If someone else's carelessness or negligence resulted in an injury due to some sort of accident, you may have the legal right to sue in a personal injury case and seek compensation. If your injuries lead to you being forced to take time off work, you may be entitled to recover lost income in your case. If your injury is severe enough, you might be able to compensate for future lost income as well.

This article will discuss lost income in a Connecticut personal injury case and how it works.

The most important thing to remember is that if you are unable to work due to an injury caused by someone else's carelessness, a CT personal injury lawyer should be retained to handle your case. You are not alone. Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law has decades of experience in handling personal injury cases of all types. Call us today and let's discuss your options.

Lost Income Explained

In a personal injury case, lost income is one type of damages you can demand. Lost income includes wages, bonuses, commissions, and other benefits you receive as part of your employment with a company. If injuries related to your personal injury case kept you from working, thus you lost any of these types of income, you may have the option to claim lost income in your case.

Furthermore, lost income can also include vacation or PTO time used and any income you miss if you are only able to return to work on a part-time basis.

Future Lost Wages

If you can't go back to work because of a permanent disability or injury, your personal injury claim could also demand compensation for earnings you will no longer be able to make in the future. This type of income is not so straightforward, because you must make a projection of what your future income might be. In some cases, your lawyer may hire an economist, labor expert or other experts to determine what your future lost wages may be.

Calculating Future Lost Earnings

How much money you will lose in the future is calculated differently than how much money you have lost currently. To figure out what you would have earned if you hadn't suffered injury, an accountant and an economist could be brought in to help.

Future lost earnings is centered around your ability to make money in the remaining years of your life after a devastating injury. The courts look at how much you were earning before the injury and how much less you could make because of the injury.

Below are factors that may impact this:

• Permanent vs. Partial Disability: The courts look at whether or not you will ever be able to work again and whether or not you are partially disabled. If you can work again, even if it's not in the same job, the court will look at your ability to make money and how much that has been reduced, if applicable.
• Limitations on the Ability to Earn: Even if you can go back to work, you may not be able to do everything. Following an injury, you may not be able to work in a specific injury any longer or unable to perform certain tasks you were able to perform previously. Both of these would potentially limit your ability to work and earn a living.
• Specialty training and career fields: If your job before the injury was specialized and something that companies will pay a high salary for, you may have the evidence to prove a higher loss of future earning capacity.

Proving Lost Income

It's not hard to prove lost income and get compensation. The more proof you have, the easier it will be to file a claim with the insurance company. Some types of paperwork you should gather and bring to your lawyer are:

• Doctor's note: Bring a note from your doctor that indicates how much time you are ordered to take off work. The doctor's note should state how long you need to recover and any restrictions they think you should have on your hours when you go back to work.
• Letter of Verification from employer: You need a letter from your employer that says how many days you missed, what benefits you lost during that time, and how much money you lost because of it. The letter should also say how much you make now, how many hours you can work each pay period, and if you missed any bonuses.
• Paycheck stubs and tax forms: You need to show proof of all the money you would have made. The best way to do this is to bring in your last couple of recent paycheck stubs as well as any W-2 statements from the tax year. These set your base salary, what you get paid for vacations and sick days, and any bonuses or extra time you usually get.

CT Personal Injury Lawyers From Brandon J. Broderick Can Help You Today

If you get hurt because of someone else's negligence, you shouldn't have to pay for your medical bills and other damages, such as lost income.

At Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law, our CT personal injury lawyers will look out for what's best for you and fight for your case. We've been representing clients in car and truck accidents, slip and falls, dog bites and employment law for decades.

Get in touch with us today to schedule a free consultation. When our clients make that first phone call, they tell us they feel better. We only get paid if you win your case, so you have nothing to lose.