Have you ever really thought about what would happen if you couldn’t work anymore? I mean, truly work – at the job you’ve trained for, the career you’ve built, the profession that pays your bills and supports your family? It’s not something most of us want to dwell on, but when a severe car accident changes everything in an instant, that uncomfortable question suddenly hits home.
If you’re reading this, chances are you or someone you care about is facing this exact situation. Maybe you’re a construction worker who can’t lift heavy materials anymore because of a back injury. Or perhaps you’re a surgeon whose hand tremors from a traumatic brain injury mean you’ll never operate again. The physical pain is one thing, but the financial devastation? That’s a whole different kind of suffering.
Here in Colorado, proving lost future earning capacity after a severe car accident isn’t just about showing you can’t do your old job anymore. It’s about painting a complete picture of what your life would have looked like financially – and what it looks like now. And honestly? It’s complicated as heck.
What Does “Lost Future Earning Capacity” Actually Mean?
Let’s start with the basics. Lost future earning capacity is basically the difference between what you would have earned over your working lifetime if the accident hadn’t happened, and what you can realistically earn now with your injuries.
Think of it like this: imagine your earning potential as a river flowing toward your retirement. Before the accident, that river was wide and deep, carrying a steady stream of income year after year. After the accident, maybe that river got dammed up, or diverted into a much smaller stream. The difference between what was flowing before and what’s flowing now? That’s your lost future earning capacity.
But here’s where it gets tricky – this isn’t just about your current salary. Colorado courts look at your entire career path. Were you up for a promotion? Did you have plans to get additional training or certifications? Was your industry growing? All of these factors play into what you could have reasonably expected to earn over the rest of your working life.
Why This Matters More Than You Might Think
You might be wondering why future earnings matter when you’re dealing with immediate medical bills and current lost wages. Fair question. But consider this: if you’re 35 years old and have 30 years left in your career, even a modest reduction in earning capacity can mean hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of dollars in lost income over your lifetime.
Let’s say you were making $60,000 a year as a skilled tradesperson, and you were on track for regular raises and eventually running your own crew. But now, because of cognitive issues from your accident, you can only handle basic clerical work at $30,000 a year. Over 30 years, accounting for raises and career advancement you’ll never see, that difference could easily exceed $1.5 million.
That’s not just money – that’s your kids’ college funds, your retirement security, your ability to maintain the lifestyle you worked so hard to build. It’s the difference between financial stability and a lifetime of struggle.
The Challenge of Proving Something That Hasn’t Happened Yet
Here’s the thing that makes these cases so challenging: you’re asking a judge or jury to believe in a future that will never exist. You’re saying, “If this accident hadn’t happened, here’s what my life would have looked like.” But how do you prove a hypothetical?
In Colorado, the law recognizes this difficulty, but it still puts the burden on you to make your case. You can’t just walk into court and say, “I would have made more money.” You need evidence, expert testimony, and a compelling story that connects your past performance to your future potential.
I’ve seen cases where incredibly talented people with bright futures couldn’t get fair compensation because they couldn’t adequately prove what they’d lost. On the flip side, I’ve seen people with seemingly modest careers recover substantial amounts because they did their homework and built a solid case.
What Colorado Law Says About Future Earning Capacity
Colorado follows what’s called the “total offset” method for calculating future economic losses. This means that future inflation and the discount rate for present value are assumed to cancel each other out. In plain English? The court can award you future lost earnings without reducing them to present value, which is actually a good thing for you.
The Colorado Supreme Court has established that you don’t need to prove your future earnings with mathematical certainty – that would be impossible. Instead, you need to provide a “reasonable basis” for calculating your losses. The key word here is “reasonable.” Your projections need to be grounded in reality, not wishful thinking.
Colorado also recognizes both lost earnings (the specific income you would have made) and lost earning capacity (your ability to earn income in general). This distinction matters because even if you find some work after your accident, you might still have a claim for reduced earning capacity.
Building Your Case: The Foundation Documents
Before you can prove anything about your future, you need to establish your past. Think of this as building the foundation of your case – without solid groundwork, everything else crumbles.
Your Employment History
Start gathering every piece of documentation about your work history. I’m talking about everything: pay stubs, tax returns, employment contracts, performance reviews, promotion letters, training certificates – the works. Go back at least five to ten years if possible.
