If you’re injured in a car accident and you are unable to work, you may want to get paid for your lost wages. This article applies to auto accident cases if you are injured.
I am not going to talk about who may pay you benefits if you are injured at work as it is outside the scope of this article.
Even if your negligence caused a car accident in Florida, if you are covered under PIP it may pay for 60% of the money that you did not get paid because you were not able to work. You can also make a claim against a potential defendant, whose negligence caused your accident, for the amount that PIP does not pay you.
Once your car insurance has paid $10,000 under the PIP portion of your auto insurance policy, your car insurance will not pay for your lost wages. You will then have to make a claim against the person or company who caused your accident if you want to get paid for lost wages for not being able to work.
If an auto accident, many potential defendants may be liable for your lost wages. The same is true in any other type of injury case. You still want to follow these tips below.
If you want to get paid for missing work, you need to do these 4 things:
1. Make a Claim.
You need to call (or request in writing) your car insurance company and tell them that you were in a car accident and that you can’t work because you were injured. If you have short term disability insurance (STD), which most people don’t, make a claim with your STD insurance company as well as your car insurance company.
2. Give the Crash Report to the Insurer.
You need to give the crash report to your own car insurance company. If you were not given an accident report at the time of the accident, you can call (or request in writing) the local police department to make sure it is ready. In Florida, a crash report usually doesn’t cost more than $10.
3. Get a Doctor’s Note.
This applies if you work for a company or if you are you work for yourself. You need to get a doctor’s note saying that you are excused from work because of your injuries. If you went to the hospital after your accident, you were given papers (discharge papers) when you left.
These papers should say that you shouldn’t work for a certain number of days. You should give these papers to your insurance company – and the liability insurance company for the person that caused your accident – as soon as possible.
Your insurance may pay you for the missed work if they believe that if your absence from work was related to your injuries from the car accident. Good insurance companies will fight your wage loss claim less than insurance companies that aren’t as good.
If you went to the doctor after the accident, ask the doctor to give you a note saying that you can’t work because of the accident. Even if the hospital (or doctor’s notes) doesn’t excuse you from work, you should still give any medical records that you have to your own auto insurance company as soon as possible.
4. Have a Wage and Salary Verification form completed.
You should have your employer sign a written form that says that you haven’t worked (for certain dates) since your car accident. Your employer should state the amount of money that you were paid for each week (or 2 weeks) for the 13 weeks before the accident.
This form needs to say that you haven’t been paid for the time that you missed work after your accident. The form should also state the time (date hiring and present date) that you have worked for your employer. You should provide this form to the insurance adjuster for your insurance company as soon as possible.
I have attached a sample wage and loss verification form that you can send to the insurance company so they can pay you for your lost wages.
Were you injured in an accident?
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