Court Orders Penalty for Employer's Unreasonable Denial of Claim

The Illinois Appellate Court on Friday hit an employer with a $97,119 award – which included over $28,000 in penalties and attorney fees – for its "unreasonable and vexatious" refusal to pay temporary total disability benefits to an injured worker solely because he didn't report his accident on the day it occurred. The court explained that the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act gives workers 45 days to report an injury – and it chastised the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission for implicitly saying otherwise when the commission declined t...