Recovering Lost Wages After a Personal Injury Accident in Florida

Serious accidents can have serious consequences, and among the most pressing are lost wages. If your injuries have left you unable to work, the person who hurt you should be responsible for helping you make ends meet. This is true whether you earn a salary or wages, work for tips, or rely on commission. Even gig workers and the self-employed can seek compensation for lost income. Here’s what you need to know about the process.

What Does Compensation for Lost Wages Cover?

Compensation for lost wages in your personal injury claim can cover both past and ongoing income you’re unable to earn, either because you cannot work or you need to temporarily transfer to a lower-paying role due to medical restrictions. If you become permanently disabled from your job or other forms of employment, you could also be entitled to money for the income you would otherwise have made in the future.

How Do I Prove My Lost Wages?

To prove your lost wages claim, you must establish that another party bears responsibility for your injuries. Proving this element will require evidence like the following:

• Police accident reports
• Surveillance camera footage
• Eyewitness testimony
• Accident scene photos and videos
• Repair and maintenance records
• Post-accident inspections
• Testimony by accident reconstruction experts
• Medical records and testimony from your treating providers

Once you’ve established that someone else caused your injuries, you will need to prove the extent of your lost income, which you can do through a variety of financial records that describe your salary, commissions, and other compensation. Examples of records you might use to prove lost wages include:

• Timecards
• W-2s
• Income tax returns
• Employment contracts

If you become permanently disabled from your job and other kinds of work, you may need testimony from a financial expert to establish your future lost income. A financial professional can look at factors such as the expected duration of your career, future inflation, and likely wage growth through future training, raises, promotions, and other career opportunities.

How Are Lost Wages Calculated?

Insurance companies and courts calculate lost wages in personal injury claims by referring to the injured victim’s income records to estimate ongoing lost wages. Lost income may also need to account for partial wages that the injured person earned while working in a part-time or modified-duty role due to their medical restrictions.

Calculating future lost income will require considering numerous factors, such as:

• The injured person’s age, life expectancy, and expected career duration – Expert testimony can help establish how long an accident victim could have expected to work had they not become partially or totally disabled from employment.
• The injured person’s occupation – The nature of an accident victim’s job can affect their financial recovery for lost wages. For example, injuries and disabilities make it more likely that someone in a manual labor role cannot work than someone in a white-collar job.
• The injured person’s skills, training, and education – A person’s work experience, job skills, and education may demonstrate their ability to transfer to another job suited for their medical restrictions that pays as much or more than their pre-accident work.

Can I Seek Lost Wages If I Am Self-Employed?

Even self-employed individuals, gig workers, and sole proprietors can seek lost income after an accident someone else caused. However, proving lost income as a self-employed worker is often more challenging than it is for a worker who receives a W-2 for regular wages or salary. A self-employed individual may need different types of records to calculate their ongoing and future lost income, such as:

• 1099s
• Form 1040 income tax returns/Schedule C
• Corporate tax returns for sole proprietors organized as a corporation or LLC

Self-employed workers with less stable or predictable income may need to rely on other evidence to establish ongoing and future lost income. Useful evidence might include contracts that a worker lost because they could not work or testimony from past and prospective clients regarding the work they missed out on. In some cases, a self-employed worker may need expert testimony regarding lost business opportunities and income because of their injuries.

How Do I Seek Lost Wages for My Injuries?

You may have several avenues for recovering compensation for your lost income after an accident. First, you might file an insurance claim against a relevant policy. For example, if you were injured in a car accident in Florida, you can file a claim with your auto insurance provider to recover up to 60 percent of your lost wages from your personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, up to its policy limit. You may also be able to file a liability claim against an at-fault party’s auto insurance to recover the full extent of your past, ongoing, and future lost wages.

If the at-fault party does not have insurance or their insurance company refuses to agree to a fair settlement of your lost wages claim, you might have to press the issue by filing a personal injury lawsuit.

What Is the Deadline for Filing a Lost Wages Claim in Florida?

Under Florida’s statute of limitations on personal injury claims, you typically have two years from the date of your injury to file a lawsuit to recover your lost income. Although specific circumstances can extend this deadline, failure to file within the relevant window could lead to a dismissal of your case. Don’t put your rights at risk. Instead, you should speak with a personal injury lawyer from Zervos & Calta, PLLC as soon as possible.

Contact a Florida Personal Injury Lawyer

Have you missed time from work or suffered a reduced earning capacity after an accident? Then get the legal representation you need to pursue financial recovery for your ongoing and future lost wages. Contact Zervos & Calta, PLLC today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a Florida personal injury attorney to discuss your legal options in detail.

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About the Author

Lauren Calta
Attorney Lauren Calta is a partner in the Tampa Bay law firm Zervos & Calta, PLLC. For 25 years, Lauren Calta has focused her legal practice on representing people who have been harmed in personal injury, car accidents or lost loved ones due to the negligence of others. A distinguished personal injury trial attorney, she has secured millions of dollars for her clients and is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum in recognition of having obtained a settlement or verdict in excess of $2 million. She also is an official member of Lawyers of Distinction, Tampa Bay Trial Lawyers, Clearwater Bar Association and Florida Justice Association.