Disabling Injuries Can Impact Earning Capacity

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

If a person suffers a long-term disabling injury, it becomes important to understand the negative impact the injury will have on their capacity to earn a living.

The federal government collects information about the impact of disabilities on the ability to work. The information is cataloged in tables on workforce statistics. Many businesses rely on such information including insurance carriers.

Not surprisingly people who experience a disabling injury do not participate in the labor market to the same extent as do able-bodied persons. Their lack of participation is not because they don’t want to participate, it’s because they qualify for fewer jobs.

Also not surprisingly, those who actually do find a job that will enable them to work within their medically stated work restrictions, experience lower earnings.

Let’s discuss an example.

A person disabled in an accident may be told by the doctor that they must take a job that keeps them sedentary for most of the day.

Before the injury incident, that now disabled individual was working full-time on a factory assembly line.

On the assembly line, they were making $50 per hour in part due to a well-negotiated union contract.

Following their injury they ask to go back to the assembly line, but they are told that there is no place on the assembly line for someone who must remain seated the entire work day.

The number of jobs now obtainable by the person disabled in the accident is now very limited.

They are foreclosed from doing the high-paying assembly line job.

Because they need to earn some income, they keep looking and they find a job where they sit at a cashier counter at a convenience store. They are very thankful to get the job, but it only pays them $12 an hour.

But pay is not the only benefit of working.

When the person worked on the assembly line they had a pension benefit, they also had paid health insurance, and they got five weeks vacation paid every year.

Not only does the sedentary cashier clerk job, pay less than ¼ the amount they were earning pre-injury, but now they have no pension benefits, no health insurance benefits, and no paid vacation.

Also, since their income is lower, the amount that social security will pay them at retirement is less.

For a young person a loss in earnings capacity, and loss in benefits, can add up to hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, over a lifetime.

The options for the person who is suddenly thrust into a job market where they must remain sedentary are also limited by their educational background.

In other words, there are many more sedentary jobs for people who have college degrees. If the person suffering a disabling injury has only a high school degree, the number of jobs open to them within their medical restrictions might be quite limited.

So how do attorneys explain to juries the full ramifications of a disabling injury?

Sometimes it is necessary to call as a witness an economist who can make calculations in detail so as to make clear the real loss flowing from a disabling injury.

These experts quantify the preinjury annual earning capacity and calculate the preinjury work life expectancy. Then they quantify the post-injury annual earning capacity and the post-injury work life expectancy.

You might be thinking that the work-life expectancy of a person won’t change just because of a disabling injury, but there actually may be a great change in work-life expectancy.

Where a medical doctor limits someone to sedentary work, they may also be able to state that due to the injury, the person will no longer be able to work until age 70, but rather will need to retire at age 60.

A lifetime loss can be complicated to calculate. But once you understand the factors that could affect the calculation most people called to serve on a jury will have no difficulty understanding the concept.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”