An injury that keeps you from working will create real financial strain. Talk to a Fort Myers, FL personal injury lawyer to help you identify and gather the right documents to prove your losses and access all the compensation you’re entitled to.
Key Records to Proving Lost Wages and Future Earning Capacity
Florida law treats these losses as economic damages. That category covers both the income that you’ve already lost and also income you’re reasonably certain to lose in the years ahead.
The Easiest Part
The easiest thing to prove is usually the wages you’ve already lost. Pay stubs from the months right before the injury will show your regular rate of pay, the typical hours you work, how often you take overtime, and any bonuses. A letter from your employer that confirms the exact days you missed, your hourly or salary rate, and any benefits that have stopped because of your missed work will be equally useful.
W-2 forms and federal tax returns from the prior two or three years can give a longer view of your earnings pattern and help rule out any argument that what you were earning right before the injury was just a temporary fluctuation.
Injury and Its Effects
Medical records are an important bridge proving the link between your injury and the missed paychecks. They also are needed to prove what your potential is for lost income in the future. For example, if you’re unable to return to your physically demanding job for another six months because your doctor is restricting your activities or you’re waiting for surgery, that income should be reimbursed.
You’ll need your treating physician’s notes stating, in plain language, that the injuries prevented you from performing your job duties. Work-restriction forms, physical-therapy progress notes, and any functional capacity evaluation results need to show exactly what tasks you could no longer do and for how long.
The Complex Part
For future earning capacity, things get trickier. It’s difficult to predict into the future. The court will look at your ability to earn, not merely the paycheck you held on the day of the injury, and they will require proof that any reduction you’re expecting in the future can be shown with reasonable certainty. That standard usually calls for more than your testimony alone. You’ll need permanent impairment ratings assigned by a doctor, imaging studies, and long-term treatment plans.
Expert Help
Vocational experts are often used in these cases. They review your education, work history, physical restrictions, and the local job market, then explain which occupations remain open to you and which are closed. Their reports translate the medical limitations into concrete occupational consequences. Then, you’ll need an economist to take those findings and turn them into dollar figures. Your lawyer will have connections with experts of these types to help prove your case.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer in Fort Myers, FL for a Consultation
If you’ve been injured, contact Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice, Purtz, Smith & Smith, P.A. in Fort Myers today to get a free consultation. Since 1962, we’ve been helping the people of Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida.