Motorcycle Accidents Income Losses

In the best possible scenario, after a motorcycle accident, you might lose income but in…

In the best possible scenario, after a motorcycle accident, you might lose income but in worse scenarios, you might end up losing your ability to actually earn a living. Basically, your earning capacity might be diminished for the entire duration of your life. And you might even end up needing a lawyer for wrongful death.

Whenever thinking about motorcycle accidents and damages, we naturally start thinking about medical bills resulting from our physical injuries. These should obviously be taken into account but there are so many other losses that have to be taken into account. Hiring personal injury attorneys automatically means all possible income losses will be taken into account.

How Will Income Loss Be Calculated?

So many factors need to be taken into account when you calculate lost income caused by motorcycle accidents. As the injury attorney is evaluating the case and trying to determine the accurate potential settlement value, a judgment is made about lost income. This can be determined by several factors, with the following being the most important ones:

  • Hours Missed – With some accidents, you know exactly how many hours were missed and it is very easy to calculate lost time value. This is simply calculated by multiplying your hourly wage by how many hours were lost during recovery time.
  • Salary – In some other cases, when you draw a salary, you need to estimate the amount that was lost because you missed work. Usually, this is done by simply calculating your salary in hourly wages. If your work hours are erratic or odd, this can be complicated.
  • Commission – When you do work based on commissions, it will not be that easy to calculate how much income you lost. This is because lost opportunity costs need to also be taken into account. Your attorneys will calculate an amount after looking at sales data and figuring out average values.
  • Benefits – Income is not just made out of your wages. You might also receive benefits that would be jeopardized when you miss work due to the injuries you suffered. This is especially true when contributing to savings schemes like 401K plans. In this situation, you basically end up losing a lot more than just what you put into the savings plan. You also lose future interest that could have appeared if you would have been able to make the regular contributions.
  • Disability – When you cannot your job as you used to or you are permanently disabled, the motorcycle accident attorney will take income potential losses into account when doing the calculations. Obviously, this is quite a difficult amount to calculate. Very complicated formulas are usually used and they will surely be debated during negotiations with insurance companies.

At the end of the day, if you are a victim during a motorcycle accident, you need the services of personal injury attorneys since they will help you to fully calculate all total losses. This will include your medical bills and several other expenses, like lost income. Trying to calculate lost income alone is simply very difficult and you should always work with professionals in order to decide exactly how much is appropriate.