Damages for Lost Income in Your Personal Injury Case

September 6, 2017 by Adam Bergeron

The term “damages” in a personal injury case consists of the total compensation owed to the injured person.

Every personal injury case includes damages for medical expenses and pain and suffering caused by the person’s injuries.

But it’s important to evaluate whether the injured person has suffered lost income damages as well. Lost income damages can include both past and future lost income when a person is unable to work because of injuries.

Past lost income claims can be easy to calculate. For example, if you are an employee earning $500 each week and missed three weeks of work due to injuries, your past lost income claim is $1,500. Past lost income claims can also be very complicated. Sometimes earnings can vary from week to week because a person works overtime, works multiple jobs with an inconsistent schedule, or is self-employed. In other cases, a person can lose an opportunity to earn income, such as a self-employed contractor who loses a big contract. In the more complicated cases, the key is to document and explain exactly how the past lost income claim is calculated. We do this with paystubs, W2’s, tax returns, contracts, letters, and any other records to help show the loss of income.

Future loss of income, sometimes called lost earning capacity, is another type of lost wages. To show these types of losses, we obtain a medical opinion that the injured person will be unable to perform his or her job in the future, and then if necessary we work with an economist to calculate the future loss of income to the injured person.

We can help. We have offices in Burlington and Essex Junction, VT., and are ready to assist you. If you’ve been injured please contact me for a free consultation. Call 802-863-1191 and ask for Adam or email me by clicking here or use the contact form below.

Insurance Coverage For Your Injury

September 6, 2017 by Adam Bergeron

One of our first priorities in a personal injury claim is determining the source and extent of insurance coverage. In many cases, the negligent driver who caused the crash will have insurance to compensate the injured victims.

However, it’s not always that straight forward. The biggest problem we run into is that the negligent driver does not have enough liability insurance. In Vermont, the minimum insurance coverage that driver must carry is $25,000. 23 V.S.A. § 800(a). Even worse is when the driver does not have any insurance coverage.

So what then? The most frequent source of additional coverage is under the injured person’s own auto policy. Vermont law requires that auto insurance policies issued in this state provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in a minimum amount of $50,000. 23 V.S.A. § 941.

In some cases we looked to multiple policies of underinsured motorist coverage and “stack” the coverage when necessary. There’s also situations where we may find coverage under a business policy or an employer policy depending on how and where the injury occurred.

If you’ve been injured and have questions about your claim please feel free to call and ask for Adam at 802-863-1191 or email me by clicking here or use the contact form below.

Personal Injury Basics

December 15, 2016 by Adam Bergeron

So you’ve suffered an injury — now what?!?!

You may be consumed by thoughts of doctors, and treatment, and medical bills, and health insurance, and auto insurance, and what about work and family, and on top of all that, you are in a lot of pain!

Take a deep breath. As bad as it may seem now, you will get through this.

The Personal Injury Basics

First things first. Focus on your medical treatment. Talk to your doctors. Tell them what is hurting. Go to all your appointments. Don’t try to tough it out and hope that you will get better. That’s not good for you and it’s not good for your personal injury claim.

Do not talk to an insurance company about your injuries until after you speak with an attorney — and the advice an attorney will likely give you is “Don’t speak with the insurance company!!” Whether it is another person’s insurance company or your own insurance company, they are not there to help you when you are injured. Insurance companies have one goal — to make money — and they make money by paying you as little as possible for your injuries.

OK, now that you are focused on your medical treatment and getting better, and ignoring the insurance companies, it’s time to speak with an attorney.

I’m always happy to give a free consultation. Give a call and ask for Adam at 802-863-1191 or email me by clicking here or use the contact form below.

Employee v. Independent Contractor

March 25, 2016 by Jeff Messina Leave a Comment

In the context of Unemployment Compensation Insurance in Vermont, the term “employee” is not defined. The Department of Labor (“The Department”) simply refers to an “employee” as an individual who is entitled to be covered for unemployment purposes. Therefore, the distinction between employee and independent contractor is unclear, and contractors need to be cautious of the distinction and its implications.

In Vermont, it is the nature of the relationship between an employer and an individual that determines if they are an “employee” or an “independent contractor” for purposes of Unemployment Compensation Insurance. Accordingly, The Department presumes that an employment relationship exists between an employer and an individual hired and requires unemployment insurance coverage unless and until the employer is able to demonstrate each and every criteria of the three part so-called “ABC Test.”

The “ABC Test” three-part factors must all be met for an individual to be deemed an independent contractor under Department analysis:

A. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of their services, both under contract of service and in fact;

B. Services performed are either outside the usual course of business for which the service is performed, or service is performed outside all places of business of the enterprise for which the service is performed; and,

C. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

It is important to note that The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses a separate, less comprehensive test to determine if an individual is an employee or an independent contractor; and The Department follows Vermont law which uses the “ABC Test”. Therefore, It is likely that under Vermont law an individual may be considered an employee, whereas under the IRS test, the individual would be considered an individual contractor.

The experienced attorneys at Bergeron, Paradis & Fitzpatrick, LLP, can provide insight and direction into this complicated distinction, and represent your company’s interests if The Department of Labor is investigating your business for missclassified workers.

What Legalized Marijuana May Look Like in Vermont

March 21, 2016 by Adam Bergeron Leave a Comment

Vermont has already enacted legislation legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes

(See Title 18, Chapter 86 Vermont Statutes Annotated). Patients with a debilitating medical condition may receive a State issued marijuana card permitting medicinal use. The Vermont Legislature is now considering broadening the law to permit marijuana for recreational purposes. Underlying this move is a study by the Rand Corporation showing that many Vermont residents regularly use marijuana and spend approximately $175 million per year on the black market in purchasing it. Taxing a $175 million dollar industry could yield enormous tax revenues for the State. If the State does legalized marijuana, what might such a law look like?

Vermont Senator, Jeanette K. White, has introduced bill (S. 241) which recently received a favorable report with recommendation of amendment by the Committee on Judiciary. This bill provides an insight as to what legalized marijuana may look like in Vermont. According to the bill, all civil penalties for possession of one ounce or less by a person 21 years of age or older would be eliminated. The law would also permit the cultivation and sale of marijuana through registered “marijuana cultivators”, licensed “marijuana establishments” and licensed “marijuana retailers”. However, use of marijuana in public places as well as operating a vehicle under the influence of marijuana would still be illegal. Under the bill, a Cannabis Control Board within the Department of Public Safety would be responsible for rule making, administration and enforcement concerning registered commercial cannabis establishments.

It appears that legalized marijuana could be the law in Vermont as early as 2017.

Many of the implications of such a law remain uncertain. Questions concerning legal use, cultivation or sale of marijuana should be directed to attorneys specializing in this area of the law.

Rand Corporation Considering Marijuana Legalization Insights for Vermont and Other Jurisdictions by Jonathan P. Caulkins, Beau Kilmer, Mark A. R. Kleiman, Robert J. MacCoun, Gregory Midgette, Pat Oglesby, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Peter H. Reuter