Loss of earning capacity
Loss of earning capacity is the value of what an injured person can no longer earn over their working life, which is different from the wages they have already lost and is usually the larger number.
Lost wages are what the client did not earn between the injury and now. Earning capacity is what they will not earn for the rest of their working life, and in a serious case it dwarfs the other.
What it takes to prove
- Work history and earnings records before the injury
- Medical opinion on permanent restrictions
- Vocational assessment of what work remains available
- An economist’s projection, discounted to present value
Why it gets under-claimed
Because the first three are work and the fourth costs money, so on a case that looks like it will settle mid-range, firms sometimes claim the wage loss they can document quickly and leave the capacity claim on the table.
That is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by default, and it depends on knowing what the record actually supports — which is a records question before it is a valuation one.
Not ready to book a call
Send us five pages of a record set. We will send back what we found in it.
Five pages is enough, redacted however you like. You get a short video back within two business days showing what a chronology would surface from it: the dates, the gaps, the things worth knowing before the other side finds them.
- Send five pages of a real file. Redact whatever you like first.
- We run them and record what comes out, including what it misses.
- You get the video within two business days. If there is nothing worth showing, we say so.