Yes, return-to-work limits are compensable in Joliet brain injury cases because cognitive impairments that prevent you from performing your previous job duties constitute recoverable economic damages.
You may be entitled to compensation for reduced earning capacity, lost career advancement opportunities, and the difference between your pre-injury and post-injury wages. If you’ve suffered a brain injury that affects your ability to work, a brain injury lawyer in Joliet can help you recover compensation for all work-related limitations.
Understanding Cognitive Limitations After Brain Injury
Brain injuries affect mental abilities that many jobs require. Memory problems make learning new tasks difficult or impossible. You might struggle to remember instructions, client information, or procedures you performed easily before the injury. Even simple jobs become challenging when you can’t retain information from one day to the next.
Executive function deficits impact your ability to plan, organize, and make decisions. You might have trouble prioritizing tasks, managing your schedule, or solving problems independently. Jobs requiring judgment, multitasking, or supervisory responsibilities become impossible even though you can still perform simple, routine tasks.
Attention and concentration difficulties mean you can’t focus for extended periods or tune out distractions. You might perform well for short bursts but quickly become mentally fatigued. Jobs in noisy environments or those requiring sustained concentration are no longer realistic options.
How Return-to-Work Limitations in Joliet Brain Injury Cases Create Economic Damages
Lost earning capacity represents the difference between what you could have earned without the injury and what you can earn now. If you made $75,000 annually before your injury but can only perform work paying $35,000, that $40,000 annual difference multiplied over your remaining work life represents substantial economic damages.
Career advancement opportunities disappear when cognitive limitations prevent you from taking on increased responsibilities. You might have been on track for promotions, raises, or specialized positions requiring advanced skills. The injury eliminates these possibilities, creating losses that extend beyond your current salary.
Benefits losses add to economic damages when you can’t maintain employment providing health insurance, retirement contributions, or other advantages. Part-time or lower-skilled positions often lack the benefit packages you previously received. The value of lost benefits factors into total compensation calculations.
Medical Evidence Proving Return-to-Work Limitations
Neuropsychological testing provides objective evidence of cognitive deficits that affect work ability. These comprehensive exams measure memory, processing speed, executive function, and attention. Test results show specific impairments and compare your cognitive abilities to expected performance for someone with your education and background.
Functional capacity evaluations assess what you can physically and mentally handle in a work environment. These evaluations test your stamina, concentration over time, and ability to perform various job tasks. Results document limitations that employers must accommodate or that make certain work impossible.
Vocational experts analyze your pre-injury job skills, current cognitive limitations, and realistic employment options. These specialists identify jobs you can still perform and calculate the difference in earning capacity. Their reports provide concrete evidence of economic losses caused by cognitive impairments.
Common Insurance Company Arguments
Insurance adjusters claim that any ability to work means you haven’t lost earning capacity. They ignore the difference between performing any and performing your chosen career. The law recognizes that reduced earning ability creates compensable damages even when you’re not completely disabled.
Defense attorneys may argue that your limitations are temporary and will improve with time. They downplay permanent cognitive deficits by focusing on any incremental improvements during recovery. However, many brain injury symptoms plateau, and remaining deficits often last indefinitely.
Insurance companies minimize lost earning capacity by suggesting jobs you’ve never trained for or couldn’t realistically obtain. Their vocational experts might claim you could earn similar wages in different fields, ignoring practical barriers like lack of experience, training requirements, and employer hiring preferences.
Maximizing Compensation for Return-to-Work Limitations
Gather evidence of your pre-injury earnings, career trajectory, and advancement potential. Pay stubs, tax returns, performance reviews, and information about typical career progression in your field establish what you would have earned. This baseline allows experts to calculate accurate lost earning capacity.
Document your work struggles immediately when attempting to return to employment. Keep records of difficulties concentrating, increased errors, extra time needed for tasks, or supervisor concerns about performance. This contemporaneous evidence proves limitations better than later recollections.
Obtain detailed opinions from treating physicians about specific work restrictions. General statements that you “can’t work” are less effective than explanations of exactly which cognitive functions are impaired and how they prevent particular job duties.
Contact Charlie Therman Injury & Accident Lawyers, P.C.
Return-to-work limitations caused by brain injuries represent real economic losses that deserve full compensation. If you’ve suffered a brain injury in Joliet that affects your ability to work, contact Charlie Therman Injury & Accident Lawyers, P.C. for a free consultation.
We’ll work with medical and vocational experts to prove the full extent of your work limitations and lost earning capacity. Choose Charlie for experienced representation that fights for every dollar you need to secure your financial future.
