy is doing, WC rates continue to climb.

We caution our readers to pay attention to the fact the IL WC statutory maximum PPD rate is $813.87. However, this rate is only going to be valid through June 30, 2019 and the new max PPD will be published in January 2020. When it will be published in January 2020, this rate will change retroactively from July 1, 2019 forward. At that time, if you don’t make the change, your reserves will be incorrect--if this isn’t clear, send a reply.

The current TTD weekly maximum has risen to $1,529.84. A worker has to make over $2,294.76 per week or $119,327.52 per year to hit the new IL WC maximum TTD rate.

For WC Death Benefits: The new IL WC minimum is creeping closer to the $750k floor. That amount is now 25 years of compensation or $573.69 per week x 52 weeks in a year x 25 years or $745,797.00! The new maximum IL WC death benefit is $1,529.84 times 52 weeks times 25 years or a lofty $1,988,792.00 plus burial benefits of $8K. IL WC death benefits also come with annual COLA increases which we feel can potentially makes Illinois the highest in the U.S. for WC death claims.

The best way to make sense of all of this is to get Shawn Biery’s colorful, updated and easy-to-understand IL WC Rate Sheet.  —If you want just one or a dozen or more, simply send a reply to Marissa at mpatel@keefe-law.com  AND you can also send any questions to Shawn at sbiery@keefe-law.com They will get a copy routed to you once we get laminated copies back from the printer—hopefully before they raise the rates again! Please confirm your mailing address if you would like laminated copies sent to your home or office!

Synopsis: Odd Retaliatory Discharge Denial Follows Psych Claim Denial at Illinois Appellate Court.

Editor’s comment: In Matros v. ComEd, the Appellate Court, First District issued a 55-page decision that I am not going to review in detail here, as I am sure you would fall completely asleep to read it.

If you want the link to the decision and can’t sleep some night, send me a reply and I will forward. Claimant is clearly an aggressive litigator along with his chosen Petitioner/Plaintiff firm. From what I can see in my research, he brought around nine different WC claims and most of them settled years ago.

One of his WC claims was for psych injuries and was denied and denied again at every level. At long last, the Appellate Court, WC Division denied it in one of their unusual “unpublished” but actually “published” rulings.

The best message you can take away from that denial is Illinois remains a state in which you need a sudden, unexpected and shocking event to deserve IL WC benefits. I salute all of our hearing officers for avoiding “California-style” psych claims.

After losing that one, Claimant also brought this retaliatory discharge claim after being terminated by ComEd and it basically went nowhere after years of fighting.

As I indicate, the ruling is virtually endless and, to distill it down, Claimant failed to make a clear picture of being terminated due to bringing a WC claim.

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