A New York City bike accident can leave you reeling. The physical injuries to which you’re subjected can be painful, debilitating and long-lasting, and the psychological trauma of your accident can negatively affect your ability to function on a daily basis. As if that isn’t enough, your accident injuries can leave you with mounting medical bills and lost wages due to an inability to work. A well developed and aggressively presented personal injury case may lead to the recovery of compensation to offset these losses, but the process isn’t always as easy as it may seem.
That’s why in this post we want to look at one aspect of a personal injury claim: the calculation of lost wages. This will hopefully give you a better idea of how you can competently navigate your claim so that you stand the best chance possible of recovering what you deserve.
Tips for calculating lost income after an NYC bike accident
Your lost wages could make up a significant portion of your personal injury award. Therefore, you can’t cut corners in calculating the amount to which you’re entitled. Here are some tips you can use to ensure you’re calculating the right amount of lost income after your accident:
- Gather your employment records: To conduct an accurate calculation, you need documentation that clearly specifies how much you were making from your job at the time of your wreck. This can include your W-2, a 1099, tax returns, pay stubs and documentation pertaining to bonuses and commissions. If you work multiple jobs, make sure you gather documentation pertaining to each. Also, be sure to gather records that show your income over the last year or two so that you can show what your income has historically been and what you’ve consistently made.
- Calculate your average weekly wage: Once you have this documentation, you can see how much you’ve made over the last year and divide it by 52. This will give an average weekly wage.
- Apply your average weekly wage to the amount of work you’ve missed: Once you have your average weekly wage, you can multiply it by the number of weeks of work that you’ve already missed. This will give you the amount of lost income that you’ve already incurred.
- Add in anticipated bonuses, commissions and overtime: Once you have your lost weekly wages, add in any anticipated bonuses, commissions or overtime you expected to earn based on your historical income from these categories.
- Consult with experts: By speaking to your medical professional, you can gain a sense of how long your injuries will last and how they’ll impact your ability to work. This, in turn, will give you sense of how much time you can expect to be away from work. You can then multiple the number of weeks of anticipated missed work by your average weekly earnings to get an amount of expected lost wages. Just don’t forget to add in bonuses, commissions and overtime that you otherwise may have earned, too.
You don’t want to leave money on the table after being hurt in a bicycle accident. But to secure what you deserve, you have to know how to gather evidence and present compelling arguments pertaining to your damages.