One bad step on a jobsite can change everything. The paycheck stops, the bills don’t, and within days someone hands you forms you’ve never seen before. You may already be hearing that workers’ compensation is all you get. For a lot of injured workers in Chicago, that isn’t always true.
If someone other than your employer helped cause your injury, Illinois law lets you bring a separate lawsuit against that party. Those cases often pay far more, because they cover pain, suffering, and full lost wages that workers’ comp never touches. Two clocks start the day you’re hurt. You must tell your employer within 45 days, and if you’re filing a lawsuit against anyone else, you must file it within two years of the injury.
The construction accident lawyers at Willens & Baez Personal Injury Lawyers, PC handle both tracks at once. We’ve recovered millions for injured construction workers across Chicago, Cook County and throughout Illinois.
Why Choose Willens & Baez for Your Chicago Construction Accident Case?
Both founding partners once worked for insurance companies, Matthew Willens managing million-dollar-plus claims and David Baez as an insurance defense attorney, so they know how adjusters value a construction injury file. That experience gives them the edge to fight for maximum compensation on both your workers’ comp claim and your third-party lawsuit. Our construction accident results include a $750,000 settlement for a worker hurt in a scaffold fall, a $378,495 verdict in a case where the pre-trial offer was only $17,500 and more. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Call (312) 957-4166 for a free case review. You pay us nothing unless we recover money for you.
Willens & Baez Personal Injury Lawyers, P.C. Reviews
Key Terms You’ll Hear After a Construction Accident
Adjusters and paperwork use words nobody uses on a jobsite. Here’s what they mean in an Illinois construction case.
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Exclusive remedy | The rule in Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) Chapter 820, Section 305/5(a) that stops you from suing your own employer in most cases. Workers’ comp is what you get from them instead. |
| Third-party claim | A separate negligence lawsuit against someone who is not your employer – for instance, a subcontractor, a property owner, or an equipment maker |
| Temporary total disability (TTD) | Weekly checks while a doctor keeps you off work. Set at 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage, up to a state maximum. |
| Workers’ comp lien | Your employer’s right under 820 ILCS 305/5(b) to be paid back out of your third-party recovery for benefits it already paid you. |
| Comparative fault | The share of blame assigned to you in the lawsuit. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, if your fault is more than 50%, it blocks your monetary recovery entirely. |
| Statute of limitations | The hard filing deadline. Miss it and the claim is gone, no matter how strong it was. |
Note the concept of “exclusive remedy.” It’s the reason so many workers assume comp is all they get, and it’s the reason so many leave real money behind.
Workers’ Compensation Versus a Third-Party Lawsuit
A construction accident may be grounds for a workers’ comp claim and a third-party lawsuit. These are two different systems, and many seriously injured construction workers in Cook County should be using both. Workers’ comp pays faster and doesn’t care who was at fault. A third-party case takes longer but often pays far more.
| Workers’ Compensation | Third-Party Lawsuit | |
|---|---|---|
| Who you claim against | Your employer’s insurer | Any other negligent party |
| Do you need to prove fault? | No | Yes |
| Medical bills | Covered | Covered |
| Lost wages | 66 2/3% of average weekly wage, capped | Full past and future earnings |
| Pain and suffering | Not available | Available |
| Filing deadline | 3 years from the accident | 2 years from the injury |
| Attorney fee | Capped at 20% by statute | Contingency percentage by contract |
| Where it’s decided | Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission | Circuit Court of Cook County |
Look at the pain and suffering row. That single line is why a worker with a serious back injury can collect comp benefits for two years and still be owed far more by the sub whose crew left a floor opening uncovered.
The two claims also interact. A third-party recovery triggers the employer’s lien, and the timing of a comp settlement affects leverage in the lawsuit. Running both in the right order is most of the work. Our Illinois workers’ compensation page covers the comp side in depth, and our third-party claims page explains the lien.
How Much Does a Construction Accident Lawyer Cost in Chicago?
Nothing up front, for either a workers’ comp claim or a third-party lawsuit. Each case is billed “on contingency,” meaning the fee comes out of your monetary recovery and only if there is one.
