How do you find out your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company?
There are several ways you may find out:
- Legally, your employer is required to post somewhere in the workplace where employees gather a poster indicating the name, address and contact information for their workers’ compensation insurance company, otherwise known as their carrier.
- You may receive a letter within 14 days from the insurance carrier indicating who they are and who you can contact regarding any questions you may have. The letter should contain the name of your claims person, including their contact information and a claim number.
- In some, but not all, cases, neither one of the first two of these statements will be available to you. Your choice then would be to seek an attorney who you have determined is both competent and experienced in the field of workers’ compensation.
You should be aware that such an attorney will and should not ask you for any money. Many offer free consultations over the phone or in person. If you decide to hire the attorney, he or she will ask you to sign what is known as an Attorney Representation Agreement. Basically, this agreement indicates you will pay that attorney 20% of the amount he recovers for you that is not voluntarily paid to you.
In other words, you really have nothing to lose if there is no recovery.
The attorney will prepare what is referred to as an Application for Adjustment of Claim. This is not a lawsuit, but is used and served on the employer so that they become aware that you have retained your own attorney. This should prompt a response from the insurance company, but it may not, in which case your attorney will have to take action in the form of bringing your case before an arbitrator at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. The odds are that once this is done, your attorney will receive either a letter from the insurance carrier or its attorney in the form of an Appearance of Representative in response to your Application, which must be served on your attorney. This should result in a conference between the two parties, which may resolve the differences between the insurance company and you.
Application for Adjustment of Claim, Attorney Fees, Attorney Representation Agreement, Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, Workers’ Compensation Insurance Companies
