If accident injuries prevent you from working, you may be unable to pay your bills, afford your established lifestyle, or seek the care necessary to move forward after an accident.
If accident injuries prevent you from working, you may be unable to pay your bills, afford your established lifestyle, or seek the care necessary to move forward after an accident. Beyond the basic paycheck, time off work may also mean missed overtime opportunities, used vacation or sick days, and lost bonuses.
Can you recover compensation if you are unable to work after an accident?
The answer is generally yes, with a caveat. You can only recover compensation if your inability to work is directly due to your accident-related injuries. For example, if you work at a factory and you lose the use of your hands, then this would likely be a reasonable basis for requesting compensation.
In order to build a viable claim for damages, you will need the help of a medical professional: your doctor will need to make an official determination that your injuries are restricting your ability to work. To support your claim, you will need to provide a doctor’s note or other written documentation to your employer.
While federal Social Security Disability benefits are reserved for individuals with long-term disabilities that exceed or are expected to exceed twelve months in duration, you may be able to receive compensation from any short-term disability insurance coverage you carry through your employer or independently. Short-term disability insurance policies typically replace between fifty and seventy-five percent of an individual’s salary due to an illness or injury that leaves the individual temporarily unable to work.
Contact your HR representative or insurance provider for a copy of your insurance policy. If you do not have short-term disability insurance or if you need additional compensation to meet your financial obligations, a personal injury attorney can help you identify other avenues for recovering your lost wages.
It depends on your policy, but in many cases, lost wages are often covered by standard car insurance policies. Contact your insurance provider to confirm coverage. If your policy does not cover lost wages, you should contact an attorney about seeking a settlement to provide the compensation you need.
Yes, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against the responsible driver and seek compensation for lost wages as part of your damages. It is important to keep detailed records of your injuries, medical treatment, and a record of all accident-related work absences and lost wages for each absence. Having documentation of a medical opinion as to how your injury impedes your ability to work with an estimate of the duration of recovery needed may also be helpful to establish your claim for lost wages. To recover lost wages in a personal injury lawsuit, you must be able to prove that any lost wages were a direct result of the injuries caused by the accident.
If you were injured in an accident and those injuries caused you to miss work, you need an experienced car accident attorney to help you determine the best way to recover those lost wages, as well as compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and other accident-related expenses. Contact Natasha Misra Law today to schedule a free initial consultation.
