How Are My Lost Wages Proven in My Florida Personal Injury Claim?
Motor vehicle accidents often result in catastrophic injuries to the bodies of those unlucky enough to be involved. The same is true of pedestrian accidents, slip and fall incidents, or any other type of personal injury accident. Most people suffer injuries that require extensive medical treatment in such scenarios. Given how high healthcare costs in this country can be, both sides to a personal injury claim are often focused on the costs of treating the injuries that an accident victim may have received as a result of someone else’s negligence; the defense with minimizing it and the plaintiff ensuring that the jury has a fair and complete picture of what future medical treatment the victim will need. It can be an afterthought that the victim needs to also be compensated for any lost wages he or she suffered because of the incident due to injuries that can negatively impact the victim’s ability to work.
One aspect of the damages that many people suffer in motor vehicle accidents or other personal injury scenarios is what effect the victim’s injuries may have on his or her ability to earn a living. If a person is seriously injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, it may often be weeks or even months before he or she can return to work. In addition, many times the injuries may be permanent or have permanent side effects that reduce the negligence victim’s ability to perform his or her occupation at the same level or even at all. For example, a surgeon who is injured in a car accident and whose hand is crushed on impact likely will never work as a surgeon again. Although he or she can perhaps work in healthcare in a different capacity, this could mean taking a substantial pay cut due specifically to the surgeon’s diminished capacity as a result of injuries from the car accident. Therefore, under Florida law, in that case, the surgeon would be able to recover for the value of the lost past wages and future earning capacity that he or she suffered as a result of someone else’s negligence.
If your ability to earn a living has been permanently affected by injuries you suffered due to someone else’s negligence, then you are entitled under Florida law to recover for every penny that you would have earned but for your injuries. Nevertheless, proving this often requires skilled attorneys familiar with the nuances of proving lost wage claims. At Schwed, Adams & McGinley, many of our clients have suffered the misfortune of being injured due to someone else’s negligence and their injuries directly affected their ability to return to work in the same capacity as before the accident. In such cases, we know exactly how to prove our clients’ damages to a jury to ensure they receive full compensation for the lost past and future earnings they will suffer as a result of injuries caused by someone else’s negligence.
How a Good Personal Injury Attorney Will Prove Your Lost Wages Claim
Even if the other side attacks your lost wages claim, a good plaintiff’s attorney will know how to prove to a jury of six people that you have suffered wage losses as a result of your injuries caused by someone else’s negligence. A vocational rehabilitation expert will, armed with the opinions of your treating physicians and medical experts, be able to explain to the jury what you used to be able to do prior to your injuries as compared with the type of work you can do now. An economist can then put those numbers to paper and present the jury with a concrete figure as to the amount of income you will lose out on over your lifetime due to your injuries.
Contact Schwed Adams & McGinley
At Schwed Adams & McGinley, P.A., our experienced personal injury attorneys have more than 150 years of combined legal experience and many of our firm’s cases stem from motor vehicle accidents or other personal injury scenarios in which our clients have suffered catastrophic injuries that negatively affected their ability to earn a living. Over the course of our attorneys’ collective decades in practice, we have formed relationships with experienced experts with whom we have gone to trial numerous times and who we know will withstand whatever a defense attorney may throw at the expert. Therefore, regardless of how complicated the situation a client’s lost wages claim may present, we know that we will be ready and able to demonstrate to the jury that our client did indeed lose income as a result of his or her injuries caused by someone else’s negligence and exactly how much. No matter the type of accident or scenario, contact our experienced attorneys at contact@schwedlawfirm.com or (877) 694-6079 for a free consultation today if you have been injured or a loved one has been killed or injured in a motor vehicle accident in Florida.