On the workers’ compensation side, the number isn’t even negotiable. Under 820 ILCS 305/16a, attorney fees on an initial comp claim can’t exceed 20% of the compensation recovered. No fee is charged on undisputed medical bills, and none is charged on TTD checks the insurer pays on time. Third-party lawsuits use a contingency percentage set by written agreement. When you talk to us at Willens & Baez, we’ll walk you through that number in plain terms before you sign anything.
Case costs are separate from the fee, and construction cases carry specific expenses such as:
- A construction safety expert to review Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards
- An engineer to inspect a scaffold, a crane rigging, or a trench box
- Site records, contracts, and subcontractor agreements to prove who controlled safety
- Medical experts to price out future surgeries.
Our firm advances all of it and is reimbursed from the recovery. If we don’t win, you don’t get a bill.
Ask any Chicago firm to put three things in writing before you sign: the contingency percentage on the third-party case, whether case costs come out before or after the fee is calculated, and what happens to costs if the case is lost. You can read more about how a contingency fee works on our blog.
How Long Do You Have To File a Construction Accident Claim in Illinois?
Two deadlines run at once, and they’re not the same length. Miss either one and that piece of your case is finished.
- Notice to your employer. You must notify your employer of your injury as soon as practicable, and no later than 45 days after the accident, under 820 ILCS 305/6(c). Oral or written notice works. Give the date and place.
- Workers’ compensation claim. File your Application for Adjustment of Claim within three years of the accident, or three years from the last compensation payment, whichever is later, under 820 ILCS 305/6(d).
- Third-party lawsuit. Deadline to file is two years from the injury date under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.
- Wrongful death. Deadline to file is two years from the date of death under 740 ILCS 180/2.
Government-owned projects cut those windows short. If the lawsuit is against the City of Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Chicago Park District, Cook County, or any other local public body owns the site or the project, you have one year to file under 745 ILCS 10/8-101. State projects, such as Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) or Tollway work, go through the Illinois Court of Claims and carry their own notice rules. Our post on suing the City of Chicago explains how immunity works.
Evidence disappears faster than any of these clocks anyway. Scaffolds come down, sites get cleaned, and crews move to the next job.
How Do I Know if I Have a Construction Accident Case?
You have a workers’ comp claim if you were hurt while doing your job. Fault doesn’t matter there. Whether you also have a lawsuit depends on a few things you can check yourself:
- Someone other than your employer had a hand in the hazard. A general contractor set the safety rules. A sub left a floor opening uncovered. A rental company supplied the scaffold. If any of those sounds familiar, there’s a second claim to look at.
- A safety rule was broken. OSHA requires fall protection at six feet under 29 CFR 1926.501. Guardrails, hole covers, trench boxes, and lockout procedures all have written standards. You don’t need to know the rule number. You need to remember what was missing.
- Your injury is serious enough to matter. Surgery, a fracture, a head injury, weeks off work. Small injuries rarely justify a lawsuit on top of comp.
- You reported it. Late notice to your employer is the most common way a good claim gets contested.
Two things you don’t need to figure out on your own: which companies controlled safety on the site, and whether you were an employee or a contractor. We at Willens & Baez pull the contracts and answer both. If you were injured on the job as an independent contractor, your classification changes which track applies, so that question gets answered first.
Can You Sue Anyone Besides Your Employer After a Chicago Construction Accident?
In some cases, yes. Illinois law bars most suits against your own employer, but 820 ILCS 305/5(b) specifically preserves your right to sue any other party whose negligence contributed. On a Chicago jobsite with a general contractor, four subs, a crane company, and a scaffold rental outfit, that opens a lot of doors.
Our Chicago construction accident attorneys start by mapping every company that touched the site. Then we look at who controlled the hazard that hurt you.
Property owners and developers
- Building owners who created or allowed a dangerous condition
- Developers who pushed a schedule so hard that safety got skipped
- Property managers who knew about a hazard and left it alone.
General contractors and subcontractors
- General contractors responsible for site-wide safety coordination
- Electrical, plumbing, or HVAC subs whose work created the hazard
- Scaffolding and equipment rental companies that supplied defective gear.
Equipment and tool manufacturers
- Defective machinery or power tools
- Tools sold without required safety guards
- Personal protective equipment that failed under normal use. These are product liability claims, and they follow separate rules.
Vehicle and crane operators
- Delivery drivers moving material through the site
- Crane and hoist operators
- Drivers passing through an active work zone.
What Kinds of Construction Accidents Happen Most in Chicago?
