Proving Lost Income and Earning Capacity
You’re under a lot of stress physically, emotionally, and financially when you’ve been injured. The situation can be even more upsetting when your pain and loss resulting from another person’s negligent actions. You must recover lost income from this situation.
Whether your injury resulted from a car accident, product malfunction, or premises liability, you should receive compensation for medical bills and wages you lost while recovering.
Types of Lost Wages and Earnings
Your injury could result in a temporary or permanent disability, which is factored into lost wages compensation. There are different ways an injury can affect someone, so there are different types of wage compensation:
● Lost wages during recovery from the injury
● Reduced earning capacity once returning to work with an injury
● Reduced future earnings if permanent disability affects the ability to work
To receive compensation in one or more of these areas, you must prove that you have suffered these financial losses. You must also prove that your injury is the cause of these lost earnings.
Proving Lost Wages
You will need to gather any necessary tax, pay stubs, and bank information to show your earnings before your injury. This evidence is more accessible for salaried and hourly workers and can become more complicated for self-employed workers or business owners. For wage earners, lost wages are easier to calculate. Self-employed folks or business owners will need to gather business income reports, work receipts, or contracts.
Proving Reduced Earning Capacity
Lost earning capacity is harder to determine. It can be challenging to predict where a person’s career may or may not have gone in the future without this injury. Often, medical and vocational experts are retained to explain how the injury affects a person’s specific line of work.
Shlesinger & deVilleneuve: Your Personal Injury Attorneys
If you are faced with providing lost wages alongside the stress of an injury, we want to help you get the compensation you deserve.
