If a car accident ends your ability to work, or permanently changes what work you’re capable of doing, New York’s no-fault insurance system won’t cover the full extent of that loss. It pays a portion of short-term lost wages, but leaves you without compensation for a career cut short, a trade you can no longer practice, or decades of future earnings that you will never see.
In this scenario, you need to step outside the no-fault system and pursue a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver.
Key Takeaways
- New York’s no-fault coverage can reimburse 80% of lost wages, limited to $2,000 per month, for a maximum of three years.
- Lost earning capacity is a separate and potentially far larger category of damages available through a personal injury lawsuit when the serious injury threshold is met.
- Lost earning capacity is not the same as lost wages. It measures the long-term reduction in your ability to earn.
- With the help of personal injury attorneys and professionals like economic experts and life-care planners, you can establish the full value of a lost earning capacity claim.
Lost Wages vs. Lost Earning Capacity: A Critical Distinction
No-fault was designed for quick and limited relief. It doesn’t help seriously injured people who lose the ability to earn.
- Lost wages, which are reimbursed by up to 80% for three years in a no-fault payment, are past income that you would have earned while recovering.
- Lost earning capacity is the reduction in your ability to earn income over the remainder of your working life. It’s a forward-looking calculation that accounts for your career trajectory, likely promotions, industry trends, and the gap between what you could earn and what you are now capable of earning.
Suing for Lost Earning Capacity and Meeting the Serious Injury Threshold
To pursue lost earning capacity in a lawsuit, you must clear New York’s serious injury threshold under Insurance Law § 5102(d). The categories that closely align with career-ending injuries are Permanent Consequential Limitation of Use and Significant Limitation of Use. Both of these require objective medical evidence to prove a lasting functional restriction.
Defense teams use experts to challenge these figures. Cases for economic damages in serious injury cases are fought mostly between competing expert witnesses.
In a practical sense, most injuries severe enough to permanently remove someone from their career will almost always satisfy the threshold. The threshold is less of a concern in these cases. The real challenge is building the economic case to its full value.
Do’s and Don’ts if You Plan to Sue for Lost Earning Capacity
A few missteps can seriously damage a lost earning capacity claim.
What You Should Do:
- DO seek treatment immediately after the accident. Follow medical advice. Keep all records.
- DO contact a Long Island personal injury attorney as early as possible to evaluate your case.
- DO prepare financial and professional records that support your career path and historical earnings.
What You Should Not Do:
- DO NOT return to work prematurely. The defense can use this to argue that your limitations aren’t as severe as claimed.
- DO NOT leave gaps in your treatment or records that could undermine medical causation.
- DO NOT accept an early settlement before the full extent of personal limitations is known. After you settle, you can make no further claims.
- DO NOT assume that no-fault coverage is sufficient without consulting an attorney about potential broader damages.
The Raimondo Law Firm is Ready to Assess Your Case
The Raimondo Law Firm will help you fight for your rights with legal support and representation in a lost earning capacity case. We will assist with evidence gathering and will engage with expert witnesses to:
- Project lifetime earnings using actuarial tables, wage growth data, and other relevant data.
- Assess your functional limitation, remaining work capacity, and realistic labor market options.
- Project the full cost of ongoing care (for permanent disability) and how it affects your work capacity.
- Establish the permanence of your injuries and symptoms with medical experts to prove how they are the underlying factor in the economic loss.
We work with respected forensic economists, vocational rehabilitation experts, car planners, and medical experts to ensure the strongest cases. You pay nothing if we don’t win.
Your career was part of your life. If you have lost your ability to earn, then that same career deserves to be part of your serious injury claim. Contact The Raimondo Law Firm for your free case review today. We are available for your call at (631) 471-1222.