Falls, struck-by incidents, electrocutions, and caught-in accidents. OSHA groups these four as the leading causes of construction deaths, and they show up again and again in Chicago cases. Falls lead the list by a wide margin.
Falls from height
OSHA requires fall protection any time a construction worker is six feet or more above a lower level, under 29 CFR 1926.501. That standard was OSHA’s most frequently cited rule in fiscal year 2025, for the 15th year in a row. It’s not a technicality. It’s the rule people die over.
- Falls from scaffolding, ladders, or roofs
- Falls through unprotected floor openings and skylights
- Falls into excavations, trenches, or shafts
- Falls from formwork and reinforcing steel.
Scaffold cases are their own category, with their own defendants and their own inspection records. We regularly handle scaffolding falls in Chicago, and the erector is often a different company from the one you work for.
Struck-by and caught-in accidents
- Falling tools, material, or debris from upper levels
- Swinging crane loads
- Vehicles and equipment backing into workers
- Trench and excavation collapses
- Workers pinned between machinery and a fixed object.
Electrocution
Contact with overhead power lines, faulty wiring, and energized equipment in wet conditions still kill construction workers every year. Four Illinois workers died from exposure to electricity in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Survivors often face burns, nerve damage, and cardiac problems that don’t show up on day one. Our page on work-related electrocution injuries covers what to document early.
Chicago’s weather adds its own risks
Ice on walking surfaces, wind off the lake during crane lifts, cold that numbs hands, and rain around temporary power all cause Chicago jobsite injuries. Weather is a defense that contractors love. They’ll argue nobody could have prevented it. Often the records show they knew the forecast and sent crews up anyway.
Illinois Construction Accident Statistics
Construction accounted for 26 of the 156 fatal work injuries recorded in Illinois in 2024, about 17 percent, according to the BLS. Statewide work fatalities rose 7.6 percent that year, up from 145 in 2023.
- Specialty trade contractors accounted for 22 of Illinois’s 26 construction deaths in 2024.
- Falls, slips, and trips caused 30 Illinois work deaths across all industries in 2024 – about 19 percent of the state total.
- Nationally, 1,032 construction and extraction workers died on the job in 2024. Falls, slips, and trips killed 370 of them.
- Fall protection under 29 CFR 1926.501 was OSHA’s most cited standard in fiscal year 2025. Ladders ranked third and scaffolding sixth.
Numbers like these matter in a courtroom. They’re how we show a jury that a hazard was known, common, and preventable, not some freak event nobody saw coming.
Compensation Available to Injured Chicago Construction Workers
Compensation depends on which track you’re on, and most serious cases run on both. Workers’ comp covers medical care and part of your wages. A third-party lawsuit reaches everything comp leaves out.
Through workers’ compensation
- Reasonable and necessary medical treatment, current and future
- Temporary total disability at 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage, subject to a maximum that the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission updates every January 15 and July 15
- Permanent partial or permanent total disability benefits
- Vocational rehabilitation and a wage differential award if you can’t return to your trade
- Death benefits paid for 25 years or $500,000, whichever is greater, plus $8,000 for burial under 820 ILCS 305/7(f).
Through a third-party lawsuit
- Pain and suffering, frequently the largest component of a settlement
- The full value of lost wages and lost future earning capacity
- Loss of a normal life, meaning the things you can no longer do
- Disfigurement and permanent disability
- Emotional distress tied to the injury.
Serious construction injuries often become lifelong ones. A traumatic brain injury from a fall, a spinal fusion after a trench collapse, or an amputation from a caught-in accident changes what a case is worth. The future care bill is part of the claim. If a jobsite accident is fatal, the family can bring a wrongful death claim under 740 ILCS 180/2 alongside comp death benefits.
What If You Were Partly at Fault?
You can still recover, as long as your share of the blame is 50 percent or less. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, an injured person who is more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing. At 50 percent or under, your damages are simply reduced by your percentage.
Say a jury values your case at $600,000 and assigns you 25 percent of the fault. You collect $450,000. But if they find that your fault was 51 percent, you collect zero. That cliff is exactly why defense lawyers work so hard to pin blame on the injured worker.
Workers’ compensation is different. Fault generally doesn’t matter there, which is one reason filing the comp claim quickly protects you while the negligence case gets built.
