If you’ve been injured in a serious vehicle crash due to the negligence or recklessness of another driver, it’s crucial to get the compensation to which you’re entitled to cover your expenses, financial losses and damages. If your injuries are preventing you from being able to work for a time, you can and should seek compensation for lost income.
For people who are salaried employees, it’s relatively straightforward to show how much you would have earned during the period you’re unable to work. This may be minimized somewhat by disability insurance coverage or other benefits. However, you have recent pay records as evidence of your income. Even an hourly employee whose time worked may vary from week to week can provide a pay history on which compensation can be based.
What if, like so many people these days, you aren’t a “regular” employee? More and more Americans are independent contractors, freelancers or otherwise self-employed. Their income is based on individual projects or contracts. Some are “gig workers” who drive for companies like Uber or deliver food for companies like DoorDash. Their wages depend on how much they work.
How do you provide evidence of how much you’re losing in income?
Depending on what type of self-employment you have, you can provide some amount of evidence of your income over recent months and potentially what you’ll be losing out on. If you were in the middle of a project that you now have to leave, you will likely have documentation of how much money that will cost you. You may also be missing out on the ability to go out and solicit future work during the time you’re recovering. That’s something that can be factored into your settlement as well.
If you’ve suffered catastrophic injuries that will affect your ability to work in the future, that’s referred to as “lost earning capacity.” That’s a different type of damages. However, that can be estimated as well.
You can assume there will be some pushback from the insurance company and/or the at-fault parties regarding your lost income. However, with sound legal guidance, you can work to present solid evidence to back up your claim.