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Individuals using opioids have difficulty finding a physician willing to take them on as a patient, and workers comp patients likely face similar barriers to care, experts say. A University of Michigan study released in mid-July found that 40% of individuals taking an opioid for chronic pain were rejected as potential patients in group health. Opioid-using patients in the workers…

A former employee of a corner market is suing after she was allegedly fired for filing a workers' compensation claim. The employee, Rebecca Valle, claims she was terminated some time after she was injured while working at Curly's Corner Market in Granite City. Valle filed suit in Madison County Circuit Court against the market and its manager, Amber Ronk. When…

Fewer injured workers are receiving opioids to treat pain than in previous years, as medical providers are turning more to non-opioid medications and physical therapies. A new study of injured worker claims from 27 states by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) finds that both treatments using non-opioid pain medications such as NSAIDs and non-pharmacologic treatments such as physical therapy…

One of the most unfair things about the law that you can't do anything about is the bad luck of the draw. If you are sitting at a stop light and get rear-ended by a person with $20,000 in insurance and become paralyzed, you are likely only going to recover that $20,000. On the other hand, if you are struck…

A divided Illinois appeals court has ruled a man injured in a Chicago area workplace accident dawdled too long before suing the contractor who installed allegedly faulty machinery. However, the dissenting justice said the majority "penalized" the worker by unreasonably expecting him to have immediately known the contractor had done the installation. The July 16 ruling was written by Justice…

A client is suing his lawyer, alleging the defendant failed to properly represent him in a workers' compensation claim. Peter Medor filed a complaint July 15 in Cook County Circuit Court against The Deratany Firm LLC and Greg Olmstead, alleging legal malpractice. According to the complaint, Medor entered into an agreement with Olmstead on Feb. 15, 2013, for legal representation…

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is increasingly concerned about suicides and opioid-related deaths in the construction sector, according to agency officials. The construction sector has one of the highest rates of occupational fatalities, with a rate of 9.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers and was responsible for 18.9% of the 5,147 workplace fatalities that occurred in 2017, according to…

An organization which helps Illinois local governments pool their workers' compensation insurance has won the chance to sidestep the federal courts’ “black hole” as it pursues its own legal claims against the makers and distributors of so-called opioid painkillers. On July 15, rather than waiting on others in the federal judiciary to decide what to do with the case, U.S.…