How Long Does a Construction Accident Case Take?
Most third-party construction cases resolve in one to three years. Workers’ comp benefits usually start much sooner. Here’s how the stages tend to run.
| Stage | Typical Timing | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Report and notice | First 45 days | Tell your employer. Get medical care. Preserve names and photos. |
| Investigation | Weeks 1 to 12 | Site inspection, OSHA records, witness interviews, contracts pulled |
| Medical stabilization | 3 to 18 months | Treatment continues until your condition levels off. |
| Demand and negotiation | After stabilization | Damages are valued and presented to the insurers. |
| Suit and discovery | If no fair offer | Depositions, expert reports, motions in the Circuit Court of Cook County |
| Settlement or trial | 1 to 3 years total | Most cases settle. Some need a verdict. |
The stage people rush is medical stabilization, and it’s the one that costs them. Settling before doctors know whether you’ll need a fusion or a second surgery means guessing at your own future.
Separate from your claim, your employer has federal reporting duties. Under 29 CFR 1904.39, a workplace death must be reported to OSHA within eight hours. An inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye must be reported within 24 hours. Those reports often generate the inspection file we later use as evidence.
How We Build a Construction Accident Case
At Willens & Baez, we get a jumpstart by getting to the site before it changes. Everything else in a construction case depends on evidence that has a short shelf life, so the first two weeks decide a lot.
Immediate investigation
- Photograph the scene before cleanup and repairs
- Interview witnesses while memories are fresh
- Request OSHA inspection and citation records
- Secure video surveillance before it’s overwritten
- Pull the contracts that show who controlled safety on site.
Negotiation and trial readiness
Insurers settle differently with firms that try cases. Founding attorney Matthew Willens has been a trial lawyer in Illinois since 1995, and his verdicts include a car accident result recognized by The National Law Journal among the top 100 verdicts in the country in 2007. When an offer doesn’t reflect what a case is worth, we’re prepared to let a Cook County jury decide instead.
How Do I Choose a Construction Accident Lawyer in Chicago?
Ask five questions of any firm you talk to, including us at Willens & Baez. The answers tell you more than any billboard.
- Do you handle the workers’ comp claim and the third-party lawsuit together? Splitting them across two firms is how the lien gets mishandled and the comp settlement gets timed wrong.
- Have you tried a construction case to a Cook County jury? Ask for the result and the pre-trial offer. The gap between the two is what trial readiness is worth.
- Who pays for the engineer? If the answer is “you do,” or the firm doesn’t plan to hire one, keep looking. Construction cases turn on expert testimony.
- Will you get to the site this week? Scaffolds come down and holes get covered. A firm that starts with a demand letter three months later has already lost evidence.
- What’s the fee on each track, in writing? The comp fee is capped by statute. The third-party fee is not. Both belong on paper before you sign.
Why Clients Say Willens & Baez the Most Trusted Construction Accident Injury Law Firm?
Matthew Willens founded Willens & Baez Personal Injury Lawyers, PC in 2007. He has been licensed in Illinois since 1995 and is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he later returned as an adjunct professor teaching Advanced Trial Advocacy. Before representing injured people, he worked for a major insurance company managing million-dollar-plus claims. That means he knows exactly how the other side values a file.
His recognitions include Illinois Super Lawyers each year since 2012, a Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyer designation, an AV Preeminent 5.0 out of 5 rating from Martindale-Hubbell, a Leading Lawyers designation in Personal Injury Law, a Superb Avvo rating, and membership in the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. He joined the Million Dollar Advocates Forum in 2002. Read his full attorney profile.
Construction results include a $750,000 settlement for a worker hurt in a scaffold fall, a $430,000 settlement for a worker who fell at a construction site, a $400,000 settlement for a ladder fall causing a shoulder injury, a $400,000 settlement for a worker who fell into an improperly guarded hole, and a $378,495 verdict in a case where the pre-trial offer was only $17,500. See more on our case results page. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts.
We serve injured construction workers throughout Chicago, Cook County, and all of Illinois, with offices at 30 N LaSalle St #3450, Chicago, IL 60602 and 3701 W Algonquin Rd #712, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008. Consultations are free and there’s no fee unless we win.
What to Do After a Construction Accident in Chicago
- Get medical care the same day. Go even if you think you can walk it off. The gap between injury and treatment is the first thing an adjuster looks for.
