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Recent Blog Posts
- Bio-shocked: In Illinois, workers’ comp not exclusive remedy for claims involving employee biometrics By Bide Akande Employers beware: A recent holding out of Illinois has determined that employees may sue employers who collect and/or disclose employees’ biometric data. On Feb. 3, 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a significant decision in McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, LLC, et al., impacting current and future claims against employers involving the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The McDonald decision effectively held that the exclusive remedy provisions of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act (IWCA) do not apply... More
- The avalanche continues – Illinois workers’ compensation law set for COVID-19 expansion By Bide Akande On June 5, 2020 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 2455 into law, thereby amending the Illinois Workers’ Occupation Diseases Act with respect to claims related to COVID-19. Codified as Public Act 101-0633, the amendment creates a rebuttable presumption that an employee’s contraction of COVID-19 arises out of and in the course of that employee’s first responder or front-line worker employment, and that the injury or occupational disease is rebuttably presumed to be causally connected to the... More
- Avoiding the avalanche for now: Court Issues temporary restraining order barring Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s emergency amendment By Bide Akande On April 15, 2020, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission issued an emergency amendment creating a rebuttable presumption that, for any essential employee who files for COVID-19 related injuries, those injuries will be presumed to have arisen out of and be casually connected to their employment. You can read more about this amendment and its effects in our prior blog post. As we expected, challenges to the validity of this amendment have already begun. As of Wednesday, April 22, 2020,... More
- Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission opens the door to an avalanche of COVID-19 claims By Bide Akande This blog was updated on April 28, 2020 in the blog, “Avoiding the avalanche for now: Court Issues temporary restraining order barring Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s emergency amendment.“ As of April 16, 2020, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission has created a rebuttable presumption that, for any essential employee who contracts COVID-19 and later files for workers’ compensation for those injuries, that employee’s injuries will be presumed to have arisen out of, and be causally connected to, their employment. Claiming authority... More