Are you strapped financially following a car accident? One of the most important no fault benefits is lost wage reimbursement. Call us today.
The statute provides for an up to 80% lost wage reimbursement and that wage reimbursement is tax free. Whatever you receive from no fault you do not report to on your taxes at the end of the year because there has been a bargain struck that the no fault carrier only has to pay 80% but you also then do not have to claim that on your taxes.
Lost Wage Reimbursement | How it Works
The no fault system is designed to keep your nose above water while you’re healing. If you are truly disabled from work your doctors will provide you with these disability notes every 30 days. Those must be given both to me and often to your employer. Your employer is going to process those with a short term disability carrier and we process that with a no fault carrier. We have a dedicated no fault paralegal who’ll handle all this for you and will send in those notes the same day they are received by us.
What happens with the disability notes is that they provide confirmation to the insurance company that you are disabled according to that specialty. Oftentimes they will choose a specialty doctor to examine you and attempt to cut you off of care and wages.
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For example, if the chiropractic IAM determines that you can return to work based on that specialty, but you are also treated with an orthopedic surgeon or a pain management doctor and those doctors provide notes on disability then typically we can have the lost wage reimbursement benefit continued because we have a different specialist disabling you based upon their area of specialty.
There are no fault wages benefits that can last up to three years and are designed to provide you with income while you heal and recover from disability from a car crash. In the first 26 weeks you receive partial payment from a New York state disability policy through work. Once that exhausts, then no fault will kick in and you’ll get the full 80% check for the no fault carrier. We often get questions about this, and because people are more concerned or very concerned about paying their bills, paying their mortgage, how can they keep their family intact when they can’t get out of the bed in the morning? This is a benefit that is critical, and we handle it very assertively and if there are any issues at all we automatically get a wage denial of our arbitration.
Lost Wage Reimbursement | Self-Employed
One other topic that’s also brought up is by people who are self-employed. If you are self-employed you are also entitled to loss wage benefits, however, it’s a bit trickier. Oftentimes they require the last three years of income tax returns, your books maybe a customer lest, receipts and proof of what your actual expenses were. You are still entitled to lost wage benefits but because you’re self-employed you must provide information similar to that that you provide with your account. Although it often is a bit of the battle with the insurance carrier we fight this battle every day and also our paralegal who does only this, is someone that you can turn to or call whenever there’s any issue, any concern regarding any document or paperwork or forms needed to be filled out.
If you need a personal injury attorney in Buffalo that can help you with your lost wage reimbursement benefits, please contact our office today. We offer free consultations with our car accident lawyers.
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