Don’t just focus on your base salary. Include overtime, bonuses, commissions, benefits, retirement contributions, and any other compensation. If you were self-employed, gather your business records, client contracts, and financial statements. The goal is to show the complete picture of your earning trajectory.
Educational and Training Records
Your education and ongoing training show your commitment to professional growth and your potential for advancement. Gather your diplomas, certifications, training records, and any documentation of skills development. If you were planning to pursue additional education or training before the accident, document that too.
Industry Information
You’ll need to show how your industry was performing and what the future looked like. Were jobs in your field growing? Were wages increasing? Was there demand for your particular skills? Industry reports, labor statistics, and trade publications can all help paint this picture.
The Medical Foundation: Connecting Injuries to Limitations
Your medical records are obviously important for proving your injuries, but for a lost earning capacity claim, you need more than just a diagnosis. You need your doctors to specifically address how your injuries affect your ability to work.
Getting the Right Medical Opinions
Not all medical opinions are created equal when it comes to proving work limitations. You want your doctors to be specific about what you can and can’t do. Vague statements like “limited work capacity” don’t help much. You need detailed functional capacity evaluations that spell out exactly what your limitations are.
Can you lift more than 20 pounds? Can you stand for more than two hours? Can you concentrate for extended periods? Can you handle stress? These specific limitations directly translate into job restrictions, which translate into lost earning capacity.
Documenting Cognitive and Psychological Impacts
Don’t overlook the mental and cognitive effects of your injuries. A traumatic brain injury might not be visible, but it can be just as devastating to your earning capacity as a physical disability. Memory problems, difficulty concentrating, personality changes, depression, and anxiety can all affect your ability to work and advance in your career.
Make sure your medical team addresses these issues specifically. Neuropsychological testing can be particularly valuable for documenting cognitive impairments and their impact on work performance.
The Role of Vocational Experts
This is where things get really interesting. A vocational expert is basically a professional fortune-teller – someone who can look at your background, your injuries, and the job market, and make educated predictions about your earning capacity.
What Vocational Experts Do
A good vocational expert will analyze your work history, education, and skills to determine what you could have reasonably expected to earn over your career. Then they’ll look at your current limitations and figure out what types of work you can still do and what those jobs pay.
The difference between these two numbers is your lost earning capacity. But it’s not just simple math – the expert needs to consider factors like:
- Your age and how many working years you have left
- The availability of suitable work in your area
- Whether you’d need retraining for new work
- The likelihood of finding employment with your limitations
- Potential for advancement in your new field versus your old one
Choosing the Right Expert
Not all vocational experts are the same. You want someone with specific experience in your type of case and your industry if possible. They should have solid credentials, a good reputation, and the ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms that a jury can understand.
The insurance company will probably have their own vocational expert who’ll argue that you can earn just as much as before – maybe even more! – if you just apply yourself. Having a strong expert on your side is important for countering these arguments.
Economic Experts: Putting Dollar Signs on Your Losses
While the vocational expert figures out what you can earn, the economic expert calculates what that means in dollars over your lifetime. This is where the big numbers come from, and frankly, where insurance companies fight the hardest.
What Goes Into the Calculation
Economic experts consider a bunch of factors when calculating your losses:
- Base Earnings: What you were making and what you would have made
- Growth Rates: How your earnings would have increased over time
- Benefits: Health insurance, retirement contributions, other perks
- Work Life Expectancy: How long you would have worked
- Promotion Potential: Career advancement you’ll miss out on
- Geographic Factors: Cost of living and wage differences in your area
The Battle of the Economists
Here’s something that might surprise you: put two economic experts in a room with the same facts, and they can come up with wildly different numbers. That’s because there’s a lot of room for interpretation in these calculations.
Your expert might assume steady career growth and regular promotions. The insurance company’s expert might assume you would have stayed in the same position forever, with only minimal cost-of-living increases. The difference in these assumptions can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in your final award.
Special Considerations for Different Types of Workers
Not all workers are the same, and proving lost earning capacity looks different depending on what you did for a living.
High Earners and Professionals
If you’re a doctor, lawyer, executive, or other high-earning professional, you might think your case is straightforward – after all, your lost earnings are clearly substantial. But actually, these cases can be particularly challenging.
