In a personal injury compensation claim you can claim for your injury (general damages) and you can claim for any losses that you have incurred as a result of the accident/injury (special damages). Special damages cover a wide range of losses from loss of earnings, treatment fees, care and assistance, damaged items etc. In this blog we will look at a claim for loss of earnings.
You can claim for lost earnings if you sustained injury in an accident which was not your fault and if, as a result of your injuries, you have taken time off work and therefore lost earnings. Depending on your contract of employment, you may be off work and still receive pay in full. If this was to happen then you cannot claim lost earnings as there has been no loss. If you are not paid during your absence then you are entitled to claim for lost earnings. There is no guarantee that the other side will meet this claim, although it is much stronger if you can provide proof of the loss. This can be done by producing wage slips, showing the drop in earnings, or perhaps bank statements etc. If your wage is not “set” (i.e. you receive a different amount of money from your employer each month) then we would calculate your loss based on an average; perhaps looking at your pay slips from the previous 3 to 6 months before the accident.
Note that, as a word of caution, you are under a duty to mitigate your losses. This means that if a medical expert notes that you were fit to return to work after 4 weeks yet you were off work for 8 weeks, you may only be able to recover lost earnings for 4 weeks. This is obviously to prevent people claiming lost earnings when they have no intention of returning to work, despite being fit to do so. You should always be aware of this duty to mitigate. No one is suggesting that you return to work before you are fit to do so though of course. It is important to seek medical help from your GP, who can assess when you are fit for work. If you follow medical advice, it would seem difficult for the Defendant to argue that you failed to mitigate your loss.
If you are off work and not entitled to pay from your employer, after a short period of time you may become eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). This is only a small amount of pay and is usually much less than your actual wages. However if we were to pursue a lost earnings claim any amount that you receive would be deducted, so that you are only compensated for any incurred loss.
It could be the case that you regularly did overtime and as a result of the accident you were no longer fit to work at all or to work the overtime. If we can show that you regularly did overtime and can prove your earnings for this, then we can try and recover for loss of overtime pay.
As with any claim for special damages, documentary evidence is essential. Without documentary evidence the other side is likely to dispute the claim all together or dispute the amount claimed. Proof in the form of wage slips, bank statements etc are essential to proving your loss.
To discuss a potential personal injury claim, do not hesitate to contact us today. We come across many injured people who do not think about making a claim until they are forced to be off work due to their injuries. This is sometimes due to the bad stigma surrounding personal injury. Due to an accident your job and livelihood can be affected. In addition for claiming compensation for the injuries sustained in the accident, you can try and claim your lost wages.
