Cochrane, AB Loss of Employment Income Lawyer
Being injured in an accident can have a significant impact on your work life. You’ll almost certainly miss some time at work while you rest in the hospital. In addition, your injuries must be extensive enough to keep you from working full-time ever again, or pursuing the career you pursued before the accident.
When this happens, the law does make provisions for the negligent party who injured you to provide you with compensation for your lost wages and earning capacity. Of course, this does not mean the responsible party will make it easy for you to get the money.
You’ll need an experienced loss of earnings and loss of earning capacity lawyer on your side to argue your case.
Loss of Earnings
Loss of earnings refers to earnings you lost while employed and recovering from your accident. If you normally make $3000 a month and are out of work for 3 months, then you could expect to receive $9000 in compensation. This is a straight dollar-for-dollar calculation that’s difficult to contest.
If you lost your job while healing, you can sometimes make the case that you still lost those earnings due to the accident alone. This means you may get that same $9000 even if your employer lets you go in the first month.
This is the easier form of compensation to secure. Your lawyers come in with facts and figures based on your current pay stubs and establish a figure based on math alone.
Loss of Earning Capacity
This is the much harder determination, because it’s not always easy to prove that you can’t work in the future, or what you would have made in the future had the accident not interfered.
It’s also important to determine whether you can work at all, whether you can but would have to change careers, or whether you could, but can only work part-time. Either way, if you can’t re-enter a comparable field at a comparable rate of pay the law allows for your compensation.
To get you compensated, we must prove four things:
- Your accident left you less capable of earning money from any type of job.
- You’re less marketable to employers, and may have trouble securing a new job as a result.
- You can no longer work the same job, or take advantage of the same career opportunities, and this is a direct result of the accident.
- You are now less valuable to yourself as a person capable of earning money to support yourself.
To help determine award amounts, we may call on expert witnesses like physicians who can testify as to the extent, nature, and impact of your injuries or forensic economists who can testify as to how much money you have likely lost as a result of the accident.
We will also have to argue hard, as the defendant will claim you’re not as injured as you’re saying you are, you’re more capable of work than you’re saying you are, and that you should be able to return to work faster than you and your doctor say you can.
Why Merchant Law?
Merchant Law has a long, successful track record. We’ve helped many plaintiffs just like you get the compensation they deserve. We’re fighters, and we’re here to fight for you.
Get started today. Claim your no-obligation case evaluation by calling (403) 225-7777 today.