While personal injuries from a New Mexico auto accident may be significant, sometimes the largest measure of damages are the lost wages that an injured person endures. If you really think about it, victims of auto accidents like car crashes and 18 wheeler wrecks have increased medical bills but decreased income to pay those bills. This is why Albuquerque auto accident lawyers like at the Mark Caruso are necessary to ensure that lost wage claims are protected and income is recovered. Learn how calculating lost wages after a New Mexico auto accident occurs.
Step One: Proving You’re Employed
In order to recover lost wages, you need to establish that you are employed and can’t work. This sounds basic, but many contractors or seasonal workers may have a harder time to prove they are employed and entitled to income. This is particularly true of workers who get paid per hour worked and have non-set work schedules. But using prospective negotiations, contracts, potential jobs, and past tax returns and expectancy income can be used to help demonstrate your employment.
Step Two: Proving You Lost Work or Can’t Work
Once you demonstrate that you are employed, you need to demonstrate that your injuries prevented you from work and that you can no longer work. This means establishing that your days off of work were caused by the accident and your injuries, not pre-scheduled days off.
Step Three: Calculating Amount of Lost Wages
Once you have demonstrated you are or were employed at the time of the car accident and that you cannot work or lost work due to the auto accident, you now need to calculate your lost wages.
If you were paid by the hour, calculating the number of hours you missed multiplied by your wage is how to calculate your lost wages. If you lost 100 hours of work and made $20 an hour, you lost wage claim would be $2,000.
If you were paid by a salary, the number of hours you lost needs to be quantified. Generally, most jobs have 2080 weekday hours in a year (40 hours a week multiple by 52 weeks a year). Next you would need to quantify how many hours of work you lost. That would be 8 hours in a typical workday times how many ever days you lost. Therefore, if you are paid $100,000 a year, that would be about $48 an hour. If you lost 50 workdays, that would be 400 hours lost. 400 hours multiple by $48 would be $19,200 in lost wages.
Victims of New Mexico Auto Accidents Who Have Lost Wages Should Call Our Albuquerque Auto Accident Lawyers
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a New Mexico auto accident and lost time from work, please schedule a FREE appointment with our lawyers at the Mark Caruso by dialing (505) 308-1556. We will work hard to calculate your lost wages and prove what you may be entitled to. This is particularly important if you have irregular income or work schedules, but nonetheless are employed. This is because the defendants will try to argue you are not entitled to lost wages because you are not employed or your employment is speculative.
If this is the case, ask us for help. We handle causes throughout New Mexico, including Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Roswell, Cuervo, Rio Rancho, Clovis, Farmington, Hobbs, Albuquerque where our office is located, and anywhere else throughout New Mexico. Please call to schedule for FREE appointment by dialing (505) 308-1556 or contact us through our website’s easy to use and convenient contact box available here.
