To increase your personal injury settlement averages, you should include any lost income caused by your car accident. If your injuries caused you to miss any days at work, then the amount of money you lost should be added in your personal injury settlement claims.
Let’s take a look at how the insurance companies calculate your personal injury settlement averages.
Example:
You suffered an injury to your legs that required you to stay home for a few days. You missed a total of 3 days work, which came out to be $600.
You visited the doctor to get an X-ray and some pain medication. Your doctor also recommended you meet with a physical therapist once a week for 2 months. Your total medical bills came out to be $500.
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Calculating Your Personal Injury Settlement Averages
Given the severity of your injuries and the length of time for your treatment, the insurance adjuster uses a personal injury settlements calculator and assigns a “pain and suffering” multiplier of 4 to your claim.
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Using all this information we have the following scenario:
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Increasing the Amount of Your Lost Income
Sometimes, the insurance claims adjuster will try to lower your personal injury settlement averages by lowering the amount of your lost income. The claims adjuster will try to argue that you really didnt lose any income because you used your sick or paid vacation days. However, this is simply not true. Your lost income includes any amount of money that you would have earned, if you were not injured.
It is irrelevant if you had to use your vacation days to take care of your injuries. Those extra days are supposed to be used at your convenience. Therefore, you have right to be compensated for being forced to take any paid time off.
Another thing that falls into the loss of income category is loss of potential income. This applies to any job interview or business deal you missed because of your injuries.
Get Paid By Documenting Your Loss of Income
In order to be compensated for your loss of income, you will need to show proof of how much money you lost. The easiest way to get proof is ask your current employer. Another way is to simply get a copy of your last year’s income tax form.
To increase your injury settlement average, make sure that you are claiming your gross income and not your net income. This way you can get the money you would have earned before taxes lowered your final amount.
Proving loss of potential income is more difficult. If you weren’t hired for a job because of your injuries, you can potentially claim the salary you would have made. Getting compensated for loss of potential income is more difficult because it is harder to prove.
The best way to see how much money you could claim is by talking it over with a personal injury lawyer. Checking with a personal injury lawyer can help you see if you should include potential income, when calculating your personal injury settlement averages.
Bottom Line:
To increase your personal injury settlement averages, you should add the amount of income you lost as a result of your injuries. You can see how your total settlement is calculated using the personal injury calculator.
You should be compensated for the amount of time you missed from work, regardless of how many vacation or sick days you used. If you have the proper documentation that shows your income loss then it is fairly easy to add this figure to your personal injury settlement.
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