Returning to Work for Less Pay After a Traumatic Brain Injury

Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer Protects TBI Survivors’ Legal Rights to Get Paid for Their Losses

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can devastate more than just physical and emotional health. Survivors of brain injuries are sometimes forced to accept jobs that pay far less than their previous roles. The financial strain of reduced earning potential greatly exacerbates an already challenging road to recovery.

Compassionate to the profound effect of such circumstances, our Virginia brain injury lawyers at The Mottley Law Firm fight tirelessly to secure the funds necessary to cover medical costs and lost wages, both current and well into the future. Take action today to hold liable parties accountable and regain the financial stability you need.

Accounting for Diminished Earning Capacity After a TBI

After suffering any type of traumatic brain injury, survivors may experience a myriad of symptoms. TBI victims may recuperate from some of these symptoms in a few weeks or months with proper treatment. By filing a personal injury lawsuit, they may be able to recover lost wages from not working during this healing and rehabilitation period.

Something that many TBI survivors overlook, however, is the long-lasting impact of their brain injuries. They may never fully recover from their symptoms, resulting in diminished lifelong earnings. It’s not just one or two missed paychecks: it’s the difference between what they would have earned without the accident and what they can earn now that they suffered a traumatic brain injury.

In especially severe cases, people who have suffered a brain injury may not return to work at all. Often, though, TBI survivors return to lower-paying jobs than they had held previously. The lost earning capacity is due to a range of impairments they may now experience, such as:

Impaired gross and fine motor skills

Difficulty standing, walking, and other mobility issues

Vision problems, like blurry vision and heightened light sensitivity

Other sensory issues, such as hearing and balance

Language and communication problems

Emotional dysregulation and poor impulse control

Short-term memory loss and deficiencies

Cognitive issues, like reasoning, planning, and problem-solving

Challenges in learning new skills and procedures

Behavioral and personality issues, such as depression and anxiety

For example, let’s say you’re on the sales team of a car dealership, and always had the ability to deliver increasingly impressive sales numbers. You were next in line to be promoted to department management later in your career but then suffered a traumatic brain injury. Because of complications from your TBI, like the ones referenced above, you’re able to work, but now in more of a clerk position, and that’s as high as you’ll advance. You can draw similar projections for other career trajectories.

A Unique Focus On Traumatic Brain Injuries

My focus on representing TBI survivors is also unique. Most personal injury lawyers cast a very large net. They pursue, and will gladly accept, any case (large or small) that falls under the general “personal injury” heading. You can spot these practices by looking at their websites and clicking on the “practice areas” drop-down list. What you will see are many practice areas, only one of which will be “traumatic brain injury.” Think of these firms as the Wal-Mart Supercenters of the personal injury lawyer world. Wal-Mart has at least one of everything. The same can be said of most personal injury firms. They handle everything.

Nothing is wrong with such retail personal injury practices. My point is not to criticize that “generalist” approach to personal injury law. My point is simply to illustrate that my practice is different, just like a small nursery selling 20 different types of specialty garden hoses is different than a Wal-Mart selling one type of garden hose. Just like the nursery, I focus on one type of personal injury case – the traumatic brain injury case – and one type of client – the traumatic brain injury survivor.

Considering the Full Compensation Package From Work

When contemplating the impact of traumatic brain injuries and diminished earning capacity, it’s important to factor in all forms of pay an employee may receive from their job. After a slip and fall brain injury, you may lose out on not only your base salary or hourly wage. The effects of this accident can extend to performance bonuses, future raises, health benefits, paid time off (PTO), and other forms of compensation. Reduced earning capacity also compromises the size of your pension, as it’s not uncommon for brain injury survivors to retire earlier for health reasons than they would have without the TBI.

Using the car salesperson example above, it’s impossible to predict with certainty where your career would have gone had you not suffered a TBI, as there’s always some level of speculation involved. However, based on our experience with numerous cases like these, the traumatic injury brain team at The Mottley Law Firm will examine, collect, and present evidence to support this speculation. We’ll describe how your TBI may affect your earning capacity for the remainder of your career. These projections are vital for fairly evaluating the possible worth of a personal injury claim.

How to Calculate Lifetime Reduced Earnings

While it’s impossible to definitively predict the exact value of reduced earnings over a lifetime, it is possible to calculate a reasonable estimate for lost income. This differs from calculating current lost wages, which can be based on pay stubs and other evidence from before the injury. If a person earns $1,000 in a typical week and is out of work for 10 weeks, they’ve lost $10,000 in current wages.

To estimate a reasonable dollar figure representing total diminished earning capacity, The Mottley Law Firm may enlist the insight of vocational experts. Potential factors in this calculation may include:

How the impairment affects a person’s ability to do the job they had before injury.
How the TBI symptoms impact the person’s possible career trajectory.
The possible loss of future opportunities and promotions.
The likelihood they will be hired by another company for a similar job.
Whether the person can reasonably pivot to a different career path.
Whether they would be able to take on additional training and skills development.
The estimated number of years left in their working life.
Wages and other earnings from before the traumatic brain injury accident.
Fair market value for the person’s skills and experience before their injury.
Any reduction in hours or productivity resulting from the TBI.
Whether the workplace can make reasonable accommodations.

The objective is to project how much the plaintiff loses over their lifetime as a result of suffering their brain injury. A younger person who had a bright future ahead of them may be eligible for a larger settlement than an older adult on the cusp of retirement.

Consult Our Virginia Brain Injury Attorneys

When there are complex legal terms and a need for strategy negotiations with insurance companies, it’s prudent to retain the services of a skilled traumatic brain injury legal team to safeguard your interests after such a devastating accident. At the Mottley Law Firm, we leave no stone unturned as we advocate for your right to maximum compensation.

It’s crucial to consider the long-term ramifications of your injuries before accepting any settlement offer. In one case, we represented a client who suffered a concussion and PTSD when she was rear-ended at a stop light. Doctors confirmed that she was unable to continue working as an orthopedic trauma nurse. The car crash permanently damaged her employability. After private mediation, the case settled for $2 million one month before trial.

Have You Or A Loved One Suffered A Traumatic Brain Injury In Virginia?

If you believe you or a loved one suffered a TBI, an experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer can help you focus on recovery instead of fighting a complex battle against an insurance company and the people who caused the injury.

The passion of The Mottley Law Firm is protecting the legal rights of clients who have suffered life-disrupting brain injuries. No matter where you are in Virginia, we want to hear from you. Contact us online or call our Richmond office at (804) 409-0876 to schedule your free consultation.

We welcome clients throughout Virginia, including the communities of Bon Air, Glen Allen, Highland Springs, Laurel, Mechanicsville, Short Pump, and Tuckahoe.

We also have the ability to handle personal injury cases across the United States with appropriate local counsel admitted in the jurisdiction. Schedule your confidential consultation today.