What is loss of earning capacity?
Loss of earning capacity is the loss of the ability to work and earn money. It may be an amount equal to lost wages as a result of the injuries received in the incident. If your child had suffered permanent injuries that affect his or her ability to work and earn money, it includes those monies likely to lost in the future because of the injuries. The reason loss of earning capacity may exceed lost wages is because sometimes it can be shown that a person is earning a particular wage only temporarily and will be progressing up the income ladder. For example, if a college student is injured and can never work again, it would be unfair to say that the student’s earning capacity is what he or she was making at a part-time job at McDonald’s. Instead, expert witnesses are employed to demonstrate the likely earnings of the student over his or her work-life expectancy if the injury had not occurred.