Insurance companies will argue that high earners have more resources to adapt and find alternative work. They might claim that your education and connections mean you can easily move into a different but equally lucrative career. You’ll need to show specifically why your injuries prevent you from earning at your previous level in any capacity.
Skilled Trades Workers
Tradespeople often face unique challenges in these cases. Your earning capacity might have been tied to physical abilities that are now compromised. But insurance companies will argue that you can shift to supervisory roles or use your knowledge in consulting or teaching.
The key is documenting not just your physical limitations, but also showing how your specific skills and experience translate (or don’t translate) to other work. A master electrician can’t just become an electrical inspector overnight – there are licensing requirements, different skill sets, and often significant pay differences.
Young Workers and Those Early in Their Careers
If you’re young or early in your career, proving lost future earning capacity can be particularly challenging because you don’t have a long work history to point to. But in some ways, your losses might be even greater because you have more working years ahead of you.
For young workers, education and aptitude become more important. Your college grades, standardized test scores, early career trajectory, and the career paths of others with similar backgrounds can all help establish what your earning potential would have been.
Self-Employed and Business Owners
If you owned your own business or were self-employed, your case involves additional complexities. You’ll need to show not just what you were earning, but what your business could have grown to become. This might involve analyzing your business plan, growth trends, market opportunities, and competitive position.
You’ll also need to consider whether someone else can run your business or whether your personal involvement was essential. If your business can continue without you, your losses might be limited to your salary or profit share. If the business depends on your personal skills or relationships, your losses could include the entire value of the business.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Let me be straight with you – proving lost future earning capacity is tough, and insurance companies know every trick to minimize your claim. Here are some of the biggest challenges you’ll face and how to deal with them.
“You Can Still Work”
This is probably the most common argument you’ll hear. The insurance company will find some job – any job – that you can theoretically do with your limitations, and argue that you haven’t really lost any earning capacity.
Maybe you were a construction foreman making $80,000 a year, but now you can only do light office work. They’ll point to administrative assistant jobs paying $35,000 and say, “See? You can still work.” Technically true, but obviously not the whole story.
The key to fighting this is showing the complete picture of your losses. Yes, you can work, but at a fraction of your previous capacity. Document not just the wage difference, but also the loss of advancement opportunities, benefits, job security, and career satisfaction.
Pre-Existing Conditions
Insurance companies love to blame your current problems on pre-existing conditions. Had a back injury five years ago? They’ll argue that your current inability to work is because of that old injury, not the car accident.
This is where detailed medical records become important. You need to show that you were working successfully despite any pre-existing conditions, and that the accident caused a significant worsening of your situation. Medical experts who can distinguish between old and new problems are invaluable here.
Failure to Mitigate Damages
Colorado law requires you to make reasonable efforts to minimize your losses. This means you can’t just sit at home and collect damages – you need to try to find work within your limitations, pursue reasonable retraining opportunities, and generally make an effort to rebuild your earning capacity.
But here’s the thing – “reasonable” is the key word. You don’t have to take just any job or pursue training that’s unlikely to help. Work with your vocational expert to develop a realistic plan for maximizing your post-accident earning capacity, and document your efforts to follow that plan.
Gaps in Documentation
Missing records can kill your case. If you can’t prove what you were earning before the accident, it’s hard to prove what you’ve lost. Start gathering documentation immediately, and don’t assume that records will be available later.
If some records are missing, think creatively about other ways to prove your earnings. Bank records, loan applications, insurance applications, and even social media posts can sometimes help fill in gaps in your employment history.
The Importance of Life Care Planning
For severe injuries, your lost earning capacity claim should be part of a broader life care plan. This is a detailed document that outlines all of your future needs related to your injuries – medical care, equipment, home modifications, attendant care, and yes, lost earning capacity.
Why Life Care Plans Matter
A life care plan helps tell the complete story of how the accident has affected your life. It shows that your lost earning capacity isn’t just about money – it’s about your ability to maintain your independence, support your family, and live the life you planned.
Life care planners work with your medical team, vocational experts, and economists to create a full picture of your future needs. This coordinated approach is much more powerful than presenting each element of your damages separately.
Working with Life Care Planners
Good life care planners have medical backgrounds and understand both the clinical aspects of your injuries and their practical implications for daily living. They’ll interview you extensively about your life before and after the accident, review your medical records, and consult with your treatment team.
