When someone else’s negligence causes a severe injury, it can and will often disrupt your entire life. Importantly, injuries impact your finances just as much as they impact your body. While most people know that personal injury claims cover medical expenses, they may not realize they can also help recover income that was lost or forfeited in the short and long term. However, the problem becomes even more complicated later on when injuries make returning to your previous job impossible. How can a personal injury lawsuit or settlement secure your family’s future, even if the accident permanently impacts your ability to work?
How Current and Future Wages Impact Compensation
Injuries prevent you from going to work, paying your bills, and providing for your family. As such, personal injury lawsuits keep compensation for lost wages in mind, which covers the income you would have earned from the date of your accident until you can return to work. You can typically claim wages using pay stubs or employer statements in straightforward ways. For hourly workers, the calculation is simply found by multiplying your typical work hours by your hourly wage. For salaried employees, it’s based on your regular paycheck. If you missed overtime, bonuses, or commissions, those can also be included, but they aren’t as clear-cut.
Even self-employed workers can receive compensation using calculations from contracts and past bank statements.
Sometimes, your injuries prevent you from ever returning to your previous job—or limit your ability to earn as much as you did before. Unlike standard lost wages, this calculation considers how your career path and income potential have permanently changed. Courts and insurers during settlement negotiations typically consider the following:
- Your previous earnings history.
- Your age
- Your education and job experience.
- The severity, pain, and suffering of your injuries.
- Whether you can work in any capacity, and if so, in what roles.
- How your earning potential compares to what it was before the injury.
Because predicting future income loss involves speculation, expert testimony and detailed calculations are required. Poobinsky & Cole have decades of experience with Florida personal injury cases and negotiations, and we can assist you after your Florida injury limits your earning potential.
Retraining and Vocational Rehabilitation After Injuries
When you have to swap to a new job due to your accident and injury, you can receive compensation for any expenditures that made the transition possible, not just the lost wages associated with the career change. Personal injury claims in Florida can sometimes include compensation for career shifts, particularly when the injury permanently impacts your ability to work in your prior field. Compensation may be able to cover:
- Tuition and certification costs for a new profession.
- Vocational rehabilitation programs.
- Career counseling and job placement services.
You’ll need evidence that you can no longer perform your old job to claim these. Just like showing proof of injuries using medical records and doctor assessments, vocational expert testimony can help demonstrate the necessity of retraining.
Even with retraining, a new career may come with a lower salary than your previous job. You need to keep this in mind if you want to secure the true value of your Florida personal injury case. Call Probinsky & Cole today to get the help you need, whether that involves support for your professional transition or life-long assistance.
