Legal Question in Workers Comp in Illinois

workers comp awards - payment

That will depend on the procedures in your state. Typically, once a judge has awarded benefits, the insurance company cannot delay payment by taking appeals. In Pennsylvania, they are supposed to pay within thirty days. However, they often will ask for an order allowing them to not pay while the appeal is underway. This is called a supersedeas petition, but it might have some other name in your state.

These petitions are almost never granted, but the insurance company files them because once that petition is denied, they pay the benefits, and if they win on appeal, they can be reimbursed by a special state fund called the supersedeas find. Although it is illegal, often companies will wait an extra few weeks until this petition is denied. The reason is that the statute does not allow reimbursement for benefits paid before the supersedeas petition is denied. I hope this is a quirk of Pennsylvania law and does not apply in your state.

You will need to check with an attorney in your state to determine the exact procedures and rules there.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, andyou should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fullyinformed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.