When An Accident Impacts Your Career
Car accidents often wreak havoc on a victim's life but sometimes, the damage goes beyond the usual. If the injury is serious, the ability to work at your chosen career could be impacted for a very long time. When that happens, you may be entitled to additional compensation. When an accident has caused damage to your career, you need to understand how to take action. Read on to find out more.
Lost Wages and Your Job
In most cases, accident victims lose time from work. That expense, lost wages, can be reimbursed to workers if they take action against the at-fault driver. With this type of loss, accident victims should present proof of earnings, such as a pay statement, bank statement, or the most recent tax return to their personal injury lawyer. Keep up with all time missed from work, which includes not just hospitalizations but follow-up appointments and pharmacy runs as well. Commute time to the appointments should be counted as well.
Lost Future Earnings
This area of compensation is not as widely used because not everyone that gets in an accident suffers from an impact on their career. Lost future earnings losses mostly impact business owners, artists, and those whose physical injuries affect their ability to earn a living. That might include:
- Actors, models, and those with physical deformities that are career-ending.
- Those who work with their hands and that have permanent conditions as a result of the accident that prevents them from doing their work.
- Business owners who suffer brain damage and are now unable to make decisions and run their business.
- Anyone with a permanent disability that interferes with their career.
How Lost Future Earnings Are Calculated
The income you have earned in the past is the primary factor in calculating how much you are owed by the at-fault driver (together with their insurance carrier). If you are now unable to work, you might be entitled to compensation equaling your predicted lifetime earnings. Experts in vocational, medical, and financial fields are used to arrive at a suitable figure. Other factors considered are your age, experience, level of disability, location, and similar recent cases.
You are entitled to be made whole again after an accident. That doesn't necessarily mean everything will be the same again, though. Speak to a personal injury lawyer so that you will be paid the compensation that will at least financially make you whole again.