Southern California Injury Lawyer Blog
Aside from being overwhelmed by personal injury and property damage, after an accident you may be unable to work due to your injuries. Even worse, in many cases, an individual due to the nature of his or work is unable to resume their profession at all.
Should you be unable to resume work after an accident, it is imperative that you contact a personal injury attorney immediately.
An experienced Los Angeles personal injury attorney will help you to be reimbursed for what is termed your “loss of earnings.
In order to assist the attorney with documenting your loss of earnings claim, if you are an employee, you will need to have your employer prepare and sign a document which states the amount of time you have missed from work since the accident, your salary per month, your average commissions per month (if applicable) and your average overtime per month (if applicable). An injury lawyer will then be able to use this information to verify your economic loss during negotiations with the insurance company representing the person that caused you harm and effectuate recovery for your loss. Therefore, if you have or are losing time from work as a result of an accident, you need to contact an accident attorney immediately to ensure recovery for your economic loss.
If you are self employed, you will need to provide the attorney with your tax returns for about three years to prove that you earned “x” number of dollars a month. Without this information, your loss of earnings claim will be difficult to substantiate.
If you are unemployed, it may be possible to claim that due to your injuries you were unable to pursue looking for employment. Occasionally, should you have not been out of work for a long time and are in a marketable profession, you might be able to obtain some compensation for your loss of earnings.
In severe personal injury cases, there is the possibility that you may not be able to engage in your pre-injury field of employment. This is particularly true in cases where a severely injured person engaged in highly labor intensive work. Should this be the case, you will be entitled to compensation for what is termed your diminished future earning capacity. This is a very complicated area and requires expert economic analysis. Therefore, you should seek the services of an attorney, if your injuries are so severe that they have left you completely unable to return to your former job. The attorney will be able to procure the services of a vocational rehabilitation specialist which will help to get your work life back on track. The vocational rehabilitation specialist will provide you with various oral and written examinations and get to know what your interests and the types of jobs you enjoy and/or are qualified to perform with your present injuries. Additionally, they will provide you with information on what and how to retrain for a new job and the time and expense related to this retraining as part of their efforts to give you all the information you need to retrain. Once you have this information, economic experts retained by your attorney will compare what you would have made if you continued in your previous profession with the amount per year that you would make in your new profession. The difference between these two, is what the attorney will argue is your diminished earning capacity. This yearly amount will then be multiplied times the number of years for the remainder of what is termed your “work life.” The extent of your given “work life” is derived from “actuarial tables” which you can find on the internet. These tables will tell you based on your age, race and gender what your anticipated work life should be.
So, remember, if your ability to work has been affected on any level by the injuries you sustained in your auto accident, pedestrian accident, trucking accident or any other type of injury accident, you need to contact an attorney immediately to protect, not only your legal rights, but your financial well-being.