What Happens If an Auto Accident Leaves You Unable to Work?

Car accidents are frightening and traumatic, especially when they end in painful injuries that leave you temporarily unable to work or, even worse, cause permanent disability. A permanent disability may render the injury victim unable to return to work at all, leaving them facing an uncertain future. How does an auto accident claim in Illinois address an injury victim’s inability to work? Get legal help from our Chicago car accident attorney to learn more.

Understanding Diminished Earning Capacity In a Car Accident Claim

After a car accident in Illinois, the state’s modified comparative negligence system allows an injury victim to recover compensation for their damages. Common damages recovered in claims include the following economic consequences of an accident:

• Reimbursement for medical expenses
• Future medical expenses
• Out-of-pocket injury-related costs
• Lost earnings and future income loss
• Diminished future earning ability due to disability

When a catastrophic injury leaves a car accident victim unable to work, they can recover compensation for permanent income loss or diminished future earning ability.

In addition to compensation for economic damages, an injury victim may recover compensation for non-economic damages, such as:

• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Compensation for loss of enjoyment of life or diminished quality of life
• Compensation for emotional trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, or sleep disturbances

An experienced Illinois car accident lawyer seeks the maximum compensation available to an injury victim with diminished future earning capacity due to disability. A successful auto accident claim for lost earnings or diminished earning capacity requires compelling evidence of the at-fault party’s liability.

Proving Liability When an Accident Leaves You Unable to Work

Before an auto accident victim can recover compensation for diminished earning capacity or catastrophic injury damages, they must have compelling evidence of the at-fault driver’s liability. The evidence must demonstrate the following legal standards of liability:

• The at-fault party owed a duty of reasonable care to the injury victim (all drivers owe a duty of care to others on the road, requiring them to follow traffic laws, avoid distraction, and not to drive while impaired)
• They breached this duty through negligence
• The breach of duty directly caused the accident and injuries
• The injury victim suffered damages from the injury (including the inability to work and earn an income, either temporarily or permanently)

In some cases, other entities contribute to a car accident; for example, if a negligent road maintenance agency left a dangerous pothole, causing another driver to swerve into your lane, both the driver and the road-maintenance agency could be held liable, increasing the amount of compensation available to an injury victim who is unable to return to work due to their injuries.

How Long Do I Have to File a Claim For Diminished Earning Capacity?

Like all states, Illinois limits the time an injury victim has to file a claim for damages, including in car accident cases. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, the state’s statute of limitations in auto accident cases is two years from the date of the accident. Sometimes the state will extend, or “toll,” the statute of limitations for an injury victim who discovers an injury later.

For instance, if a doctor diagnoses nerve damage that causes muscle weakness as resulting from spinal column trauma from a car accident three months after the injury date, the statute of limitations begins on the date of discovery, or when the injury should reasonably have been discovered.