Quick answer
Preserve evidence for each link: what the person earned and did before the accident, what injuries and restrictions followed, how work changed, what income was actually received and why any future earning path may now differ. Keep originals and ordinary-course records. A claimant’s calculation is useful only when another reviewer can reproduce it from reliable sources.
How to use this guide
Do not let “loss of earnings” become a single unsupported number. Past loss, future capacity, benefits, mitigation and the statutory cap are distinct parts of the analysis.
Prove the work, not only the job title
A title such as driver, manager or artisan does not show the physical, cognitive, travel or productivity demands of the role. Preserve the job description, roster, targets, equipment used, location, shift pattern and actual duties. Ask an employer or colleague to describe observed tasks and changes factually, without coaching a legal conclusion.
For variable or seasonal work, keep a longer earnings and workload history. This helps distinguish accident effects from ordinary fluctuation, business cycles or unrelated changes.
Preserve the clinical restriction chain
Keep the first complaints, diagnoses, treatment and follow-up records, then connect them to medical certificates, work restrictions, rehabilitation recommendations and functional assessments. Identify pre-existing conditions and later injuries honestly so an expert can consider alternative causes.
A doctor may establish medical limitations without being the right expert to predict a particular career path. Preserve the source opinion and its scope. Future employability or earning capacity may require vocational or industrial-psychology evidence built on the clinical facts.
Capture what changed at work
Retain attendance, leave, payroll, reduced-hours, modified-duty, performance and occupational-health records. Record return-to-work attempts, accommodations offered, tasks that could or could not be completed and the reason for any transfer, demotion or termination.
If the employer says work ended for misconduct, restructuring or another reason, preserve that material too. The claim must address the true cause of the income change rather than assume every post-accident employment event flows from the injury.
Show actual money received and lost
Use payslips, payroll, bank and tax records to establish earnings. Reconcile sick pay, annual leave, commission, benefits, insurance and other amounts received. For self-employment, preserve invoices, bookings, contracts, expenses, bank transactions, tax returns and staffing changes.
Do not treat turnover as personal earnings or calculate loss from cash deposits without explaining source and business expense. Keep the legal schedule separate from the accounting records and cite every line to its source.
Preserve irregular and informal earnings honestly
Where earnings were variable or partly cash-based, retain the ordinary records that existed before the claim: customer messages, bookings, invoices, receipt books, supplier purchases, tax filings and bank deposits that can be linked to actual work. Do not create backdated invoices, standardise old descriptions or discard quiet periods to make the history appear regular.
Prepare a reconciliation that separates confirmed income, business turnover, expenses, personal drawings and amounts whose source remains uncertain. Explain seasonality, cancellations and broader business changes. An honest gap can be investigated; a reconstructed record presented as contemporaneous evidence can undermine the entire schedule.
For commission, overtime or piece work, preserve the rule or agreement under which the amount was earned as well as the payment history. The evidence must show both the opportunity to earn and what changed after the injury.
Evidence mitigation without overstating it
Preserve job applications, training, rehabilitation, modified work, alternative duties and reasonable attempts to earn within the restrictions. If no attempt was possible, keep the medical and factual basis. If an attempt failed, record what happened rather than erasing it from the chronology.
Mitigation does not mean accepting unsafe work or pretending disability does not exist. It asks what reasonable steps were available in the actual circumstances, and that requires evidence rather than hindsight.
Support future loss with tested assumptions
Future earnings evidence may involve education, work history, promotion prospects, labour-market options, retirement assumptions and the expected course of the injury. Keep each assumption linked to a witness, record or expert opinion. Distinguish a realistic scenario from a guaranteed promotion or business contract.
An actuary applies assumptions and calculations; the report does not independently prove them. The statutory RAF cap is adjusted periodically, so preserve the official notice and date used in the model rather than citing a timeless figure.
Maintain provenance and privacy
Record who produced each payroll export, employer letter, financial statement and business schedule, plus date range and method. Preserve adverse or contradictory records. Restrict identity, health, banking and tax information to secure channels and keep a disclosure log.
Keep every calculation version traceable
Date the first past-loss schedule and retain it when more records arrive. For each revision, record the new source, changed period or corrected assumption and the person who made the change. Do not silently replace a figure already supplied to a lawyer, expert or the RAF.
Create a handover index showing which earnings records went to each adviser and which were still missing. If an expert worked from a shorter history or different job description, that limitation should remain visible when the report is read. Later evidence may justify an addendum, but it should not erase the factual basis of the earlier opinion.
Preserve the operative claim form, attachments and receipt separately from the earnings working file. A strong financial record cannot establish that the statutory claim was validly lodged or that the applicable period was protected.
If records may be lost because a business is closing, an employer relationship has ended or a system is changing, seek lawful preservation promptly. Do not access an employer’s system without authority.
Identify the people who can explain the records without asking them to support a predetermined claim. A payroll officer can describe remuneration and allocations; a supervisor can explain duties and accommodations; a colleague may describe observed performance; and an accountant can explain business entries. Record each witness’s role and direct knowledge. Opinion about medical incapacity or legal causation should remain with an appropriately qualified professional.
What the evidence cannot guarantee
The records may show a real work and income change without proving that negligent driving and accident injuries legally caused all of it. Courts and the RAF still assess reliability, causation, contingencies, mitigation and the statutory cap. Preserved evidence improves that assessment but cannot guarantee the amount or outcome.
FAQs
Does time away from work prove the amount of loss?
No. The evidence should show the pre-accident earning position, payments actually received, reason for absence and the accident-related restriction.
Can a colleague describe changed work ability?
Yes, factual observations may help, but they do not replace medical or vocational opinion where future capacity is disputed.
Should unsuccessful return-to-work attempts be preserved?
Yes. Keep dates, duties, hours, symptoms, accommodations, reasons the attempt ended and the records or witnesses supporting that history.
Is an actuarial calculation enough on its own?
No. It depends on factual and expert assumptions. The underlying career, income, medical and vocational evidence must be established.
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Legal note
This article is general legal information for South African readers. It is not legal advice. Speak to a qualified legal professional about your specific facts before taking action.