i am just about to mediate in acommon law negligence suite…

I can only give you the most general advice. The assessment of damages can only be undertaken with a full understanding of the matter, and after reading all medical reports and other relevant documents.

If you are getting to a mediation stage, if you have a good experienced barrister, who practices in this field, you should be in good hands.

As a general proposition, to work out loss of earning capacity/future loss of earning capacity, it is necessary to work out the likely incapacity as a percentage. So, if the court accepted, after hearing all medical evidence, that you had a 20% permanent impairment to your earning capacity, you could apply that percentage figure to your current earning capacity (let's say $45,000) and you would arrive at a loss of $9000 per annum. You would then multiply that figure with the number of years to your normal retirement age, and then discount the figure by an appropriate discount rate because you are receiving it as a lump sum all at once.

The discount rate might be fixed by legislation (it is in Victoria). You would use actuarial tables to derive this figure.

Your 19% impairment to both arms will not represent the impairment to your earning capacity. In a common law case in addition to the damages representing your future loss of earning capacity, you can also claim other heads of damage such as pain and suffering (depending on legislative limitations, if any), past and future medical expenses and like expenses, and any other damages that apply to you. You can also claim most of your legal costs.

You will see that it is impossible on this service to specifically answer your questions. If you have many years to your normal retirement age,The loss of future earning capacity damages may well be the largest component.

You can also have your award reduced because of contributory negligence, if relevant. In settlement discussions liability issues will also be relevant, and if liability is an issue (it may not be) then the insurer will take this into account and offer you a lower amount than a strict assessment would indicate. What you need in this case is an opinion from an experienced barrister as to the likely range of damages.

I think this probably answers your questions, but if there is anything else please come back to me, I am happy to address any further concerns.