If you get injured either at work or outside it, you can suffer serious financial consequences if you then have to be off work for a period of time. When you put it in perspective, you work so that you can pay your bills, but what you and your family need and from time to time enjoy are the finer things of life such as a ball game, a good restaurant meal, or a holiday.
Being off work means you lose your income for the period of time that you are incapacitated, and in a grimmer scenario, if your injury has a long-term impact on your ability to work, you could suffer a significant financial burden in the future.
A major problem here is that you could have been developing a successful career, working for promotions, and moving up the ladder, but a gap in your ability to work for a time can prove to be a big stumbling block in your future career development. You are out of the loop and, depending on how much time you have to take off, may find it difficult to climb the ladder again as others may have been appointed to higher positions while you were away.
Planning your finances
No one wants to think about the potential pitfalls in life that lie ahead, and accidents don’t happen to everyone. However, it’s sensible to think ahead about what you would do if you were in that unfortunate position of being involved in a workplace injury or other personal injury situation.
Taking out insurance is an important way to help ensure you can be recompensed if you are injured and off work. You could examine the possibilities for getting insurance that will protect regular payments that you have to make – such as your mortgage and your utility bills – but it is absolutely essential that you are in an eligible position to benefit from it. It’s no use realizing that one piece of small print means you can’t make a claim. The insurers need to be upfront about who is and isn’t eligible, so it’s vital to ask the right questions.
Another way that you can plan for financial difficulties is to build up your savings. This can be particularly helpful when you may be waiting for a claim to be settled and, when it is, you can replace the money that you have been using for your day-to-day living expenses. It’s well worth getting into the habit of saving as soon as you start to work. The chances are you’ll have disposable income that can add to your pot before the expense of having a family kicks in.
Take legal advice
Whether you are losing income due to an injury or losing earning capacity – the latter refers to the decrease in your ability to earn income – you should always take sound legal advice. In relation to understanding the phrase “losing earning capacity”, consider if you had undergone a permanent shoulder injury in a car accident that left you unable to perform what used to be simple tasks such as lifting or even typing on a computer with two hands. It could thus impair your future ability to work.
Loss of income is easier to determine. For example, if your car accident prevented you from working for a week, you would have lost the income and benefits you would have received for that period of time. In a workplace or other scenario, whoever was responsible for the injury should be insured so that you will be covered for all eventualities, but it can take time for claims to go through and compensation to be paid.
This is why taking on a personal injury attorney can make a real difference. New Jersey lawyer David Sinderbrand has 27 years of experience in civil trials and provides an accessible service for a wide range of legal problems. These include dealing with car accidents, slip and fall accidents, and medical malpractice. As a specialist personal injury lawyer, he brings a more personalized service to help you cut through all the legal difficulties that come with making claims.
Being prepared
Awareness of what could happen to you inside or outside the workplace means you can get yourself prepared for any potential loss of income or loss of income capacity. By taking skilled and knowledgeable advice from trained, experienced legal professionals, you can reach the right outcome to help you get through a difficult physical and financial time.
