When you file a personal injury claim, it may be for several reasons. You may be in a car accident, truck accident, pedestrian accident, slip and fall, nightclub battery, or any other conceivable type of injury. So long as another party causes your injury, we will gladly consult with you on what legal options may be available. There are countless aspects of a claim to consider. Many of these components dictate whether you can recover compensation for time missed from work. When one thinks of a personal injury claim, one understands that the other driver is responsible for repairing the car. There is no reason why you should have to pay for the property damage stemming from an accident you are not responsible for. There is a clear causal link.
If you are hurt in a personal injury matter, such as a slip and fall, you may gash your head open on the ground. This type of injury often requires stitches to close the wound and protect against infection. Of course, you should not have to pay for the costly medical expenses. Even your health insurance should not be ultimately responsible because they insure a client who is not accident-prone. If they think you are accident-prone, they will raise your rates without hesitation. This cost should fall on the tortfeasor. Of course, if there is no source of recovery, then your health insurance should intervene. We understand intuitively that you should not be the one to bear the cost of a hospital bill after an accident that is not your fault.
Many of us even understand the concept of pain and suffering. If you are in pain for several months due to a broken bone, you deserve compensation for this.
Types of Lost Wages You Can Recover
What about time missed from work? This can affect your job and your ability to support your family. Everything compensable that directly falls under lost wages can be divided into two categories. We explore each of those below.
Past Wages
Past lost wages are easier to prove. All we need to do is prove:
- Your hourly wage
- Your number of hours missed
- That your treating physician excused you from work because of an injury from the personal injury case.
By proving these three elements by a preponderance of the evidence, you should be able to recover your wages successfully. This is easier to prove because a mathematical formula provides an exact dollar amount. This is unlike the future wages section we will discuss next. For past wages, we can calculate precisely what you should recover. During a settlement negotiation, there is typically little pushback against this particular aspect of the claim. In fact, this may be the only part of your damages claim that receives little pushback.
This is different from future lost wages.
Future Wages
“Future wages” is a catch-all term that refers to several things. First, it refers to actual future lost wages. If your injury affects your ability to work in the future—whether temporarily or permanently—you may be entitled to recover compensation for lost future income. A concept that ties into future wages is a loss of future earning capacity. Let’s suppose you have a fully developed career in construction. You have worked in construction for over 20 years and are very good at it. Due to your skill and experience, you receive a high wage that fairly represents what you bring to the table. However, because of an accident that was outside of your control, you can no longer work in construction due to a serious injury you suffered to your spinal cord. Consequently, you must take a job that pays half as much as your construction job.
Balancing Compensation with Fairness in Future Wage Recovery
Not only does this result in a loss of enjoyment of life, for which you are entitled to compensation, but your salary has taken a serious and possibly permanent hit. Accordingly, in a personal injury lawsuit, you should recover the difference between the two salaries annually, multiplied by the number of years the typical construction worker works in that job. One caveat to future wages is that you cannot recover them fully. As you would ordinarily pay taxes on any income, you do not receive the full payment from the defendant. Suppose you would have been paid $300,000 in difference over the next seven years. You may receive $210,000 from the defendant because that accounts for taxes.
A court may also assume that you will invest the money prudently. Thus, they may award you $105,000 and allow it to grow to $210,000 over seven years. While this may seem unfair, the court aims to make you whole. Their goal is not to overcompensate you so that you get more out of the case than your injury is worth.
Lost Benefits
Lost benefits include retirement contributions, health insurance, or stock options their employer provides. You can include this loss in your claim if you miss out on these because of personal injury. On a less serious but equally legitimate note, you can include lost vacation days or sick days as part of your claim. If you are injured, your employer may dock your vacation days. This falls under the subcategory of lost benefits and the main category of lost wages and special damages.
Proving Lost Wages in a Personal Injury Claim
In any personal injury case, whether in a settlement negotiation or at trial, we must use evidence to prove that damages exist. Several pieces of evidence may be available to prove lost wages in a personal injury claim. We list five critical pieces of potential evidence below.
- Pay stubs or salary records: Pay stubs are the simplest and most effective way to prove your hourly wage. Rarely will an insurance company refute pay stubs in a settlement negotiation. In our experience, only the inexperienced insurance adjusters do not understand that this is compelling evidence admissible at trial.
- Employer statements: An employer can testify, submit an affidavit, or put in writing that it is true that you have missed a certain number of days or hours from work. This statement is sufficient for settlement negotiations to establish that you are entitled to lost wages.
- Medical records: Medical records are sufficient to establish that you are excused from work and thus entitled to make a lost wage claim.
- Tax returns: Tax returns can be an important resource for proving many aspects of your claim.
- Expert testimony: In some cases, expert witnesses may be necessary, especially when claiming lost future wages or loss of earning capacity.
Other Compensation You May Be Entitled to
Other compensation as part of your claim includes medical expenses and general damages. General damages include the following:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional distress
- Loss of consortium
- Disfigurement
The Role of an Attorney in Recovering Lost Wages
Our attorneys take several steps to maximize your lost wage claim in a personal injury case. We start by helping you understand your options. Call our office today for a free case consultation if another person’s negligence injures you. From collecting evidence to handling negotiations to representing you in court, we take decisive action to get you as much compensation as possible.
Our phones are open 24/7 at (202) 331-7227.
