Recovery of Lost Wages and Earnings in an Injury Case

Attorney Steven J. Greeley, Jr. is any injury attorney handling matters in McHenry, Kane, Boone, DeKalb and Winnebago Counties.

Recovering Lost Wages

Lost wages and earnings are recoverable when there is a work injury or other injury due to the fault of another party, such as an automobile accident.

Work-Related Injuries

When the injury occurs as a part of work duties, and a doctor has restricted you from performing any work or when the employer cannot accommodate any restrictions to your work due to the injury, the employee is entitled to temporary total disability (TTD) money at two thirds of the employees average weekly wage, which is the average wage with mandatory overtime reduced to regular pay over the fifty-two weeks prior to the injury.

For other injuries, your full wages or earnings, including the overtime that you can show was going to come, can be recovered. The injured person needs to save copies of pay stubs prior to and after the accident to verify in writing what amounts of money were lost while the employee was injured due to the accident. Even if the days are covered by sick days, personal days or vacation days or other sort of comp days, the employee can recover the money they would have earned had they not needed to use those days off because the employee should not have had to have used the days off for an injury caused by somebody else.

Contractors or Self-Employed Individuals

For self-employed individuals or contractors, detailed records of income and expenses from before and after the accident will be needed to calculate the fair amount of lost earnings. All data on lost income opportunities, including the contact information of the customer, the type of job and the average or quoted reasonable price for the job and the cost of any expenses related to that job will be necessary to prove the lost earnings.

Aside from lost earnings, injured parties are entitled to additional compensation for the pain and suffering or disability due to the work or injury caused by a liable party.

Please contact our office to review your claim to determine how much money you deserve.