Lost Wages Vs. Lost Earning Capacity- What's The Difference?
Being involved in a serious car accident can change your life. You may sustain injuries that require extensive medical treatment and a lengthy recovery time. For most people, these types of injuries result in missed workdays.
A personal injury lawyer can help you determine if you are entitled to financial compensation as a result of your inability to work. There are two types of work-related damages that are typically included in a personal injury lawsuit: lost wages and lost earning capacity. Understanding the differences between the two will help you better determine how your personal injury case should proceed.
Lost Wages
Anytime you have to miss work due to an injury sustained in a car accident, you are losing out on valuable income. A personal injury lawsuit can be a valuable tool in helping you regain this lost income.
Lost wages that are included as damages in a personal injury case can include your salary, any commissions you may have earned, sick leave, vacation time, and overtime pay.
You are entitled to compensation for lost wages in the past, present, and future.
An experienced personal injury lawyer can evaluate your income history to determine how much money you have already lost. These calculations can then be applied to your future earnings to estimate how much money you will lose out on in the future.
Calculating future lost wages can be challenging, so it's best to leave this task in the hands of an attorney with experience handling personal injury cases.
Lost Earning Capacity
Another work-related loss that you may experience after being injured in a car accident is lost earning capacity.
The courts classify lost earning capacity as general damage, which means there is no clear monetary value assigned to lost earning capacity. Instead, a jury can award whatever amount they determine is fair in your case.
Lost earning capacity directly relates to any income changes that may occur in the future. These changes can include a reduction in the number of hours you are able to work, an inability to perform your former job duties, and lost advancement opportunities.
A personal injury lawyer can help you evaluate your lost earning capacity and assign a suggested monetary value to it. Juries will often take an attorney's recommendations into consideration when deliberating personal injury cases.
You should also note that lost wages and lost earning capacity are not mutually exclusive. You can seek financial compensation for both types of damages when filing a personal injury lawsuit. Contact a personal injury law firm, like Todd East Attorney at Law, to