The first thing to remember when trying to assert a loss of earnings claim is documentation. Unlike non-economic damages which are difficult to value by their nature, a loss of earnings claim is considered a “hard” economic damage that must be proven through documentary evidence.
Salaried Employees:
The easiest loss of earnings claim to prove is that of a salaried employee. This is because the documentary evidence you need to prove your loss of earnings claim is relatively straightforward and easy to obtain. In order to prove your claim, we just need to multiply what your hourly/daily/weekly salary was, by how much time you have missed from work due to the incident. The documents we can use to prove these numbers are:
- Pay stubs
- Paychecks
- Bank statements
- Timesheets
- Form signed by supervisor
Proving a loss of earnings claim for a self-employed individual or business owner is generally more difficult than with a salaried employee.
Self-Employed Individuals. Proving a loss of earnings claim can more difficult for self-employed claimants because there is usually no supervisor that can verify days of work missed or average pay. Additionally, the income of a self-employed individual is usually less regular and predictable than that of a salaried employee.
Some of the documents that we can use to prove your loss of earnings claim as a self-employed individual or business owner are:
- Tax returns before and after the incident
- Bank statements before and after the incident
- Emails and other communications evidencing missed work opportunities
- Emails and other communications evidencing cancellations
- Payments from past similar jobs to establish a baseline