Lost Wages After a Car Accident in Texas
Lost wages are the easiest category to prove and the one most often under-claimed, because people count the days they missed and stop there. Several other losses sit in the same category and go unmentioned.
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What counts as lost wages
The income you did not earn because of the injury. That includes the obvious days off, but also partial days for medical appointments, reduced hours on a graded return, and shifts you could no longer physically do.
It is not limited to a salary. Overtime you would have worked, shift differentials, commission you did not earn, tips, bonuses tied to performance or attendance, and contract work you turned down are all recoverable where they can be evidenced.
Proving it when you are on a salary
This is the straightforward case. Payroll records and a letter from your employer confirming your rate, the dates absent, and whether you were paid establish it.
Ask the employer letter to state whether the absence was covered by sick leave or vacation. Using accrued leave is still a loss, because you have consumed a benefit you had earned and would otherwise still hold.
Proving it when you are self-employed or paid variably
Harder, and where most under-claiming happens. Tax returns for the preceding two or three years establish a baseline, and profit and loss statements, invoices and bank records show the shortfall.
For seasonal or variable work, compare the same period in previous years rather than the months immediately before, since a like-for-like comparison answers the argument that business was declining anyway.
Lost earning capacity is a different and larger category
Lost wages is what you did not earn up to now. Lost earning capacity is the reduction in what you are able to earn going forward, and it does not require you to be earning less today.
A tradesman who returns to the same wage but can no longer take the physical work that carried his overtime, or who has lost a decade of working life at the end of a career, has lost capacity. It needs medical evidence on restrictions and vocational evidence on what work remains available.
Where sick pay and benefits complicate the arithmetic
Being paid by your employer while off does not necessarily remove the claim, particularly where you used accrued leave that you can no longer take.
Short-term disability payments, and in some cases other benefits, may create a right of reimbursement out of any recovery. That has to be identified before settlement rather than discovered afterwards.
What to gather, and when
Payroll records, an employer letter, tax returns if self-employed, and a written record from each medical appointment confirming you attended. Keep a simple log of dates missed and why.
Do this as you go. Reconstructing a year of partial absences from memory at the end of a claim produces a weaker figure than a contemporaneous record, and employers become less responsive as time passes and staff change.
Summary
| Item | Recoverable | Proved by |
|---|---|---|
| Days absent | Yes | Payroll and employer letter |
| Partial days for appointments | Yes | Appointment records and log |
| Overtime not worked | Yes | History of prior overtime |
| Commission, tips, bonuses | Yes | Prior earnings records |
| Accrued leave used | Generally yes | Employer confirmation |
| Self-employed shortfall | Yes | Tax returns, invoices, bank records |
| Future earning capacity | Separate, larger category | Medical and vocational opinion |
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Frequently asked questions
Generally yes, where you used accrued leave you had earned and can no longer take. Consuming a benefit you already held is a real loss, and the employer letter should state whether the absence was covered by leave.
Tax returns for the preceding two or three years establish a baseline, supported by profit and loss statements, invoices and bank records. For seasonal work, compare the same period in previous years rather than the months immediately before.
Yes, where there is a history establishing you would have earned them. Overtime, shift differentials, commission, tips and performance bonuses are all recoverable if they can be evidenced from prior earnings.
Lost wages is income you did not earn up to now. Lost earning capacity is the reduction in what you can earn going forward, and you can have lost capacity even if you return to the same wage today.
Talk it through with a lawyer
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