If someone is killed or injured because of the wrongful act of another or is denied promotion or fired wrongfully, that person may be entitled to recover wage loss as part of his or her damages. This includes the loss of past income as well as future income that is reasonably certain to be lost or reduced in the future. This also includes loss of benefits such as vacation pay, sick pay, medical/dental insurance coverage (when a job is lost), retirement benefits and contributions. In wrongful death actions, if the decedent was providing financial support to a family member or domestic partner, that individual can seek to recover loss of income that he or she would have expected to receive for the reasonable life expectancy of the decedent.A person’s time has an economic value even if he or she was not working. For example, the efforts of a care-giving parent or child who is unable to provide support and care have a value called the loss of household services. The law recognizes that often, someone will have to be hired to provide this support and there is compensation available for those damages.An injured person who is harmed by the wrongful act of another is entitled to be compensated for any time missed from work. This is true even if the employer pays for time off using sick leave, vacation leave or disability leave. A defendant’s obligation is not reduced because you use your sick time or vacation time or your employer pays you for your time off. That would be a windfall for the defendant. Unless the defendant is a government agency or medical provider (in a medical negligence case), it can’t introduce this payment by a third party. (This is called the collateral course evidence rule.)
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