The life care plan becomes a roadmap for your future and a powerful tool for demonstrating the full extent of your losses to insurance companies and juries.
Technology and Future Earning Capacity
Here’s something that’s becoming increasingly important in these cases: how technology affects future earning capacity. We’re living in a time of rapid technological change, and this can cut both ways in your case.
Technology as a Tool for Adaptation
On one hand, technology can help people with disabilities work in ways that weren’t possible before. Voice recognition software can help someone with hand injuries. Remote work options can help people who have trouble with mobility. Assistive devices can help people perform tasks they couldn’t do otherwise.
Insurance companies will argue that technology levels the playing field and that your earning capacity isn’t really diminished because you can use these tools to work effectively.
Technology as a Barrier
But technology can also create barriers. If your cognitive abilities are affected, you might struggle with increasingly complex software and systems. If you have vision problems, you might not be able to adapt to new visual interfaces. If you have hand injuries, you might not be able to use touch screens or keyboards effectively.
The key is having experts who understand both your specific limitations and how technology affects your industry. Don’t let insurance companies make broad assumptions about how technology can help you without proving that these solutions actually work for your specific situation.
The Role of Day-in-the-Life Documentation
One of the most powerful tools for proving lost earning capacity is showing how your injuries affect your daily life. This is where day-in-the-life videos and documentation come in.
What Day-in-the-Life Documentation Shows
This type of evidence helps humanize your case and shows the jury what your limitations really mean in practical terms. It’s one thing to say you have trouble concentrating; it’s another thing to show a video of you struggling to complete simple tasks or becoming frustrated and overwhelmed.
Day-in-the-life documentation can show:
- How long it takes you to get ready for work
- Your energy levels throughout the day
- How pain affects your ability to focus
- The assistance you need for daily activities
- How your injuries affect your family relationships
Creating Effective Documentation
Good day-in-the-life documentation isn’t just about showing how bad things are – it’s about showing the contrast between your life before and after the accident. Include footage of you attempting to do work-related tasks, trying to learn new skills, or dealing with the frustration of not being able to do things you used to do easily.
Be honest and authentic. Don’t exaggerate your limitations, but don’t minimize them either. The goal is to give the jury a realistic picture of what your life is like now and how that affects your ability to earn a living.
Working with Insurance Companies
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – dealing with insurance companies on lost earning capacity claims. I’ll be honest with you: they don’t want to pay these claims, and they have teams of experts whose job is to minimize your losses.
Understanding Their Strategy
Insurance companies typically use a few standard strategies to fight lost earning capacity claims:
- Minimize Your Pre-Accident Earnings: They’ll argue that your income was declining, that you were about to lose your job, or that your earnings were artificially inflated by temporary factors.
- Maximize Your Post-Accident Capacity: They’ll find the highest-paying job you can theoretically do and argue that represents your true earning capacity.
- Attack Your Experts: They’ll challenge your vocational and economic experts’ qualifications, methodology, and assumptions.
- Blame Other Factors: They’ll argue that economic conditions, industry changes, or personal factors would have limited your earnings regardless of the accident.
Building a Strong Counter-Strategy
To fight these tactics, you need a team effort:
- Document Everything: Keep detailed records of your pre-accident earnings, including all forms of compensation and evidence of career trajectory.
- Get Strong Medical Opinions: Make sure your doctors specifically address work limitations and provide detailed functional capacity evaluations.
- Choose Qualified Experts: Work with vocational and economic experts who have strong credentials and experience with cases like yours.
- Tell Your Story: Don’t let the case become just about numbers. Make sure the human impact of your losses comes through clearly.
The Litigation Process
If your case goes to court, understanding the litigation process can help you prepare and know what to expect.
Discovery Phase
During discovery, both sides will exchange information and take depositions. You’ll likely be deposed about your work history, your injuries, and how they’ve affected your life. Your experts will also be deposed about their opinions and the basis for their calculations.
This phase can be lengthy and sometimes frustrating, but it’s where your case is really built. The more thorough your preparation during discovery, the stronger your position will be at trial or in settlement negotiations.
Expert Testimony
Your vocational and economic experts will be key witnesses at trial. They need to be able to explain complex concepts in simple terms that jurors can understand. They also need to be able to defend their opinions under cross-examination by the insurance company’s lawyers.
