5 Ways to Earn Money If You’re Out Of Work Due to Injury

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Suffering from personal injury is a huge fear for many. It’s not just the medical bills or the pain that is the worry, but also the fact that many people may find themselves out of work. Those with physical jobs rely heavily on their bodies in order to pay their bills and a personal injury can really put a dent in their finances. If you have suffered from an injury and are facing financial hardship due to being out of work, there is hope! Here are just a couple of ways that you can earn money if you find yourself out of work due to an injury.


Sell Online

The internet can be your best friend if you find yourself out of work. There are plenty of ways for you to sell things online. Start off with what you have at home. Is there an attic or basement full of things that you never use? Go through all of your “junk” and see what items you can get rid of. Have a yard sale, get on E-bay, TrueGether or Craigslist and see what you can earn some money for. If you have exhausted all of your personal items, try selling something that you make. Learn a new craft like woodworking, kitting or greeting card decoration and start earning cash. You can use sites like Etsy to sell what you make or go to local markets and sell your items.

File a Case

Depending on how you were injured, you may have a legal case to make. While not everyone is familiar with the legal process, nor wants to deal with it. Filing a case could be in your best interest. With a proper legal team to back you, there is a good chance that you could be entitled to some money to compensate you for the injury. It’s worth exploring to find out if your situation is eligible because you could get a payout. If you are on the fence, you can check out this personal injury resource guide by Jason Stone, to see if you qualify. While this may not solve the problem entirely, it could give you the cash that you need to supplement these other work alternatives until you can get back to your regular job.

Rent a Room

One of your best assets for making extra money may just be your home. The income would be nearly passive as you wouldn’t have to do much but make the arrangements. This may not be the most comfortable of options but it could be the easiest. And, as it won’t take up a lot of your time, you could actually earn an income from your space while still working on your other money making endeavors at the same time. You can list a room on Craigslist but if you happen to live in a destination that may be appealing to travelers, Airbnb could be a great option. The latter offers much more flexibility and often a higher income reward.

Become a Freelancer

Do you have any skills that are marketable? Take a moment to reflect on the things you are good at. Can you write, take good photography or video, do funny voice impersonations or make music? If so, there may be someone out there willing to pay you for these skills. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork are great platforms where freelancers of all kinds can offer their skills. It’s a great way to earn some money right from your computer.


Get Websites to Pay You

Another way to utilize your laptop is to find websites that will actually pay you to do work. You can try CrowdSource, for small tasks and writing jobs, Liveops, for phone answering services or Speakwrite, to transcribe information. Use Project Payday to get paid for giving testimonials, User Testing for testing websites and IZEA, a platform that pays you to take photos or blog. The options here are endless.

Don’t give up hope just because the job that you are used to doing is not an option at the moment. A personal injury is something that you can overcome and with these resources, you won’t have to do it without any cash coming in!

 

Original Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannon-ullman/5-ways-to-earn-money-if-y_b_13628378.html

Could Smartphones Make You A Smarter Driver?

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Most of us depend on our cellphones for nearly everything. We can keep in touch and share what we are doing with friends and family, get recommendations and driving directions on places to go and things to see, and basically find out anything we need to know at the touch of a button.

The more we depend on our phones, the smarter these phones become and the more developers come up with new applications to make our lives easier. While one of the downsides to smartphones is the dangerous effects using one can have on our driving abilities, using smartphones to prevent car accidents caused by distracted driving is a way cellphone technology can be put to good purposes.

More companies are investing in ways to make smartphones safer for drivers while lessening texting and driving. The potential benefits could mean the difference between life and death.

Using Cellphones Behind the Wheel: Distracted Driving

Many people use their cellphones everywhere, and unfortunately that also includes behind the wheel. Distracted driving occurs anytime something diverts your attention from the road ahead, and according to a report on distracted driving from the National Safety Council (NSC), cellphones are one of the top causes of distracted driving today.

The NSC states that approximately 1 in 4 car crashes that occur in the United States each year involve the use of a cellphone while behind the wheel. In response to sobering statistics on the dangers of distracted driving, some states have implemented bans against handheld devices.

According to the National Conference of State Legislators, while Indiana is not one of 14 states that prohibit handheld devices behind the wheel, there are laws prohibiting drivers from texting and driving, as well as laws limiting the use of handheld devices for drivers under the age of 18.

How Smartphones Can Prevent Car Accidents

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article on distracted driving, the solution to the problem of cellphone-related accidents may lie in the phones themselves. The article points to a new feature on many phones called Drive Mode, which could help to limit the distractions cellphones pose to drivers, such as texting and driving, by disabling certain functions of the phone.

