If you get this wrong, you can lose a third-party injury claim while workers' comp pays only part of the damage.

What the insurance company will tell you is simple: "He was on the job, so this is workers' comp only." In Illinois, the employer usually gets to use the exclusive remedy defense, which means you generally cannot sue the employer for a work injury if the job caused it.

That part is often true.

What is not true is that workers' comp is always the only case. In Illinois, you may have two claims at the same time:

• a workers' compensation claim against the employer
• a personal injury claim against someone other than the employer who helped cause the injury

Example: your husband is driving for work near Chicago, a tire blows out on an expressway on-ramp, or traffic is forced to merge from 30 mph into 60 mph traffic, and he suffers a femur fracture. Workers' comp should usually cover medical care and temporary wage benefits no matter who caused the crash. But if the blowout came from a defective tire, bad repair work, a negligent other driver, or a separate company's unsafe loading or maintenance, a third-party lawsuit may also exist.

That matters because workers' comp in Illinois does not pay for pain and suffering. A third-party injury case can.

The workers' comp side goes through the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission. A vehicle-crash or product-liability case is separate. For most Illinois personal injury lawsuits, the deadline is usually 2 years from the injury. Workers' comp notice should be given to the employer within 45 days.

This comes up a lot with warehouse and fulfillment workers in Joliet and Will County on long shifts, especially in summer highway travel. If Illinois State Police responded late on a rural interstate south of I-80, that delay does not erase a third-party claim. The key question is not just "Was he working?" It is "Did someone besides the employer also cause it?"