Good experts will prepare extensively for their testimony and will be able to explain not just their conclusions, but also why they made the assumptions they did and how they dealt with uncertainties in their analysis.
Jury Considerations
If your case goes to a jury trial, remember that jurors are regular people who might not understand the complexities of calculating future economic losses. Your presentation needs to be clear, logical, and relatable.
Visual aids can be particularly helpful for explaining economic concepts. Charts, graphs, and timelines can help jurors understand the magnitude of your losses and how they were calculated.
Settlement Considerations
Most lost earning capacity cases settle before trial, but that doesn’t mean settlement is always the right choice. There are pros and cons to consider.
Advantages of Settlement
- Certainty: You know exactly what you’ll receive, rather than risking a jury verdict.
- Speed: Settlement can resolve your case much faster than going to trial.
- Privacy: Settlement terms can be kept confidential.
- Lower Costs: You’ll save on trial preparation and expert witness fees.
Disadvantages of Settlement
- Potentially Lower Recovery: Insurance companies typically offer less in settlement than you might win at trial.
- No Precedent: Settlement doesn’t create legal precedent that might help others in similar situations.
- Finality: Once you settle, you can’t come back for more money if your condition worsens.
Evaluating Settlement Offers
When evaluating a settlement offer, consider not just the amount, but also the strength of your case, the costs of continued litigation, and your personal circumstances. A bird in the hand might be worth two in the bush, but make sure you’re not selling yourself short.
Your attorney should be able to give you a realistic assessment of what your case might be worth at trial and help you weigh the risks and benefits of settlement versus litigation.
Special Situations and Complications
Every case is unique, but some situations create particular challenges for proving lost earning capacity.
Multiple Injuries from Multiple Accidents
If you’ve been in more than one accident, sorting out which injuries caused which limitations can be complicated. You’ll need medical experts who can distinguish between the effects of different incidents and apportion your losses accordingly.
Injuries That Worsen Over Time
Some injuries, particularly brain injuries and degenerative conditions, can worsen over time. This creates uncertainty about your future limitations and earning capacity. You might need medical experts who can predict the likely progression of your condition and how it will affect your ability to work.
Family and Relationship Impacts
Severe injuries don’t just affect the injured person – they affect entire families. Spouses might need to reduce their working hours to provide care. Children might need counseling or other support. While these aren’t direct lost earning capacity damages, they can be part of your overall claim and help demonstrate the full impact of the accident.
Geographic Considerations
Where you live and work can significantly affect your earning capacity claim. Job markets vary widely across Colorado, from the Denver metro area to rural communities. Your experts need to understand the specific market conditions in your area and how they affect your employment prospects.
Working with McCormick & Murphy P.C.
Here at McCormick & Murphy P.C., we’ve been handling lost earning capacity cases since 1995. Kirk McCormick and Jay Murphy have over 60 years of combined experience in personal injury law, and we understand the complexities of proving future economic losses.
Our Approach to These Cases
We know that every lost earning capacity case is different, and we tailor our approach to your specific situation. We work with a network of qualified vocational experts, economists, life care planners, and medical professionals to build the strongest possible case for our clients.
We also understand that these cases aren’t just about money – they’re about your future and your family’s security. We take the time to understand not just your financial losses, but the human impact of your injuries on your life and relationships.
Why Experience Matters
Lost earning capacity cases require specialized knowledge and experience. You need attorneys who understand the legal standards, know how to work with experts, and can effectively present complex economic concepts to juries. You also need attorneys who have the resources to invest in the expert testimony and preparation these cases require.
We handle most personal injury claims on a contingent fee basis, which means you don’t pay attorney fees unless we recover money for you. This allows us to take on complex cases that require significant upfront investment in expert testimony and case preparation.
Getting Started
If you’re dealing with lost earning capacity after a severe car accident, time is important. Evidence can be lost, witnesses’ memories can fade, and there are statutes of limitations that limit how long you have to file a claim.
You can find us at 929 W Colorado Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80905, or call us at ((719) 800-9407. We offer free consultations for personal injury cases, and we can help you understand your rights and options.
You can also check out our Google profile to see what other clients have said about working with us.
Other Considerations and Related Issues
Lost earning capacity claims often involve other related issues that can affect your case.
Bad Faith Insurance Practices
Sometimes insurance companies don’t just deny or minimize legitimate claims – they handle them in bad faith. If you’re dealing with unreasonable claim denials, inadequate investigations, or other bad faith practices, you might have additional claims beyond your basic personal injury case.
