What if I have to retire early because of my personal injury?
After sustaining a personal injury, clients often cannot return to work or can only return to work in a reduced capacity. Clients who are close to retirement age may sometimes end their working years early due to an injury; however, insurance companies will use this to their advantage to claim the client as ‘retired’. Oftentimes, the clients will not ask their family physician to comment or weigh in on their retirement or potential retirement status.
The difficulty comes up when clients have ceased work early, perhaps at age 60 instead of 65, and they wish to claim the additional five years of lost wages as part of their claim. The insurance company will claim that the client was going to retire anyway or had other reasons to retire, such as family obligations. Anything but that the client retired as a result of their injury.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal has stated that Clients are not required to show that their retirement decision was dictated by a necessity, meaning that their medical professional required them to cease working, but that their decision to retire was a reasonable one in the circumstances[1]. Simply put, if a client’s injury symptoms are affecting and interfering with them at work, and they retire without a doctor’s note explaining the retirement is related to their injuries, they could still be entitled to lost wages if the retirement was reasonably related to their injuries.
The finding that early retirement is related to employment is more likely in the case of a worker with highly physical tasks, like a millwright, carpenter, or labourer, rather than a worker with sedentary tasks, such as an office manager.
In a New Brunswick trial decision, [2] the client had seen a physician who stated there was a 100% chance he would need a knee replacement and that arthritis would develop. Unfortunately, the same physician said he could be accommodated at work through assistive aids as he worked a sedentary position. No other physicians of the client commented on him potentially retiring early. The judge dismissed the claim for lost income because of the lack of medical evidence.
Clients should be aware that if they are injured, they should speak to their family physician if they are thinking of retirement, or even reducing work tasks. Family physicians may also be able to recommend assistive devices to keep you in the workforce longer.
