Loss of Income after a Car Wreck or Truck Accident
Aside from the physical and emotional pain associated with personal injury, the financial strain that car crashes, truck accidents, and other types of accidents cause can be overwhelming. Medical bills and healthcare-related expenses are common in these cases, and when you are also experiencing a loss of income, these costs can add up quickly.
Lost Income After an Accident
Missing work after an accident is not usually ideal, but it is often necessary to prioritize your health. However, lost days or weeks of work due to hospital stays, doctors' appointments, and other medical activities make it difficult for many people to keep up with their bills. Depending on the severity of your injuries, your leave of absence can even be months or years long.
The average amount of work missed after incurring an injury is eleven days. For someone who is paid bi-weekly, that's more than an entire paycheck. This can take a significant toll on not just financial well-being but also stress and mental health during an already challenging time. Even relatively minor injuries can lead to missed work and lost wages.
If your post-accident income is lacking, you'll likely wonder what your options are for recovering monetary damages to compensate for missing work. In many cases, people who have been injured in a car accident can receive reimbursement for the income they lost due to the accident.
Reimbursement for Lost Wages
It is crucial that you document your medical condition, health care, and lost wages carefully. Specifically, you must prove how much work you missed, that the injuries you sustained from the accident were the reason you missed work, and the amount of money you would have made had you not been injured. This can be accomplished by gathering documentation from your employer that lists your hourly pay rate and your regularly scheduled work hours, as well as documents showing the time you missed from work after the accident.
If you are self-employed or work sporadically, proving lost income can be more difficult, but it is not impossible. Did you have to cancel any appointments while you were injured? Do you have invoices that establish a baseline for your regular income? You can work with a personal injury lawyer to determine the best way to prove lost income in your specific situation. Our firm has specialized knowledge and experience in injury and insurance matters, and we work tirelessly to obtain the best outcome possible for our clients.
After a car or truck accident, lost wages and a decrease in income are common aspects of the recovery period. Physical and emotional recovery can be a long road, and financial stress only exacerbates these types of injuries. So if you're looking for a trusted team of personal injury and car accident lawyers who specialize in personal injury cases, contact the Injury Law Firm® at 307-266-5297 for a free consultation.