An economic expert is warranted whenever a claim includes a loss that runs over time: earnings, benefits, household services, support to survivors, future care costs, lost profits, or the value of a business. Courts admit the testimony because the projection and discounting require specialized knowledge the trier of fact does not have. Retain early so the economist can identify the records and coordinate assumptions with the other experts.
The federal admissibility framework and its state counterparts permit expert testimony where specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact, the testimony rests on sufficient facts or data, it is the product of reliable principles and methods, and the expert has reliably applied them to the case. Projecting earnings over a worklife, valuing household work, deducting personal consumption, and reducing future streams to present value are that kind of specialized knowledge, and a jury asked to do them without an economist is asked to guess. The expert witness testimony guide describes the frameworks.
Consider retention when the person has lost earnings that will continue past the trial date; when the person was self-employed, a student, a homemaker, or between jobs, so that the earnings history alone does not describe the loss; when a death claim requires support, consumption, and household services to be measured for each survivor; when a life care plan must be reduced to present value; when a termination claim involves back pay, front pay, and lost benefits; when a business claims lost profits or must be valued in a shareholder dispute or a divorce; and when the other side has served an economic report that needs a review and rebuttal. The case types hub describes how the loss is built in each kind of matter.
In an injury case several experts address distinct questions that together establish damages. The treating or evaluating physicians supply the medical foundation for capacity and, where relevant, for a reduced horizon. A vocational witness may supply the post-injury earning capacity where it is contested. A clinician may prepare a life care plan for future care. The economist takes those findings as inputs, adds the earnings and household records and the published data, and produces the present value of the whole. The comparisons with the vocational discipline and with the author of a life care plan describe the hand-offs, and the forensic accountant comparison covers the commercial side.
Retain as early as practical. An economist retained early can list the records the calculation will need so they are requested once, identify the assumptions that will drive the result so the other experts address them, and inform discovery on the opposing damages theory. Late retention risks a report built on an incomplete record and a schedule that leaves no time for a supplemental analysis when new records arrive. Timing also affects the disclosure deadlines.
For a personal claim: several years of tax returns and W-2 or 1099 forms, pay stubs and employer records, benefit statements, the medical and vocational evidence bearing on work capacity, and the household's account of the services the person performed. For a death claim: the same for the decedent, plus the household's composition and the survivors' ages. For a business claim: financial statements and tax returns for several years before and after the event, the contracts at issue, and any forecasts prepared before the dispute. The consultation page describes the intake, and the services pages list the records for each engagement.
Often, yes. A return to work at a lower wage, with fewer benefits, or with a shortened worklife still produces a loss, and the economist measures it. The analysis is simpler when post-event earnings are documented, not unnecessary.
It varies. A serious injury case commonly involves the treating physicians, a vocational witness where capacity is contested, a clinician for a life care plan where future care is at issue, and an economist to value the whole. A smaller case may need only the medical evidence and the economist.
Yes. A consulting engagement to evaluate a claim, review an opposing report, or support mediation is common, and the disclosure rules for consulting experts differ from those for testifying experts. Counsel decides whether and when to designate.
Request a consultation on When Do You Need an Economic Expert? or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.