Were you involved in an auto accident and as a result lost wages because of time missed at work? Check out this video to learn how you can recover lost wages after a car accident.

My name is Barry Zlotowicz, I’m a Chicago personal injury lawyer. Welcome to the LawFull channel. I have represented a lot of people who suffered injuries in a traffic collision and as a result were unable to work for a long time.

Most people cannot afford to go without receiving a paycheck for very long. Unfortunately, in most states, you will not be able to recover for your lost time until your case settles.

There is one exception. On your auto insurance policy, you may have “Personal Injury Protection” or PIP coverage. A PIP clause may provide you coverage for your lost wages and your medical bills. PIP coverage is usually $2,500 or $5,000.

If you suffered damages from a car accident, make sure you ask your auto insurance company if you have PIP coverage and how you can recover from your own policy. Be advised though, if you were injured by a third party and receive compensation after the accident for your injuries, your insurance company will expect to be reimbursed for the money they put out on your behalf from your settlement.

So the good news is that you can recover for your lost wages. But how do you obtain reimbursement? It’s actually pretty simple. There’s no art to calculating loss of earnings. In most cases, your personal injury attorney will send a form to your employer seeking confirmation of your lost wages. Our is called simply a “Lost wages verification form.” And they will attach a release signed by our client confirming that the employer is authorized to provide us the information. We have had very few instances where an employer did not ultimately help their employee out by filling out the form.

If you want a copy of my lost wages verification form, I’m happy to share it with you. Just email me at [email protected]. I have no problem sharing that form or any other forms I might have with any of you.

Something to keep in mind though, is the insurance company is not just going to give you money because you lost wages. You are going to need to demonstrate that you lost the wages BECAUSE OF your injuries.

So for example, if youre in a desk job and suffer a broken leg. But the doctor clears you to go back to work. . . Don’t sit at home thinking you can take extra time off. You are going to have to prove that you missed that time because of your injury.

Another question clients always ask me is whether should continue to take time off or should they go back to work. And my answer is always the same. If you are able to go back to work, go back to work. Do not stay home because you think it will enhance your damages from the car accident.

Ok, so another way to obtain reimbursement is providing your W2’s or paystubs to confirm your lost earnings. I’ve also helped clients who lost stock options and other forms of compensation as a result of being injured. This is tougher to recover for but with proper documentation is obtainable.

I’ve also represented a few people who were involved in an Uber car accident. The drivers of the Uber lost wages and alleged that as a result of the accident they were not able to drive their car for several weeks. In those cases, I’ve asked my clients to go into their Uber app and download confirmation of how much money they made in the eight weeks prior to the accident to show what they made per week on average.

This could apply for delivery drivers and other people who have a non traditional form of compensation set up. And this is becoming more and more common as our economy continues to evolve.

By the way, in some cases you may be able to recover for loss of future earning potential. You may be able to recover for lost pay increases or losing a promotion. Lost wages is really a very general concept. But with the right documentation, it is very recoverable.

Just don’t think that if you tell the insurance company that you lost wages that they will reimburse you. It doesn’t work that way. Before an insurance company will compensate you or at least significantly compensate you, you’re going to have to document it.