A caller to my office wanted to verify what a lawyer told him. The caller had been stung by a bee which caused him to fall and break his ankle. The lawyer he had previously called had told him that the law says that bug bites and bee stings are never covered under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.
Well, that’s not true.
No matter your injury, you have to look at the context of how you got hurt. This is certainly true with insect cases.
For example, let’s say you work for the cable company and have to go and repair a customer’s TV. You head out to the back of their house to look at a cable and all of the sudden discover that there is a bee hive right next to it. Before you know it, a swarm of bees is on you and you are stung multiple times. In my opinion, that case would be covered as a work related injury.
On the flip side, if you show up to a customer’s house and while walking to the door you get stung by a single bee, that probably wouldn’t be covered. The first example is a case because you are at an increased risk as compared to the general public because you have to deal with the bee hive. In the 2nd example, it was just a random act that could have happened anywhere.
You could also get a spider bite just sitting at your desk. That’s probably not a case because there is no increased risk of spider bites in most offices. But if you have to work in a warehouse and it could be shown that the work environment leads to more spiders being there.
Of course you need an actual injury too which doesn’t always happen, but in almost no scenario can you say something is a case or isn’t a case without having the full picture.
A final example would be getting Lyme disease from being bitten by a tick. If your job requires you to work in a forest or place with tall grass, then getting Lyme disease is an increased risk of your job. On the flip side, if the tick bite occurs while you are giving a presentation in your office, nothing about your job would appear to increase the chances of tics being there.
Again, a good lawyer will always look at the context of how the injury occurred. Failing to do so is just lazy.
We are workers’ compensation attorneys who help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.
