| In a personal injury lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks damages | | | | hour. Suddenly, they get hit in the head and sustain |
| from the defendant for medical bills, pain and suffering, | | | | significant brain damage and now can only work |
| loss of ability to enjoy life and lost wages into the | | | | flipping burgers at McDonald’s. While this person |
| future. Depending on the job and type of injury, the | | | | was only a clerk at the time of the injury, there is a |
| amount of money rewarded for lost wages can vary | | | | very likely chance that they could have worked hard |
| vastly. Personal injury lawyer, Charles Flaxman, a | | | | and risen to partner and within 10 years be making |
| lawyer at Flaxman Law Group based in south Florida, | | | | $300,000 a year. So how do you know? And how do |
| sheds some light on how to calculate lost wages. | | | | you prove it? We hire vocational rehabilitation experts |
| Lost wages in the past and, even more so, in the | | | | as well as economists. They will testify as to the |
| future, are sometimes tough to quantify, but there are | | | | present value of money and what others lawyers are |
| ways and means which we have developed to | | | | making and how long on average it takes to rise to |
| attempt to do exactly that. Depending on the | | | | that position and they project that forward and |
| person’s job, their age, the typical upward mobility | | | | calculate based on that what this person might have |
| for that career and a variety of other factors, we are | | | | been making, compared to what he is able to make |
| able to make a rough calculation as to how much | | | | after the accident, and subtract and reward the |
| money this person will lose because of this injury. | | | | difference. |
| There are easy examples of how we do this and | | | | In cases like these, there is no hard science and |
| much harder ones. An easier case would be if | | | | everything is really just an educated guess. That is |
| someone has been working the same copper mine for | | | | why a good lawyer can artfully spin these numbers |
| 20 years, with 2% raise each year and 15 years until | | | | into the highest damages possible. There will always |
| retirement. We can probably figure with some pretty | | | | be a push and pull and compromise will come either in |
| simple calculations about how much money this person | | | | the mediation room or the courtroom. The plaintiff will |
| will not be making if they are never able to work again. | | | | claim he could have been a partner, while the |
| But then there are tougher cases to put a dollar | | | | defendant will claim they would have never risen past |
| amount on. Let’s say a young person just | | | | file clerk. In the end, depending on the lawyer, the jury, |
| graduated law school. It’s their first year out and | | | | and most especially the credibility of the plaintiff, a |
| they are a clerk in a huge law firm for 12 dollars an | | | | somewhat happy medium will be reached. |