Peoria Standard

Workers’ compensation reform continues to be a hot topic in Illinois, and the debate continues to grow as the state makes decisions over who does and does not receive workers' compensation benefits. 

One instance fueling the debate is a July 12 case in which a Peoria police officer was denied benefits after he sustained injuries while driving his personal vehicle to a mandatory training session.

Although there were hazardous weather conditions an it was outside of normal work hours, the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission upheld a decision of the Peoria County Circuit Court, which denied benefits. They argued that the "traveling employee” doctrine does not cover the officer's injuries on his way to or from his normal workplace when he is not performing duties incidental to his employment and when his regular work shift was different that day.  

“The petitioner was a sworn police officer employed by the city of Peoria,” Matt Wrigley, an attorney with Keefe, Campbell, Biery & Associates LLC, recently said in a blog post. “Petitioner was ordered to report for mandatory training at police headquarters outside his usual duty hours. Petitioner was directed to bring various items of police gear to the training session. The weather was poor and roads were hazardous.”

Wrigley said that while driving from home to the training session, a motor vehicle struck the left front side of the officer's personal vehicle, which caused injuries to his neck and back.

“At arbitration, petitioner testified police officers were on duty 24 hours per day,” Wrigley said. “The assistant police chief testified petitioner was not on duty at all times.”

Wrigley said that the arbitrator found the officer sustained injuries which arose out of and in the course of his employment, but the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC) reversed this decision, holding at the time of the accident, he was not responding to a report of unlawful conduct or an emergency.

“Petitioner was required to travel to and attend training outside his normal duty hours but this was insufficient to avoid the general rule that an employee’s trip to and from work is the product of his own decision as to where he wants to live, a matter in which his employer ordinarily has no interest,’” Wrigley said.

Furthermore, the IWCC held that the traveling employee doctrine does not apply when he is simply driving his personal vehicle to his normal workplace for general reasons.

S“Legal experts are frustrated with the ‘phony and fraudulent’ disability pensions running rampant in Illinois,” Southwest Illinois News recently said.

For example, in Vaughn vs. City of Carbondale, the Illinois Supreme Court said that the Fifth District Appellate Court was incorrect when it ruled that a former Carbondale police officer was entitled to receive full premium health insurance from the city of Carbondale as a result of an incident that occurred on his first day on the job as a police officer.

“The first day on the job you bump your head getting into the car like this guy did, and you are adjudicated to get line of duty disability pension with one day of service,” Eugene Keefe, of Keefe, Campbell, Biery & Associates LLC, said. “You now can (receive benefits) for the rest of your life, that is what this guy is doing. Does that seem phony to you?”

Keefe said that the current legislation creates the ability for people to manipulate the system and to avoid this, the legislation needs to change.

“None of this would be a concern if the enabling legislation made any sort of sense,” Keefe said. “In our state, all a police officer or firefighter has to do to get lifetime line-of-duty disability benefits is demonstrate they can’t be an 'active' police officer or firefighter any more - in this kooky state, that is considered by our courts to be 'catastrophically injured.’”