This is the other part of the equation for an injury to fall under the protection of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.
We once again turned to Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates workers comp lawyer, Mark Weissburg, for a legal definition; “An accidental injury is ‘in the course of the employment’ when it occurs within the period of employment at a place where the employee may reasonably be in the performance of his or her duties and while fulfilling those duties or engaged in something incidental to them.”
Put plainly, this looks to the time when the accident happened. If the accident happened within a reasonable time before starting and after finishing actual employment then it most likely happened within the course of employment.
Issues arise in cases that involve employees who are injured while traveling on their way to and from work, cases at company-sponsored events, etc. Needless to say, if your accident happened during normal work hours you should be ok. If the accident did not occur during normal work hours, you need to find the connection it had to your employment.