By eliminating the ability to text or make calls, as well as the ability to play games or use social media, the Drive Mode feature could potentially prevent distracted driving due to cellphone use, enabling drivers to better focus on the road ahead.

According to the Wall Street Journal article, the one catch to this solution is that cellphone users themselves would need the discipline to put their phone in Drive Mode prior to getting behind the wheel, and to leave it there until they reach their destination.

 

Original Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-r-caudle/could-smart-phones-make-y_b_10707078.html

Could Social Media Impact Your Personal Injury Claim?

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The use of social media is becoming more and more common. In fact, as of January 2014, 74 percent of adults who used the internet also used social media sites, a Pew Research Center report found. (Since that time, it is estimated that that number has grown.) As social media provides a forum for individuals to share their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and photos, it makes sense that some people who have been injured in an accident turn to social media to share details. However, social media effects on a personal injury claim can be negative, and using social media while in the midst of the claims process is not advised.

The following considers what you need to know about how social media affects your personal injury claim:

Social Media Posts Can Be Detrimental to Your Claim of Physical Injury

People who are pursuing a personal injury claim are usually doing so because, in part, they have suffered physical injuries, such as a broken leg, chronic pain, concussion, traumatic brain injury, soft tissue injury, etc. As such, they are seeking damages for two things: first, expenses associated with the injury such as the costs of staying in a hospital, and second, noneconomic damages for pain and suffering that resulted as a direct consequence of the physical injury.

In order to substantiate these damages, a claimant will usually call upon medical experts, as well as any other specialists or witnesses, including family and friends, who can testify to the claimant’s pain.

The job of the defense, or the person/party against whom the claim is being filed, is to do the opposite — try to drag up evidence that suggests that damages are not nearly as severe as the claimant purports. One of the best sources of evidence is social media profiles.

Consider a claimant who is seeking damages for chronic pain, some loss of mobility, and an inability to enjoy physical activities that he or she once loved, such as hiking. The defense scours through the claimant’s social media pages and stumbles upon photographic evidence that suggests the contrary — photos of the claimant enjoying a beautiful hike in the mountains, while smiling, and with friends. As a result, the judge rules that the claimant is not entitled to compensation for these damages as the photos show clear and convincing evidence of not only the claimant’s physical capabilities, but of his or her enjoyment of life as well. (Note: This example is based on the true story of Fotini Kourtesis, who claimed that a rear-end collision left her unable to dance or wrestle with her brother. Facebook pictures showed her being lifted into the air with her brother and dancing after the accident, and the judge ruled against her. You can read more about this in Evidence of Life on Facebook, published in Slate.)

Evidence on Social Media Can Be Used Against You to Disprove Claims of Emotional Distress

In addition to physical injuries, those who are involved in accidents often suffer emotional distress as well. Loss of enjoyment of life, anxiety, depression, and withdrawal and isolation are all things that have been reported by those involved in accidents. And, just like with physical injuries, a claimant who wants to be compensated for his or her emotional injuries must offer proof.

The defense in a personal injury claim may turn to Facebook and other social media sites or forums, such as a claimant’s personal blog, in order to disprove claims of emotional distress, depression, etc. And the evidence that they use may be more surprising than you would think. Rather than the obvious — such as pictures of the claimant enjoying life or smiling amongst friends — the defense may use something as seemingly innocuous as posts on the claimant’s page wishing the claimant a happy birthday, while making the claim that if the claimant was socially isolated and friendless, he or she would not receive birthday wishes from so many other users. Although the link between birthday wishes on a Facebook page and depression may seem loose, be sure that the defense will pull upon anything they can in order to reduce the amount of money they are liable for.


Are My Social Media Postings Public Record?

The examples above raise a question of privacy, with those who have been injured in an accident asking, “Is my social media public record?” The answer is yes. Anything that you post publicly on the internet, or that others post about you, may be used as evidence and therefore used against you during a personal injury claim. Private messages cannot be accessed without consent or a warrant. Anything else, however, is up for grabs.


Best Practices for Social Media

Posting anything online after an accident may be dangerous to your claim, even if you think that what you are posting is harmless or is in no way related to your injury. After you have been in an accident, you should temporarily suspend all of your social media accounts. At the very least, you should be sure that your account is set to private, and that you do not accept any new friend requests during the time period after your accident. You should also ask friends and family members to refrain from posting anything related to you after your accident and to set their profiles to private as well.

 

Original Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-r-caudle/could-social-media-impact_b_9858366.html