How Will a Brain Injury Affect Your Ability to Earn Income?

Realizing that your brain injury may not be temporary is terrifying. What you thought was a short-term recovery suddenly becomes something much more permanent, forcing you to confront how many parts of your life may look different moving forward.

At Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC, we have helped injury victims understand the full scope of their injuries and seek fair compensation since 1973. One of the most important life changes you need to be planning for right now is how your brain injury may affect your ability to earn an income.

A brain injury can affect your ability to earn income in a few ways. It can:

• Limit the type or number of hours you can work.
• Prevent you from returning to your previous job or career.
• Cause ongoing symptoms that disrupt the consistency and reliability necessary to hold a job.
• Affect your job performance, which can affect your ability to advance in your career and increase your income.

Without considering these long-term impacts on your earning potential, you may not secure the compensation needed to support your future.

Why Do Serious Brain Injuries Affect Your Work Capacity?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 55% of brain injury victims are unemployed five years post-injury. This is because a serious brain injury fundamentally changes how your brain functions and responds to the demands of a work environment.

Common challenges brain injury victims face include:

•   Cognitive Issues: Difficulties with memory, attention, problem-solving, and decision-making can make it hard to perform job duties effectively.
•   Mental Fatigue: Simple tasks can cause significant mental exhaustion, leading to burnout and an inability to maintain a consistent work schedule.
•   Emotional and Behavioral Changes: You may experience increased irritability, anxiety, depression, or slowed information processing, which can affect workplace interactions and performance.

These challenges can significantly alter your ability to perform your job as you did before the injury.

Can I Still Work at All After a Serious Brain Injury?

Your ability to work after a brain injury depends entirely on your specific circumstances. The extent of your work capability exists on a spectrum, and where you fall on this scale will directly affect the kind of compensation you should seek in your injury claim. The scale can be broken down as follows:

• Full Capacity: You can return to your previous job without any restrictions. Compensation in this case may cover medical bills and lost wages during your recovery period.
• Reduced Capacity: You can still work, but you need accommodations, reduced hours, or a different, less demanding job. You might receive compensation for the difference between your pre-injury and post-injury earning potential, known as “loss of earning capacity.”
• Total Disability: Your injury prevents you from returning to any form of employment. You would seek compensation for all future lost income for the remainder of your expected working life.

The only way to determine your long-term work capacity is to work closely with medical professionals who can properly assess your condition.

How Do Medical Professionals Assess Future Abilities After a Brain Injury?

Before anyone can understand how a brain injury affects your future earning potential, medical professionals first have to evaluate how the injury impacts your day-to-day functioning. These assessments are a key part of both treatment and a personal injury claim, and they may include:

• Neuropsychological Testing: Measures cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function.
• Medical Record and Symptom Review: Provides a full picture of your diagnosis, treatment history, and ongoing symptoms.
• Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCEs): Assesses your ability to perform work-related tasks over the course of a typical workday, not just in short intervals.
• Vocational Assessments: Evaluates whether you can meet the demands of employment, including maintaining a schedule, following instructions, and performing job duties in a real-world setting.

Taken together, these evaluations provide objective evidence of how the injury affects your ability to function and work.

How Do Professionals Calculate Future Earning Potential After a Brain Injury?

Once medical professionals establish your functional limitations, financial and vocational experts build on that information to determine what those limitations mean for your future income.

Vocational experts compare your skills, education, and work history before the injury to what types of jobs you can realistically perform afterward, taking into account current labor market conditions. From there, economic experts translate those findings into financial terms by calculating lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and the value of lost benefits or career advancement opportunities.

This combined analysis helps create a clear picture of the difference between what you likely would have earned over your lifetime and what you can now earn after the injury.

What Should I Do If I Am Worried About How I Will Support Myself After a Brain Injury?

If your brain injury affects your ability to earn a living, it is important to understand your legal options and start the claims process. A brain injury claim is the legal path to help you recover lost wages, your loss of earning capacity, and future financial support. You do not have to figure this out alone. An experienced attorney can guide you through the process and build a strong case for you.

Your Life May Be Changing, but You Still Deserve Stability

A long-term brain injury can completely change your ability to work and make a living. When you realize your ability to earn income may be affected, you need to start planning and taking action.

Our personal injury team at Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC can help. Contact our office today to discuss your case and find the answers you need.