Waldorf MD Auto and Truck Accident Lawyers: Proving Lost Wages/Income

If you have been injured in an auto accident in Waldorf, MD or in other parts of Southern Maryland, you have a right to sue the at-fault driver — and/or bring an insurance claim — for money damages that are intended to compensate you for your injuries and for the damage to your vehicle (and other property that might have been in your vehicle). One potential category of damages that a victim of a Charles County MD auto accident can seek is for lost wages and/or lost income. Under Maryland personal injury law, victims of accidents have the burden of proving their damages, including proving lost wages and income. In this article, we discuss some of the methods of proving lost wages/income. These issues can be legally complex. Thus, you will need experienced and top-tier Maryland car and auto accident attorneys to help you like the ones here at the Law Office of Robert Castro. Call us at (301)705-5137. We have offices in Waldorf, Maryland.

First, it is important to emphasize that you are entitled to claim ALL of your lost wages and earnings. So, to take an example, assume you are injured in a Maryland automobile crash. Because of your injuries, you spend a day in the hospital and another four days recuperating at home. For simplicity, let’s assume that you are off of work for a week.

There are several ways to prove lost wages/earnings to an insurance adjuster (or to the court, if litigation is filed). First, you have wage and tax documents that can be provided. These would include pay stubs provided by your employer, filed tax returns and other documentation. For those who are self-employed or employed as independent contractors, the tax returns and other documentation — such as bank statements — will be crucial since there will not be any paystubs.

Second, many employers will provide documentation — like a letter or a completed insurance form — that will state your hourly or weekly pay or salary. Since, in our hypothetical, we can show that the victim of the Maryland auto accident was off work for a week, then proving those lost wages/earnings is a simple mathematical calculation. If you are self-employed, this is more complicated. Under those circumstances, it would be best to show — over the previous months — the average weekly income received. This would then be the basis for claiming the lost income for the week that the victim of the crash could not work.

The same method can be used to claim potential lost overtime wages. Remember that victims are entitled to claim ALL lost wages/earnings. So, if it can be shown that, on average, the victim earned a certain amount in overtime wages, that would be the basis for claiming lost overtime income.

There are other types of lost income that should be considered. These include:

• Lost benefits — if employer benefits (like paid vacation days) are awarded based on working a certain number of days or hours, then victims should insist on compensation for those lost benefits
• Lost paid personal and vacation days — if the victim has used paid personal days and/or vacation days while in the hospital and/or recuperating, the value of those lost days should be claimed as damages
• Lost profits/earnings if self-employed — under some circumstances, a person who is self-employed or runs a small business may be able to claim lost profits or earnings from the business above and beyond the lost salary/wages that are paid by the business to the owner; this might occur if a contract or account was lost because of the accident

Contact Waldorf, MD Personal Injury Attorney Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland personal injury lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD Personal Injury lawyers. Our address is: 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD 20601.