Types of Compensation for Lost Income You Can Seek in Personal Injury Claims
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, or a slip and fall or due to medical malpractice or any situation where another person is at fault, one of the things that you are entitled to recover is compensation for your lost wages or lost income.
There are seven key types of lost income you may be entitled to. These are:
- Lost salary or wages for the time you had to take off work because you were too injured to work or had to be in medical treatment.
- Lost overtime. If you had to take two weeks off and you typically work ten hours a week of overtime, then you should get compensated for the 20 hours of lost overtime.
- Lost bonuses and lost commissions. This is also based on what you likely would have earned were you able to work.
- Lost personal days, sick days or vacation time. If you had to use these up while you had to miss work or if you failed to generate them while you were out, then you are supposed to be compensated for these days.
- Tips. If you’re a food server, or cab driver or provide services where you get tips, then you may seek compensation for the lost tips.
- Lost opportunities or chance of advancement. If you are climbing the corporate ladder and you were working on projects where you were developing new skillsets and priming yourself for raises and promotions, but all of these stalled because you had to stop working for a while, you can seek compensation for these lost opportunities.
- Lost earning capacity. This is a projection of the income you will lose over the course of your life because of the time you can’t work or because your injury has impaired your ability to perform your job. A vocational expert and an economist may be needed to prove these damages.
It is no secret that there are many ways an injury negatively impacts your work, your career and your livelihood. Mark Shayani of Pacific Attorney Group is an experienced personal injury attorney who will fight to get you compensation for your losses.
