After a car accident, many injured drivers and passengers take time away from their job to recover. Many others are so badly hurt that they cannot return to work for a long time. The income they lose may be recovered as part of their economic damages.
If you missed work because of your injuries after a car accident, an attorney can help you assess how much income you missed out on and claim it as part of your overall damages. Calculating damages for lost wages may be challenging, especially if your income is derived from unconventional sources. Certain factors that might influence how we calculate your damages include how long you were out of work and whether you could find another job. It might be possible to recover lost wages even though you are still working if your new job pays less than your previous one.
Your income is necessary to your livelihood and well-being, and our Jackson, MS car accident lawyers can review your situation for no charge at the offices of Howe Law, call (844) 876-4357 to get started.
Recovering Lost Wages After a Car Accident in Jackson, MS
Car accidents are a huge burden for drivers for multiple reasons. First, drivers and passengers might be badly hurt and in need of emergency medical attention. Injuries sometimes come with long-term complications, and it might be weeks, months, or even years before an accident victim fully recovers. Second, car accidents are infamously expensive. One major economic concern among injured drivers is missing out on work and wages.
After a car accident, your injuries might prevent you from returning to work. This is standard in car accident cases, and nobody should be expected to get back to work the day after a car crash, even a minor one. Unfortunately, taking time away from work often means losing wages, and not all drivers can afford to take that kind of financial hit. As such, you can claim the wages you lose as part of your economic damages in a lawsuit.
While insurance claims may help you recover some economic damages, insurance policies are often limited and might not cover the full spectrum of your losses. People badly hurt in serious crashes often exceed the limits of insurance policies, and they file lawsuits to recoup any remaining losses, including lost wages.
How to Calculate Damages for Lost Income After a Car Accident in Jackson, MS
Calculating damages for any loss or injury is a delicate procedure. If your calculations come out wrong or certain damages are overlooked, you might miss out on valuable compensation. Calculating damages for lost income is no different. How our Mississippi car accident attorneys calculate your damages depends on your income and how long you went without it.
If your income was based on hourly wages or an annual salary, calculating damages for lost earnings is a bit simpler but should still be triple-checked for accuracy. In these cases, we can multiply the value of your weekly or bi-weekly paychecks by the number of weeks you were unable to work and earn an income. For example, someone who earns a net income of $1,500 per week and misses 6 weeks of work after a car accident may claim $9,000 in lost earnings.
If your income is less predictable, your damages might need to be calculated differently. For example, someone working on commission rather than for regular wages might need to estimate the number of commissions they lost while out of work after an accident. We must also take into account the value of each commission, as they might not all be the same. The same goes for contract or freelance work.
If you are self-employed and run your own business, we should also take into consideration the long-term effects the car accident and your time away from working had on your business. For many people, an extended break from their business might cost them current and future clients and hurt their professional reputation. As such, your damages for lost income would likely be much higher.
Factors That Might Influence Damages for Lost Wages in Jackson, MS Car Accident Cases
Various factors regarding your work and income might affect the value of your damages for lost income after a car accident. First, we should think about how long you were out of work. If your accident involved minor injuries and you were able to return to work after only a few days, your damages for lost income will probably not be very much. However, if you were absent from work for weeks or months or had to quit because of your injuries, you should expect much higher damages.
We should also consider whether you were able to work in a different position or different field of employment. For example, perhaps you were too injured to return to your job as a police officer, but your employer was able to place you on desk duty for the same salary while you recovered. In that situation, your job might have changed, but your income did not, and you might not claim much in the way of lost wages. Alternatively, if you could not find another source of income despite your due diligence, you may claim significant lost wages.
Additionally, we should take into account how much time away from work was covered by sick days, vacation days, or other paid time off. If you only missed a few days or even a few weeks, you might have had your time away from work covered by your employer. In that case, you probably cannot claim lost wages in a lawsuit. However, not all workers have paid time off, and days off come out of their own pockets.
Call Our Jackson, MS Car Accident Lawyers
Reach out to our Jackson, MS personal injury lawyers about scheduling a free review of your damages and lost income by calling Howe Law at (844) 876-4357.
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