If you get injured – such as if you’re in a car accident caused by another driver – you may end up seeking financial compensation for your lost wages. After all, the damages go beyond just your medical bills. If the injuries caused you to miss a month at work, you’ve lost a substantial amount in wages, and you may still deserve compensation.
While going through this process, be sure you also consider whether or not you have a diminished earning capacity. This could be even more important than your lost wages. It’s a long-term issue that means your ability to earn has been reduced permanently.
A spinal cord injury
One example of this is a spinal cord injury or an SCI. Say that you had a well-paying job, making over $100,000 a year, but it was very labor-intensive. Your own mobility was a critical component, and you had to be able to do difficult manual tasks.
Because of your spinal cord injury, it is now impossible for you to return to that job. This doesn’t mean you can never work again. But say that you end up taking an office job that only pays $50,000 a year. Your ability to earn has been cut in half and you’re essentially losing $50,000 a year in your new position.
In other words, if you are now going to see a long-term reduction in your earnings, all because of someone else’s mistake on the road, you need to factor that into the equation. If you were planning to work for decades, you could be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars – beyond your immediate lost wages. The above is just one example of how this could happen, so be sure you know exactly what legal options you have if you’re in this position.