It is customary to be concerned if you can’t work after a DC bike accident. Our DC bike accident lawyers help clients through this challenging process every day. When you are injured due to the actions of a negligent third party, a few things happen. First, you are in immense pain. Your pain and injuries may require medical treatment. As we know, medical treatment can be exorbitantly expensive. Couple this with an inability to work, and you may wonder how you will ever pay your medical bills. Fortunately, we have steps you can take to make this process effortless. The first thing we do when we start your case is get you into treatment with our preferred network of doctors.
While we do not send all clients to any one practice, the doctors we use will only require payment on their bills once the legal portion of your case is resolved. This allows you to get the medical treatment you need without worrying about how you will pay for it. Of course, you will still be unable to collect a paycheck. We understand that there are other bills you need to pay besides your medical expenses. While we cannot get you the money owed before we resolve your case, you can rest assured that we will seek compensation for the time you missed from work. We will provide details on how to do that below.
If you can’t work after a DC bike accident, contact our DC bike accident lawyers for critical next steps.
Any injury your doctor excuses you from work for is valid under DC tort law. We see some of the worst accidents imaginable in DC bike accident cases. Some plaintiffs cannot work for months. In the typical case, a few common injuries lead to lost work more than others. Those are discussed below.
If you can’t work after a DC bike accident because of traumatic brain injuries, you are not alone. Even with a helmet, concussions and traumatic brain injuries are common occurrences. While there is no question that a helmet can save your life and is essential to wear while riding your bike, it will not completely prevent injury. For one, you can still slam your face into the pavement and fracture your nose. This is a common injury, though a broken nose alone may not prevent you from working. On the other hand, while the helmet should prevent a compound skull fracture, the sudden slamming into the pavement is sure to cause a severe concussion or even worse traumatic brain symptoms. Such a severe brain injury can affect the rest of your life.
If you work in a job that requires complex thinking, and your brain injury now prevents you from performing at your job and you get fired, you are entitled to compensation. You deserve compensation for two reasons. First, your income stream will likely be significantly reduced if you cannot work the same job. While you have a duty to mitigate your damages, meaning find other work, you will thus be entitled to the difference between what you were earning and what you now earn. Additionally, if you got enjoyment out of your old job and it was your life’s passion, and you can never perform that job again, you are entitled to general damages for that loss of enjoyment of life.
A fracture in a DC bike accident will have a different effect on your ability to work than a brain injury. While a brain injury affects any work, fractures only have long-term effects on physically laborious jobs. For example, if you work in construction, fracturing your spinal cord may have long-term effects on your career that you do not immediately realize. If you do fracture your spinal cord, you may miss about two months of work. Assuming sufficient coverage and liability are clear, our DC bike accident attorneys will fight to compensate you for this time missed from work. However, there is an additional component to consider. You may have no issues for the next 5-10 years of your career. But down the line, in 15-20 years, when you have been working construction your whole career, that spinal cord injury may negatively affect you.
Consequently, you may have to switch to a lower-paying job down the line or enter early retirement. This could all be from your bike accident decades prior. Of course, by the time you realize it, it will be way too late. The statute of limitations for most physical injuries in DC is three years, not 20 years. Accordingly, it is imperative to entrust your case with a skilled and experienced bike accident legal team to consider the longer-term factors of your injury.
Soft tissue injuries in a bike accident case tend to have the most negligible effect on your ability to work. However, it is still likely that you can’t work after a DC bike accident if you suffer from soft tissue injuries. The key to remember is that your physician must excuse you before you decide to miss time from work. Otherwise, you may be unable to recover lost wages in your lawsuit or settlement. A soft tissue injury in a DC bike accident case can prevent you from working. Your doctor will excuse you from work because the pain you are in may be too severe to work through. Additionally, your doctor may not want you to risk aggravating the injury. That would set back your recovery time and would be a breach of your duty to mitigate your damages.
The general rule is you are entitled to lost wages that you missed due to your injuries sustained in your bike accident. However, there are several things you must do before collecting your lost wages.
You do not get to claim time missed from work when you can’t work after a DC bike accident. We must prove that you cannot work within a reasonable degree of medical certainty. Your doctor should put this in their records and, ideally, provide you with a disability slip to give to your employer for convenience. Moreover, our DC bike attorneys will provide you with a form generated by our office to fill out, indicating the time you missed from work. In this sheet, you should also indicate your position, employer, and salary, and your employer should sign this form affirming its accuracy.
Preparing for the future when you can’t work after a DC bike accident is imperative. You have to anticipate that you may not get income for a few weeks or months, depending on the severity of your injuries. While we do not recommend taking out a loan or advance on any potential settlement, we recommend limiting your budget and doing everything you can to keep costs down until your doctor advises that it is safe to return to work.
Our attorneys have been assisting bike accident victims for over 70 years. If you can’t work after a DC bike accident, contact our office today for a free consultation.
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