Loss of Earnings and Benefits

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

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about getting full compensation for injuries suffered by the caller in a car crash. The caller decided to retire three years early because she couldn’t take the pain any longer. She wanted to know her legal rights.

In order to answer her question we had to get answers to a few more questions of our own.

What we learned is that her doctor related her symptoms to the crash. But, the doctor did not take her off work. She decided on her own that the pain was too much for her to keep working.

In fact, her doctor recommended that she have surgery to correct the condition caused by the crash. However, the doctor refused to do the surgery himself because the doctor felt other health issues would prevent her from surviving going under the knife.

Also, though the doctor related the injury to the crash, the doctor did not say she should stay off of work, although the doctor said he understood that working would be very painful. Moreover, the doctor said that while working would be painful, it would not make the patient’s condition worse.

So the question is: if your doctor says you are injured as a result of another’s negligence, need surgery but can’t get the surgery, and without the surgery, you’re going to be suffering with pain made worse by working, but working won’t worsen the underlying condition, can you opt on your own to retire early, and ask a court to order the defendant to compensate you for the losses suffered from retiring early?

The answer is it depends. It would be clear-cut if the doctor said working would cause more damage to you. In that case, you definitely could seek compensation for lost wages and benefits and a lower lifetime Social Security payout, as well as increased insurance premiums due to early retirement, loss of continuing contributions to a pension fund due to early retirement, and the like.

The caller’s case is a bit different though. Her doctor confirmed that working would certainly elevate the patient’s pain, but would not make the condition worse.

Under such facts, some courts might say that the patient is not justified in retiring early. Some courts would say that unless a doctor takes you off work, you cannot ask the wrongdoer to compensate you for the money and benefits that you would lose by retiring early.

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.”