Recover Lost Wages After a Car Accident

After a car accident, a person has to suffer lots of injuries and damage. Due to medical assistance, a person has to miss their work for weeks, months, and even years. Missing work for a long time can affect your financial situation negatively. You need monetary support not only for managing your routine expenses but also to cover the accident.   

To manage your financial situation, you must recover your lost wages after a car accident to manage your financial situation. After a car accident, many people get stressed about their finances, which negatively impacts the victim’s health. A car accident is an unexpected event that leaves a person in shock. No one is ready for the surprise injuries and loss of property. In this blog, you’ll learn all the important information to recover lost wages.  

What are Lost Wages?  

After a car accident, lost wages are considered the money you can’t earn from your employer because of the accident. To seek a lost wages claim, you have to prove that you were severely injured and missed your work for a long time because of an accident.  

If the party liable accepts your claim, you’ll get all the wages you may have earned when you missed work. There are two kinds of damages in a lost wages claim: Lost earning capacity and lost compensation.  

Lost Earning Capacity  

After a car accident, if a person suffers a temporary or permanent disability that affects your ability to earn for some time or permanently, you can recover the lost wages through compensation.  

However, if you are able to earn, but your disability affects the capacity of your earnings, you can still get compensation. Before accidents, people who earn high, but due to any discomfort now, they can’t claim compensation. 

Exaggerating Existing Injury  

If a person was already injured when a car accident happened, and the injury gets worse because of it, a person can claim lost wages. A badly injured person may have difficulty working, and the discomfort because of the accident will count in a claim for lost wages.  

What Type of Damages Can You Claim After a Car Accident?  

If you experience a car accident, you should know what type of damages you can claim from the liable party. The damages include: 

• Medical bills 
• Property damage  
• Future living expense 
• Pain  
• Mental suffering 
• Physical suffering 
• Lost earning capacity  
• Lost wages 

If you want to claim these damages from the liable party, hire an auto accident lawyer in Houston, TX. A lawyer will help you know which type of damage you can claim by investigating your case. After an accident, many people get stressed about the expenses they have paid because of someone else’s negligence. But with a lawyer, you don’t have to disturb your financial situation, you can seek compensation.  

How Do You Prove Lost Wages After a Car Accident?  

To prove lost wages because of a car accident, attach the following things to enhance the worth of the case.  

Doctor’s Recommendation 

To prove lost wages, you need doctor’s notes that explain that you get physical injuries due to a car accident. It will help you to prove that you can’t work because of your injuries and pain. This type of information will work as proof and help you seek a claim from the liable party.  

Wage Documents

To claim the damage, you must provide paystubs or other wage documents showing that you are employed and can earn the wage if the accident didn’t occur. You can also include loss statements, bank statements, and other information that adds more value to your case.  

Verification Letter from the Company  

Along with the wage document, make sure to attach a wage verification letter from your company to show your employment data. It will make your case more authentic. Moreover, it will help the liable party know how many days you were absent and how many hours of pay you have compromised.  

Steps to Prove Lost Income for Car Accident  

Claiming lost income after a car accident is a long process that needs sufficient time. You have to investigate your case, gather valuable evidence, and the most stressful task is negotiating with the insurance company for the claim. To successfully claim lost income, below are the essential tips.  

Take Complete Medical Treatment 

To get fully compensated, complete medical assistance is needed to recover from injuries. Follow the instructions of the doctor strictly and keep all the medical records.  

Document Your Illness and Suffering  

To prove yourself an actual victim in the car accident, gather evidence as much as you can. Try to document everything that you have gone through. Take all the medical records and doctor recommendations to provide to the insurance company. It will help you to make your case stronger.  

Know The Estimated Compensation 

To get the compensation you deserve, consult a lawyer who will help you estimate the compensation number of lost wages. Do all the calculations of hourly wage according to your salary.  

Don’t Join Your Work Soon 

To get fair compensation, you should take the entire time to recover from the car accident. Take some time off from work after a car accident to heal.  

Can You Claim Lost Opportunities after a Car Accident?  

Many people think that they can only get lost wages because of car accidents. But what about the opportunities you lost? If you prove that because of car accident injuries, you lost valuable opportunities, you can claim lost opportunities.  

However, these damages are difficult to prove, but if you gather valuable evidence showing compromised living standards, you can get lost opportunity claims.  

Lost Wages for Self-employed Person in a Car Accident 

Mostly, people assume that lost wages are only for employers. But people who work for themselves can claim lost wages. But to prove your lost wages will be complex. People who work independently have no fixed income. Their income fluctuates with time, making the claim difficult to prove. To prove your lost wages as a self-employed, you need the following things: 

• Income tax returns 
• Tax form  
• Evidence of canceled appointments 
• Bank statements 
• Proof of contracts that you can’t complete because of a car accident  

If you don’t know what to do next, consult a reliable lawyer who can guide you at every step. At Mokaram Law Firm, there are experienced car accident lawyers who help their clients seek compensation.  

Types of Compensation for Lost Wages Claim

Vacation Days 

After a car accident, if you use vacation days to recover from injuries, you can get compensation for the days you miss work. Those days will be counted as a working day; you will get the wage for each day you miss out.  

Sick Days  

If you used sick days while recovering from injuries, you can claim lost wages for those days. The value of each leave day is equal to the wage day.  

Pay Bonuses  

Bonuses are given to every employee on the basis of their performance. You can claim a bonus in lost wages if you have missed a bonus because of a car accident.  

Perks and Benefits  

Mostly, employees have different benefits from working in a specific organization. If you have those benefits, you can claim them as lost compensation with the help of a lawyer.  

The Bottom Line 

After the accident, the life of a car accident victim is completely changed. A person must suffer from pain, injuries, and financial crises. If you’re going through such a situation, call us at (281) 609-9224 to hire a lawyer for compensation.