Future Loss of Income in Kentucky Wrongful Death Cases

When your family member loses their life as a result of the negligence of another party, no amount of compensation can make it better. However, looking beyond justice and loss, you must face the reality that this loss of life could also be financially devastating to your family if the person who died was a wage earner in the family.

Kentucky law affords victim families the right to seek compensation for the losses they suffer, including future loss of income, with the help of a Lexington wrongful death attorney.

Types of Earnings Used to Calculate Loss of Income

To determine the value of a wrongful death claim, your attorney will evaluate all evidence for each specific type of loss. For loss of income, we look at the earnings a person was likely to have received.

This includes all types of income, such as:

• Salary
• Commissions
• Tips
• Hourly wages
• Overtime
• Bonuses
• Freelance work
• Independent contractor work
• Income from a business
• Income from gigs or second jobs

The objective here is to look at all the income a person was receiving over the last several months. This provides insight into a baseline for calculating future loss of income.

How Future Loss Is Calculated

A variety of factors must be considered to determine how much compensation could be awarded in a wrongful death claim. This includes factors such as:

• The type of work they were doing and the economic opportunities within that career
• The education and skills the person had
• The age a person was at the time of death and the length of time they would likely have continued to work
• The missed opportunities for advancement and continued earnings
• The expected projection of their career and earnings
• Inflationary factors

Utilizing all of these details, your wrongful death lawyer can calculate the overall amount of compensation a person would likely have received had they lived. The losses are then one of the components that dependents may seek after a person’s death.

The burden of proving this value is on the shoulders of your wrongful death attorney. They need to calculate the losses from the death and then consider other factors contributing to those losses.

Comparative Negligence in Wrongful Death

Under Kentucky laws, a system of pure comparative negligence is applicable. That means that a victim who loses their life, who could be partially held accountable for that loss, can still recover damages.

For example, if your loved one died in a motorcycle accident and the police or insurance company says they were 20% responsible for the accident occurring, you can still pursue compensation for their lost earnings.

However, compensation is reduced by the value of the fault assigned to the person. In this case, the value of fault is 20%, meaning the total compensation claimed is reduced by 20% of what could have been owed.

This applies to lost earnings as well as all other types of losses you seek in a wrongful death claim. It becomes essential for your wrongful death attorney to do all they can to reduce this level of fault.

Seek a Legal Team Capable of Building a Strong Claim for You

Gary C. Johnson P.S.C. is consistently working with victim families to help them gain the compensation owed to them in these tragic situations. Contact our Lexington wrongful death attorney to learn more about your rights at a free consultation.