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Lost Income And Career Potential After Injury: How Do You Find A Value?

24 February 2015 by Gina Hill

A significant part of any slip-and-fall injury claim is going to be your lost income—including estimated future losses. Figuring out future income losses can get complicated for a number of reasons, especially for those who occupy professional positions. Even a short-term injury can cause long-term problems for your career. Here's what you should know.

It's About The Lost Potential, Not Actual Income

Future lost income isn't calculated based on the work that you've done in the past. Instead, it's the difference between the potential future income that you could have had, prior to your injury, and the future income that you are now likely to have, since your injury.

Since neither figure is an absolute certainty, your future lost income can become a hotly debated part of your injury claim!

You May Have Lost More Than You Realize

Hopefully, you've recovered from your injuries, which is why you are now approaching a settlement with the other party's insurers. However, you may not have stopped to fully consider the impact of the injury on your future, especially where your income potential and career are concerned.

If you think that a simple slip-and-fall can't possibly affect your earnings potential that far into the future consider these factors:

• If your injury caused you to miss work, it probably also caused you to be unable to devote yourself full-time to your career. You lost time when you could have been developing clients, networking, gaining experience, or otherwise furthering your professional interests.
• Your inability to focus entirely on your career may have cost you a promotion, a raise, or some other variable that would have advanced your career by now.
• Did you have to make a lateral career move while you were injured, in order to keep working? Has that permanently changed the direction of your career?
• If you've missed out on a promotion or other form of advancement, it can be several years (if ever), before you are able to bridge the gap between what your earnings could have been and what they are now likely to be.
• If you have any permanent injuries, will they serve as a limitation on your energies? Chronic pain or ongoing physical therapy needs, for example, can seriously distract from your professional concerns.
• Depending on your occupation, you may have suffered losses because clients took their business elsewhere while you were injured. You probably won't regain those clients, and that's future income that's permanently lost. 

Forensic Economists May Be Able To Help

If your case is complicated because there are a lot of intangibles involved when figuring out your lost future income, your attorney may decide to hire a forensic economist. The forensic economist looks at factors such as your age, education, occupation, career level, work record and other professional records in order to evaluate your income potential both before and after the injury.

Essentially, the forensic economist builds a picture of what your professional career would have looked like if you had never been injured. Then, he or she builds a second picture of what your professional career can reasonably be expected to look like now. This comparison is what can be used to show how long (if ever) it will be before the two trajectories overlap. The difference between them is what can demonstrate to a jury the true value of your financial losses.

Talk to an attorney from a firm like Putnam Lieb about how your injury may have affected you professionally. You may not be able to put an immediate dollar figure on some of the more intangible aspects of the situation, but there are experts who can assist. Understanding how your career has been impacted by your injuries is an important part of recovering your losses.

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