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I am a 34-year-old single mom with two kids to support. I was unemployed but looking for office work when I was injured in a head-on car crash 3 months ago. How does the delay in finding work factor into my lost/future earnings?
An unemployed person may have no present income, but he has earning potential. You have the capacity to earn money, the amount of which is based largely on your level of education, work history, background and experience. Your attorney will be able to build a case for your lost earning capacity, that is, your loss of future earnings, with information from you and the help of an economic expert. It doesn’t even matter what kind of job you were looking for. What matters is what you are qualified to do.
Let’s take a look at a hypothetical situation. Suppose you were going to be disabled by your injury for 6 months. Your dominant arm is severely injured, broken in two places with a dislocated shoulder. You also have some broken ribs, which take months to heal. You will be unable to search for a job, and to interview for a position you might have gotten a week after the accident had it not happened. You have a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, and a teaching credential. You also paint and have been selling your paintings. You sold one recently for $1,500. You want to open an art studio to show your work one day. You have sold about 4 paintings a year for the last 3 years and are becoming better known in the area. You were looking for a job teaching art at the high school level that would pay about $35,000-$50,000 a year. To the extent you are able to continue looking for a job, one that you would start when you are physically able, you should do that. Mitigating your damages always makes a better impression on a jury than not doing anything to help your own situation.
What will you get for your lost earning capacity? What is the most you can do with your background? Here are some sample figures:
| Lost future wages (as an art teacher for 6 months): |
$ 22,500 |
| Lost earning capacity (as an artist with unknown potential): |
$ 15,000 |
| Lost earning capacity (running an art studio): |
$ 10,000 |
| Total potential lost earnings/lost earning capacity: |
$ 47,500 |
A lot of this is speculative and based on what you and your attorney are able to prove convincingly to a jury and relies greatly on what figures your economic expert can support.
This example is based on fictitious facts and figures. Your individual case may vary from this substantially. For information on how to value your specific claim, contact an attorney who is familiar with personal injury cases and ask how he would go about proving your specific losses. |
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