Car Accident Injuries and Lost Wages

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Categories: Auto AccidentsPublished On: November 2nd, 2017

If you have been involved in a car accident that was someone else’s fault, and as a result, had to miss work or missed out on other income opportunities because of your car accident injuries, you may be wondering how you can recover your losses. This article will discuss the process for receiving compensation for lost income resulting from car accident injuries and the required documentation.

When an injured individual decides to file a car accident lawsuit against the person that was responsible for the car accident, he or she is allowed to recover the lost wages that resulted from the accident. For example, imagine an accident that resulted in a physical injury like a broken leg that prevents the claimant from doing his or her job. In such a case, the claimant is entitled to recover the wages that he or she would have received had their leg not been broken and had been able to go to work. If the individual could not work for two months, then he or she is entitled to the amount of money they would have been paid during those two months. Other debilitating and disabling car accident injuries such as psychological injuries caused by the accident (PTSD), are also grounds for recovering lost wages if they are severe enough.

At times, a car accident can result in a permanent or long-lasting disability that affects an individual’s ability to earn money for an indefinite time in the future. In such situations, the individual may be able to recover damages for lost earning capacity. Such damages can still apply even if the individual can still work. Lost earning capacity can be recovered if a disability prevents the individual from having a higher paying job than he or she likely would have had, if not for the disability. Another aspect to keep in mind is that chronic pain and general loss of stamina and endurance usually qualify as disabling injuries.

In other situations, a car accident can lead to the worsening of a pre-existing condition or injury. In this case, in order to recover for lost wages and/or lost earning capacity, the car accident must be the direct cause of the injury that prevented you from working. However, this does not mean that pre-existing injuries do not count. If the accident made your pre-existing injuries worse to the point that you cannot work, or you cannot work as well as you could before the accident, you can still recover the full amount of your lost wages and/or lost earning capacity.

While it may be easier to identify injuries that have been caused by the car accident, it is necessary to prove the lost wages or lost earning’s capacity. The easiest way to prove lost wages is to submit your most recent pay check prior to the injury. If you are self-employed, you will need to submit proof of what you normally would have earned, for example, invoices from the same period during the previous year. For assistance related to lost wages due to a personal injury accident, seek out and talk with several the best Anchorage law firms today.

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