Calculating Lost Income In Personal Injury Cases

People with a claim regularly wonder whether they can recover their lost income in personal injury cases in Idaho.  Idaho law provides people injured in car accidents, through medical negligence, in a semi-truck collision or through other negligent acts, can claim compensation for a variety of injuries and damages they incur.  The compensation includes costs of medical care, car repair as well as more intangible things like pain and suffering. And, it also includes lost income.  But calculating a fair value for a person’s personal injury damage claim for lost income and earnings presents substantial complexity.   

If you are an hourly employee and miss 40 hours of work based on the doctor’s orders then your lost wages claim is pretty easy.  But it quickly gets more complicated after that simple example.

Determining Your Current Lost Wages Is Part of The Process

Your claim for lost current income from starts at the time you are unable to work because of the injury. It lasts until you can go back to what you were doing before the injury.  As Boise personal injury lawyers, we evaluate whether we can include in your claim all the following:

• Any salary or wages that would have been earned, offset by any pay received;
  (Including overtime opportunities that were missed);
• Any sick leave or vacation hours used to get through the lost work time;
• Any sick leave or vacation time that you did not accrue because of the inability to work; and
• Any chance for a promotion or advancement that was lost.

 Evaluating Your Future Lost Income Is Also Important

 If you are unable to work for an extended period of time or your ability to earn in the future is reduced, that loss has to be considered as well.  Some clients are never able to return to work at full capacity.  If you are permanently disabled then your earning capacity may well change forever.  This can mean that the employer places you in a job that even if the pay is initially the same, diminishes the opportunities for advancement.

Calculating this type of future lost income is a more complicated matter.  There are materials from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that can help.   Often a professional economist needs to be worked with to do a full evaluation.  Knowing who and when to call on this type of person is part of the service provided by a quality, experienced personal injury lawyer

 Income Loss for the Self-Employed or Commissioned Workers

When an Idaho client is self-employed or works on a commission both the current and future lost income calculation become more complicated.  The number of economic factors that need to be considered include thing like the overall economic well-being of the market area, slow periods in your business, and on and on. Sometimes the only thing that can be reasonably relied on are income tax filings from before and after the accident.  But these too can be problematic given the economy or a person’s job changes.

 Get More Information About Lost Income in Personal Injury Cases in Idaho 

Call us to discuss your wage claim or any other aspects of your personal injury case that you have question about. 

Since our founding in Buhl in 1952 the lawyers at Hepworth Holzer  have worked to be the best personal injury lawyers in Idaho.  We try to meet that goal in part with creative thinking about injury claims including about lost income in personal injury cases. We also   informally help people who don’t need to hire an attorney. 

We mean it when we say don’t hesitate to call us if you have questions about a claim or if you need additional information.  You can call us at (208) 328-6998.  You can text us at that number as well.  We are in Boise but represent people all over Idaho from Bonner’s Ferry to Bear Lake.  No matter where you live in Idaho, if you have been injured in an accident due to the negligence of another, we are here to help.