We’ve written about how to file a complaint against an insurance company in Colorado and whether you can challenge an insurance company’s decision in bad faith cases. These resources can help you understand your rights when dealing with uncooperative insurance companies.
Recorded Statements and Insurance Companies
One thing to be careful about: insurance companies often ask for recorded statements early in the claim process. While this might seem routine, what you say in these statements can be used against you later, especially in lost earning capacity claims where your pre-accident work history and post-accident limitations are so important.
We’ve written about whether you should give a recorded statement to an insurance company, and generally, our advice is to be very cautious about these requests, especially before you’ve had a chance to consult with an attorney.
Psychological and Emotional Impacts
Don’t forget that severe car accidents can cause psychological trauma that affects your ability to work. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common after serious accidents and can be just as disabling as physical injuries.
We’ve written about understanding life after a collision: PTSD, and this is something that should be considered as part of your overall lost earning capacity claim.
Practical Steps You Can Take Today
If you’re dealing with lost earning capacity after a severe car accident, here are some practical steps you can take right now to protect your interests:
Document Everything
Start keeping detailed records of how your injuries affect your daily life and your ability to work. Keep a journal of your symptoms, energy levels, cognitive function, and any work-related activities you attempt.
Take photos and videos that show your limitations. If you’re trying to do tasks related to your former job and struggling, document that. If you’re attending physical therapy or other treatment, document your progress (or lack thereof).
Gather Your Records
Start collecting all of your employment records, tax returns, pay stubs, and other documentation of your pre-accident earnings. Don’t wait – some records might not be available later, and memories fade over time.
Also gather your educational records, training certificates, and any documentation of career plans or advancement opportunities you had before the accident.
Follow Your Treatment Plan
This might seem obvious, but it’s important to follow your doctors’ treatment recommendations and attend all appointments. Insurance companies will use any gaps in treatment to argue that your injuries aren’t as severe as you claim.
If you can’t follow a treatment recommendation for some reason (cost, transportation, etc.), document why and discuss alternatives with your medical team.
Be Careful About Social Media
Insurance companies routinely check social media accounts of people making injury claims. Be very careful about what you post, and consider limiting your social media activity altogether while your case is pending.
Photos of you engaging in physical activities, posts about work or career plans, or anything that contradicts your claimed limitations can be used against you.
Don’t Rush Into Settlement
Insurance companies often make quick settlement offers, especially for serious cases. While it might be tempting to accept a quick payout, remember that you’re dealing with losses that will affect the rest of your life. Make sure you understand the full extent of your losses before agreeing to any settlement.
Looking Forward: Life After a Severe Accident
I know this article has covered a lot of technical and legal information, but I want to end on a more personal note. If you’re reading this because you or someone you love has been severely injured in a car accident, I want you to know that while your life has changed, it’s not over.
Yes, proving lost earning capacity is complicated and challenging. Yes, insurance companies will fight you every step of the way. Yes, the legal process can be frustrating and lengthy. But you have rights, and there are people who can help you fight for the compensation you deserve.
Your lost earning capacity claim isn’t just about money – it’s about your dignity, your independence, and your family’s future. It’s about holding the person who caused your accident accountable for the full extent of the harm they’ve caused. And it’s about getting the resources you need to rebuild your life and adapt to your new circumstances.
The road ahead won’t be easy, but you don’t have to walk it alone. With the right legal team, medical support, and expert testimony, you can build a strong case for compensation that reflects the true extent of your losses.
Every case is different, and there are no guarantees in litigation. But I’ve seen people who thought their lives were over find new purpose and meaning after severe accidents. I’ve seen families that thought they faced financial ruin secure the resources they needed to move forward. And I’ve seen justice done for people who deserved better than what happened to them.
If you’re facing this situation, don’t give up. Get the help you need, fight for what you deserve, and remember that while your future might look different than you planned, it can still be bright.
Your earning capacity might be diminished, but your value as a person isn’t. Your career might be over, but your life isn’t. And while the legal system can’t undo what happened to you, it can help ensure that you have the resources you need to write the next chapter of your story.
Take it one day at a time, lean on the people who care about you, and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. You’ve already survived the worst thing that could happen to you – everything else is just details to work out.
