Personal injury cases often involve serious harm that might take months or years for a full recovery, potentially resulting in lost wages. Other injuries hurt your wage-earning ability for the rest of your life.
Getting lost wages compensated is one of the most important parts of a personal injury lawsuit. In Louisiana, the damages statute is very broad and allows recovery of all kinds of damages, past, present, and future, including lost wages. However, it is important to have a lawyer calculate your lost wages so insurance cannot undercut you.
Call our Lafayette, LA personal injury lawyers at Schoenfeld Law Firm today at (504) 688-7760 for your free case evaluation.
What Damages Can You Get in a Personal Injury Claim in Louisiana?
Personal injury cases in Louisiana are governed, in part, by a statute that broadly says that the defendant is responsible for damages they cause the victim. This broad coverage means nearly any cost or expense the victim faces because of the injury should be compensated, including lost wages.
Medical Bills
A big part of many injury cases is the medical cost of treating your injuries. This can include the cost of hospitalizations and even future care. However, the damage statute specifically says future medical treatment must be “directly related to” the injury.
Lost Wages
As mentioned, lost wages are a vital part of your damages in many injury cases.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages account for all kinds of “non-economic” damages you might claim. These compensate for physical, mental, and emotional damages the victim faces alongside the economic harms.
Other Economic Damages
In many cases, other economic harms are also part of the damages. This can include anything from vehicle repair costs to childcare expenses while you are hospitalized.
What is Included Under Lost Wages?
When we say “lost wages,” we mean all earnings and income you lose because of the accident. This can extend to a range of income types:
Hourly Wages
If you work hourly, and you miss hours because of your injury, we can calculate how much you typically worked before the injury and how much you can work after the injury. We can then claim the difference.
Salaries
If you had one or more salaries eliminated or reduced because of your injury, we can calculate those losses, too. Many workers have to leave salaried work because their injuries prevent it, putting them into more irregular income situations.
Self-Employed Income
Even if you work for yourself, you still have income we can calculate based on previous pay statements and financial records.
Contract Work and “Gig Work”
Even if you were an independent contractor or “gig worker,” we can look at what you made before and after the accident, and claim the difference. If this income is a bit sporadic and irregular, we may need additional evidence from economic experts to pin down exactly how much you are estimated to make post-injury.
Lost Contracts
The value of lost future contracts can also be hard to calculate and might not be precisely correct. We cannot know what the future would have held, but we can use past income data as evidence of what kinds of contracts and values you will lose going forward.
Lost Promotions and Raises
Especially in certain fields, future promotions and raises might be regular and somewhat certain. We can date economic data into account to see what raises and promotions you might miss out on now that you are injured or disabled, and our Louisiana personal injury lawyers can include that in the calculations.
When Do Wage-Loss Damages End in a Personal Injury Case?
Your wage-loss damages should cover the total period your wages will be affected. This generally falls into three time periods, which require different considerations.
Past Lost Wages
If you already missed work after the accident, and you have a good record of that, we can account for all of the wages you already missed.
Lost Wages During Recovery
If you will continue to miss work while you recover from your injuries, you may have your work reduced during that time by
- Reduced hours
- Light-duty work and other reasonable accommodations
- Temporary leave
- Taking an alternative job until you are healed up.
We can use testimony from medical experts to say how long this period is expected to be before you are back to work full-time, plus economic experts to estimate the lost wages until that time.
Permanent Disabilities
If, even after you heal up from your injuries, you will still have disabilities that affect your income, we account for that, too. Once you reach what we call “maximum medical improvement” and cannot improve further, you may be left with any of these restrictions:
- Reduced hours
- Reduced workload
- Light-duty work or reasonable accommodations
- A career change to sedentary work/desk jobs.
Again, using medical and economic experts, we can estimate what your wages will be like from that time until your expected retirement age. Some victims have total disabilities, so their expected future income is $0.
FAQs for Lost Income Damages in Louisiana Injury Cases
Can You Get Disability Benefits?
If you file a lawsuit and win, it should cover your lost wages going forward. However, supplemental disability benefits might be available from these sources, too:
- Social Security Disability
- Short-term or long-term disability benefits, potentially paid through your job
- Workers’ Compensation, if the injury was work-related.
In many cases, you can receive multiple benefits, though they may be reduced based on various factors.
Is Total Disability Covered in a Lawsuit?
If you are unable to work at all going forward, we can claim lost income for your total disability. To do this, we calculate what you would have made until retirement age without the disability, and claim that amount as damages, now that your future wages are $0.
Do You Get Injury Settlements in a Lump Sum or Structured Settlement?
You can negotiate settlements to be your choice of a lump sum or a structured settlement/annuity. Many people find the possibility of a fixed income from a structured settlement too constraining and might want the money in their accounts so they can use it/invest it as they see fit.
Is a Lump Sum or Annuity Better?
Some programs you might need to rely on have income and asset restrictions:
- SSI
- SNAP/Food Stamps
- Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace policies
Receiving a lump sum might burst your income or asset limits and hurt your eligibility, while receiving a structured settlement payment could keep you qualified.
Call Our Louisiana Injury Lawyers Today
For help with your personal injury case, call the Louisiana personal injury attorneys at Schoenfeld Law Firm at (504) 688-7760.
