Illinois: Nine Percent Judgment Interest Does Not Apply to Affirmance of Arbitrator's Award

Illinois’ Administrative Review Law has no bearing on the provisions of the state’s Worker’s Compensation Act, which sets forth a specific procedure for the review of an arbitrator's workers' compensation award at all levels, interest on the award during this process, and the conversion of the award into a judgment at the conclusion of review, in the event that the employer fails to pay the award. Accordingly, the 9 percent judgment interest rate set forth in 735 ILCS 5/2-1303 does not apply to a Commission award prior to the award being reduced to judgment by a circuit court pursuant to section 19(g) of the Act [820 ILCS 305/19(g)].

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Dobbs Tire & Auto v. Illinois Workers’ Comp. Comm’n, 2018 IL App (5th) 160297WC, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS 66 (Feb. 16, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 134.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law