If your injuries permanently limit your ability to earn, you can recover the value of the reduction in your earning capacity. Under our law, a person who has been injured by the fault of another is entitled to recover not only his or her actual lost wages but separately and additionally for his or her loss of earning capacity. The award for loss of future earning capacity does not require an actual loss of earnings. It may be based on loss of earning capacity which is the person's ability or potential to make money even if the injured person has never taken advantage of that capacity.
What a person earned before and after the injury does not constitute the measure. Even if a person is unemployed at the time of the injury, or may never have seen fit to take advantage of that capacity, that person is still entitled to an award for impairment or diminution of earning power. The theory is that the injury has deprived him of a capacity he would have been entitled to enjoy even though he never profited from it monetarily. Damages should be based on the injured person's ability to earn money rather than on what he actually earned before the injury. This damage award is predicated upon the difference between a person's earning capacity before the injury and that person's capacity after the injury. The fact that a person is not totally disabled is no bar to his claim for diminution in earning capacity. These damages compensate you for your lost earning power over the remainder of your working years.