Claiming Lost Income Due to an Accident
If you have suffered injuries or losses as a result of someone else’s negligence in a car accident, you may be able to receive compensation for your losses by filing a personal injury case. It is not uncommon for an individual who has been injured in a car accident to miss work or opportunities to make income. This article will discuss claiming lost income in a personal injury case. A legal provision of damages that can be recovered in a personal injury case is that of lost income. According to Insuranceopedia [What is Loss of Income? – Definition from Insuranceopedia] loss of income is defined as a “situation in which a person’s source of money for expenses or lifestyle, such as salary from a job or income from a business, is terminated.” A common example is when you have suffered a physical injury that prevents you from doing your job. For example, a broken leg may result in a construction worker being unable to work on a construction site. In such circumstances, the individual is entitled to the wages they would have received had their leg not been broken and had they still been able to work. Even the loss of sick days or personal days may be compensable. Therefore, if the individual was unable to work for two months, for example, they are entitled to receive compensation of the amount they would normally have been paid for those two months. In other circumstances, the injuries may be debilitating or disabling and may include psychological injuries such as mental anguish and distress. These may also be grounds for receiving loss of income. For your unique injuries speak to car accident lawyers in Bakersfield [https://www.youngwooldridge.com/bakersfield-car-accident-attorney/] for legal advice and representation. Other areas that may be compensated under the name of loss of income include the following: Loss of earning capacity – an individual is eligible for loss of earning capacity if the car accident results in permanent or long-term disability affecting them from being able to earn money. The length of such effects may be indefinite. This is applicable even if the individual can work but prevents the individual from getting a higher-paid job as compared to them being able to do so if they had not been disabled. Pre-existing injury aggravation – if the car accident made an injury that you already had worse so much so that you are now unable to work or you cannot work as well as you did before the accident, you may still be able to be compensated for the full amount of your lost wages and/or loss of earning capacity. It must be noted that in order to receive compensation for your loss of wages or earning capacity you need to prove you lost wages and/or have lost your earning capacity. Proving lost wages is much easier as all it requires is for you to submit a pay stub before you suffered the injury, and proof that you missed work because of the accident. If you are self-employed, it will likely be necessary to submit proof of what would normally constitute your earnings, such as invoices from the same period in the previous year. Loss of earning capacity is much trickier to prove and depends on your line of work and the severity and type of your injuries.
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