By Joshua A. Estes. Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law — Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Lost income is the most under-claimed part of a Texas injury claim — not because it’s hard to recover, but because people count only the obvious piece. The missed paychecks get claimed. The burned vacation days, the turned-down overtime, the self-employed week that simply produced nothing — those quietly disappear. This article is the full list of what counts, and the paper trail that turns each item from a story into a number.
What counts (more than you think)
Missed paychecks. The days or weeks you couldn’t work at all. Hourly or salaried, this is the core of the claim.
The sick and vacation days you burned. Here’s the one almost everyone gets wrong: if you covered your recovery with PTO, you weren’t “fine because you got paid.” You spent an asset you earned — days you’d otherwise have used later or cashed out. Texas claims routinely include the value of used leave. Count it.
Reduced hours and light duty. Back at work but on half days, or moved to a lower-paying light-duty role while you healed? The gap between what you earned and what you would have earned counts.
Missed overtime, bonuses, and commissions. If overtime was regular, or a bonus was tied to output you couldn’t produce, that loss is claimable — it just needs history to prove the pattern.
Future earning capacity. For lasting injuries, the claim isn’t only what you already lost; it’s what the injury does to your ability to earn going forward. This is the most valuable and most proof-intensive category, and it’s built on medical opinions and work history, not adjectives.
Self-employed and 1099: you have a claim too
Contractors, owner-operators, salon chairs, lawn crews, gig drivers — no employer, no pay stub, but a real income loss. The proof path is different, not weaker:
- Tax returns (usually the last two to three years) establish the baseline.
- Invoices, 1099s, and bank deposits show the rhythm of the business before the crash.
- Calendars, cancelled jobs, and client messages show exactly what the injury cost — the contract you couldn’t take, the season you missed.
- App records (rideshare, delivery, booking platforms) are excellent evidence: they timestamp both your earning history and your absence.
The trap for cash-heavy businesses is obvious: income that was never documented is very hard to claim. Whatever the past looked like, document everything from the crash forward.
The documentation checklist
Start this the week of the crash — every item is easier to get now than a year from now:
- Pay stubs — the last three months before the crash, and every one after.
- An employer letter — one page on letterhead: your position, pay rate, normal schedule, dates missed, leave used, overtime you would have been offered. HR writes these routinely.
- A doctor’s off-work note for every restriction — the medical record must say you couldn’t work; missing work without a work restriction in the chart is the most common hole in a wage claim.
- Your last two to three tax returns — essential if any part of your income is variable, commission, or self-employed.
- A simple log — dates missed, hours reduced, appointments attended during work hours, PTO spent. One notebook page, kept current, outperforms memory every time.
Where wage claims get shorted
The adjuster’s version of your wage loss will be the narrowest reading of the thinnest documents. Variable income gets averaged down. PTO gets treated as “no loss.” The light-duty pay gap gets ignored. Future capacity gets left out entirely unless a doctor has connected the injury to your work in writing. None of that is personal — it’s what happens to undocumented claims. A car accident lawyer builds the wage claim from records and, where the injury is lasting, from medical and vocational opinions — which is the difference between “some missed work” and the actual number.
Common questions
Can I claim the sick days and vacation days I used? Yes. Leave you burned covering your recovery is an asset you spent because of the crash, and Texas claims routinely include it.
I’m self-employed. Can I still claim lost income? Yes — through tax returns, invoices, bank records, and evidence of the specific work you couldn’t take. Different proof, same claim.
Do I need a doctor’s note for every day I missed? The medical record needs to support the time you claim. Work restrictions documented by your doctor are the backbone of a wage claim.
What if I got paid the whole time? If that pay came from your own PTO bank, you still lost something of value. If your employer simply gifted the time, tell your lawyer — the answer depends on the facts.
Does lost income include future losses? For lasting injuries, yes — reduced ability to earn going forward can be part of the claim, built on medical opinions and work history.
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines in injury cases are strict and fact-specific. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation.
The Estes Law Firm, P.C. · 716 S. Union St, Richmond, Texas 77469 · (281) 238-5400 · Responsible attorney: William F. Estes.