For workers’ compensation to apply, your injury must be in some way related to your job. What happens if you are injured in a car accident when driving to or from work, or slip and fall in the employee parking lot at your workplace and injure yourself? Are you entitled to workers’ compensation coverage under Illinois law?

Under the so-called “coming-and-going” rule, you are generally not covered if injured commuting to or from work. However, some exceptions allow for coverage. For example, you are likely covered under Illinois law if you injure yourself in the company parking lot while entering or leaving work. A parking lot is essentially considered an extension of the workplace, especially if your employer provides parking to its employees and either maintains the parking area or pays someone to maintain it. An employer can control a parking lot even if it doesn’t own the property, such as under a lease.

For workers’ compensation to apply to a parking lot accident, the injury must occur relatively close in time to entering or leaving work. For example, let’s say following work you and some fellow workers walk to a nearby restaurant for drinks and dinner. A couple of hours later, you return to your car and injure yourself by slipping and falling on ice in the company lot. Workers’ compensation will likely not be available because the social activity unrelated to work interrupted your departure from the parking area.

Workers’ compensation will likely cover off-site injuries while traveling to and from work where:

1. an employee with no fixed place of business, such as a traveling salesman, is injured while on the road;

2. an on-call employee goes home, then is called back and is injured on the way back to work;

3. an employment contract covers transportation to and from work;

4. an employee leaves home to attend an off-site client meeting, then is injured en route to the workplace following the meeting;

5. an employee is “furthering business” while commuting, such as continuing to receive and make phone calls;

6. an employee is asked to run an errand on behalf of an employer;

7. an employee is directed to use a certain means of transportation to get to work, such as a bike messenger having to ride a bicycle to work, and is injured en route to or from work;

8. an employee has to drive through an especially dangerous zone to get to work, such as a blasting area or construction site.

If you have been injured in any of the circumstances described above or in similar situations, it’s important that you consult with an attorney to assess your legal rights. For answers to questions about your Illinois workers’ compensation benefits, contact our Illinois Workers’ Compensation Law Firm for a free consultation.