How Are Lost Wages Determined?
Brian O Sutter
Workers’ Compensation
People who get injured, whether it is through a car accident, or a mishap at work that may require workers compensation, usually have a common problem. As an average, hard-working American that’s looking to live a life with honesty and decency, there’s a good likelihood that some kind of profession and career are already in place. It could be just starting out with a part-time job at a retail store, or it could be a very well established profession, such as something in construction, or even running a business.But if you sustain an injury, all of that grinds to a halt. Depending on the type of injury received, there may be hospitalization, recovery, and eventually returning to a job. Or, if an injury is permanent, resulting in some new, crippling debilitation, it may no longer be possible to return to a former job at all.
In a personal injury or workers compensation lawsuit, one of the factors when it comes to suing for financial damages is known as lost wages. This comes in two different varieties, but how is a final determination made?
Each Case Is Unique
There are a lot of different factors that will go into how a personal injury lawyer will calculate what is an appropriate amount for lost wages. When it comes to a job you are currently holding, this is fairly simple. If you’re an employee, then lost wages will simply be the amount you would normally receive on an hourly or monthly basis, as calculated by how much time you’ve lost during the recovery period before you can return to work.
In other words, if it will take two months for you to recover, rest and then get back to your job, then lost wages in this case will be based on whatever your average salary would be for those two months. But then we get to a situation where you may no longer be able to hold your current job due to your injuries and must necessarily be dismissed from it. Now we’re looking at not just lost current wages, but lost future earnings/wages as well. How is this calculated?
Understanding Extent
The specifics of an injury and a person’s profession will be the big determining factors in lost future earnings. Someone with a permanent limp in their leg is going to have a very different set of requirements from someone that is now blinded, deaf, or perhaps even quadriplegic and unable to move from the neck down.
Added to this is type of profession that a person once held. Someone who is now quadriplegic that formerly worked as a highly valued surgeon is a top-class hospital is going to have very different lost future earnings from someone that was just working part-time in pizza delivery.
This type of financial estimation is not something you should attempt to do yourself. In addition to lost wages, there are many other factors, such as medical treatment, or even psychological distress that may also play into financial damages. A qualified, experienced personal injury or workplace injuries lawyer should be your guide and advocate in this endeavour.