Getting Your Lost Wages Reimbursed in an Injury Claim

Most people who are in an accident lose time from work, and if that happens, you probably lost money. But if you can’t document it correctly for the insurance carrier, you’re not likely to get them to voluntarily pay you back. So how do you best document it?

First, document the justification of your absence from work.  If you have a doctor’s note for the time period?  That’s best.  The law doesn’t require one exactly but if you’re arguing to a jury, it would be helpful to show that you missing work was due to more than you just not feeling like going.  Of course, not feeling like going to work can be a legitimate reason; who would feel like going to work after breaking a leg? Why would you need a note?  But in these situations, more is better, so if you can get a doctor’s note, that’s best.

Second, you have to show precisely what the loss was.  The gold standard for doing this is to have your employer provide a note indicating BOTH a) how much time was lost, AND b) what that time was worth. 

**It is absolutely critical that we have BOTH of those parts of the equation…the amount of time and the value of that time. Having one without the other is absolutely #$%^&*&^%$%^ useless.**

For example, if you missed 5 hours and make $20/hour, you’ll want the letter to state BOTH of those two things. Anyone can do the math once those variables are provided, so it doesn’t have to complete the equation.  But you HAVE TO HAVE BOTH OF THOSE VARIABLES!

If you can’t provide all of that documentation, you still might be able to get some or all of your lost income reimbursed.  If you provide tax info, pay stubs, and a doctor’s note (or maybe no note in the case of short time periods) then we still might be able to extrapolate the value of the loss.  But the more documentation, and from the more independent sources, the better, so don’t count on this method if you don’t have to.

I’m often asked about situations where you didn’t lose money, but you lost vacation/sick time. That’s still a loss in my book, so you should still be able to recover the value. However, you’ll still obviously need to document it, and the best way is that employer letter mentioned above.

If you’re self-employed this whole process is more difficult because there is no independent third party to provide documentation.  You might be able to do the tax/pay stub method, but sometimes this doesn’t work quite as well for the self-employed.  Impossible?  No.  But this complicates things a bit and may need some expert assistance.

And even if you do all of that, nothing is guaranteed in this business. Generally, though, the more thorough your documentation, the better your chances. As always, ask me questions about this and I’ll do my best to help. 919-929-2992.