Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois
Right to sue
IN the WORKERS compesation act section 4,(h) in witch it says it shall be unlawful for employer or agent,ect. to fire,harass,or refuse to recall a worker because of his choosing to excercise his right of filling workers comp.in this case i filed a motion to seek penilties,and asked the case be heard,in the industrial commision,hand deleiverd a copy to all parties including the arbitrator.and its been over a year sence i have done so.and this motion has not been heard nor has it been responded to by anyone including the industrial commission.my question is this.
can i bring fourth in circut court or any other court a law suit against the commission for not hearing the case. and not telling me anything about my motion.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Right to sue
I think the claim should be brought in the circuit court, rather than by a motion in the Industrial Commission. Also, in addition to filing the motion and mailing copies out, you need to physically present it to the arbitrator. Just filing it is not sufficient. I reccomend you hire a lawyer to help you. Call me if you wish. Larry Stein (630) 221-1755
Re: Right to sue
I am not that familiar with handling WC cases and am not sure procedurally what you can do at the industrial commission regarding your motion, but I suspect nothing. What you may have is a retalitory discharge claim which should have been pursued in circuit court except if there was a federal court violation too. I currently have 2 retalitory discharge cases based on the violation of the wokrers compensation Act Section 4(h) and this is somewhat of a tricky area of law, there are a lot of cases regarding jurisdiciton. Illinois courts do recognize a tort for retalitory discharge, but there may be facts that would warrant the filing in the federal court. Either way I am fairly certain that the industrial commission is not the proper forum and that is why you have been ignored and I am not sure that you have any recourse against them. I need more information regarding the facts of the case to assist you on whether the issue is still ripe and where to file. Are you an attorney? If so and you have not handled a case like this I would suggest you consider referring the matter and splitting the fee. If you are not an attorney you will need to meet with one that handles these types of cases to ascertain if you have a viable cause of action because these are not easy cases to prevail on. If you would like to meet with me please contact me at (773) 447-1846 my office is located at 205 Randolph street Suite 2100 Chicago.
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