- Report the injury to your employer in writing. You have 45 days under 820 ILCS 305/6(c), but do it now. Keep a copy.
- Photograph everything before it changes. The hazard, the equipment, your injuries, the signage, and the weather. Get names and phone numbers of every worker who saw it.
- Write down every company on the site. The general contractor, your employer, the other subs, and any rental or delivery company. This list is where the third-party case starts.
- Don’t give a recorded statement to any insurer. Not your employer’s carrier, not the general contractor’s. Say a lawyer will follow up.
- Don’t sign anything. Under 820 ILCS 305/6(e), any settlement agreement made within seven days of the injury is presumed fraudulent. Nothing good comes from signing early.
- Call a lawyer who handles both tracks. The comp claim and the lawsuit need to be coordinated from day one.
Talk to a Chicago Construction Accident Lawyer
You don’t have to figure out which claim to file, or in what order, or against whom. That’s our job at Willens & Baez. Bring us what you have and we’ll tell you honestly whether there’s a third-party case sitting alongside your comp claim.
Call (312) 957-4166 or contact us online for your free case review. Rolling Meadows: (847) 496-0990.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue my employer for a construction accident in Illinois?
Usually no. Under 820 ILCS 305/5(a), workers’ comp is the only legal recourse against your own employer for a work injury. That rule covers the employer, its insurer, and its employees. You can still sue any other negligent party. That includes a general contractor, a subcontractor, a property owner, an equipment manufacturer, or a driver who hit you on the site. Most serious construction cases involve at least one of those.
Does my immigration status affect my construction accident claim?
No. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act defines a covered employee at 820 ILCS 305/1(b)(2) without regard to work authorization, and Illinois courts have applied it to undocumented workers. Your right to bring a third-party negligence lawsuit doesn’t depend on documentation either. We represent injured construction workers in Chicago regardless of status, and we don’t ask about it unless it becomes relevant to a specific defense.
Can my family recover if a construction accident is fatal?
Yes. A surviving spouse and children can receive workers’ compensation death benefits under 820 ILCS 305/7, paid for 25 years or $500,000, whichever is greater, plus $8,000 for burial. The family can also bring a wrongful death lawsuit against a negligent third party under 740 ILCS 180/2 within two years of the death. That lawsuit covers grief, sorrow, and mental suffering, which comp does not.
Can I get workers’ compensation if I’m an independent contractor?
It depends on whether the label matches reality. Illinois looks at the actual working relationship, not the paperwork. Who controls the work, who supplies the tools, who sets the hours, and whether you can work for others all matter. Many construction workers labeled as contractors are legally employees under 820 ILCS 305/1(b). If you’re a true contractor, you may still sue the negligent party directly, without the exclusive remedy bar.
Does my employer get paid back if I win a third-party lawsuit?
Yes, in part. Under 820 ILCS 305/5(b), your employer or its insurer holds a lien on your third-party recovery for the comp benefits it paid. The same section makes the employer pay your attorney 25% of that reimbursement and a pro rata share of case costs. In practice the lien is negotiated, and the net result is almost always far more than comp alone would have paid.
Does OSHA have to be told about my construction accident?
Often, yes. Under 29 CFR 1904.39, an employer must report a workplace death to OSHA within eight hours. An inpatient hospitalization, an amputation, or the loss of an eye must be reported within 24 hours. OSHA may then inspect the site and issue citations. Those inspection files and citations become evidence in the third-party case, which is one reason we request them immediately.
Will I get paid while I’m off work after a construction injury?
Yes, through temporary total disability. Under 820 ILCS 305/8(b), TTD pays 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage while a doctor keeps you off work. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission caps it, and the cap changes every January 15 and July 15. For injuries from July 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027, the maximum is $2,045.63 per week. Lost wages above that cap are recoverable only in a third-party lawsuit.
What was the Illinois Structural Work Act, and does it still apply?
It no longer applies. The Structural Work Act, often called the Scaffold Act, once imposed strict liability on owners and contractors for scaffold and ladder injuries. Illinois repealed it in 1995. Construction injury lawsuits now proceed under ordinary negligence, so we must prove the defendant controlled the work or the hazard and failed to use reasonable care. Comparative fault under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116 applies as well.
