KW Economics prepares economic damages analyses - lost earnings, wrongful death economic loss, household services, employment damages, and business damages - for matters venued in American Samoa. Wage levels and the cost of living in American Samoa differ from the mainland, and earnings histories often include mainland employment or federal pay scales, so the projection is built from the plaintiff's own records and from local wage data rather than from mainland averages. Plaintiff and defense.
With about 55,000 residents, American Samoa is a compact wage market, and the analysis uses local wage and household data where it exists and names every mainland benchmark it borrows. Fringe benefits, worklife expectancy, wage growth, and the discount rate are each documented with their source so every figure in the projection can be traced and tested at deposition.
Our forensic economists prepare lost earnings, wrongful death, household services, employment, and business damages analyses and rebuttals for American Samoa litigation. Each projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to American Samoa wage data, and written to the jurisdiction's expert evidence standards.
Analyses for American Samoa matters are directed by Christopher Skerritt, M.Ed., MBA, Chief of Economic Services, who is available to testify to them.
KW Economics accepts cases from attorneys across American Samoa. Select a city for local wage-market and venue context.
An economic damages report is written for the forum that will examine it and around the damages rules that forum applies.
In American Samoa, a wrongful death action for the beneficiaries' pecuniary loss and a survival action for the decedent's own claims are heard by the Trial Division of the High Court, and the small on-island wage market means an earnings history often includes government, cannery, or off-island employment. The rules on fault allocation, collateral-source payments, and prejudgment interest follow the territory's own code and case law, which counsel should confirm for the specific claim.
American Samoa Workmen's Compensation Commission
Highest court: High Court of American Samoa, Appellate Division.
The High Court of American Samoa (Trial Division) is the primary trial-level forum for the personal injury, wrongful death, employment, and commercial damages claims these analyses support. Workers' compensation claims, where the dispute is over wage-loss benefits rather than tort damages, are administered by the American Samoa Workmen's Compensation Commission. Final appeals in the American Samoa court system run to the High Court of American Samoa, Appellate Division.
Yes. KW Economics prepares lost earnings, wrongful death economic loss, household services, employment damages, lost profits, and business valuation analyses, and reviews and rebuts opposing economic reports, for attorneys handling matters venued in American Samoa, for plaintiff and defense counsel alike. Every projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to wage data for the area of American Samoa where the plaintiff actually worked.
The starting point is the plaintiff's own earnings history - tax returns, W-2s, pay records, and benefit statements - rather than an average. Occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the plaintiff's metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area in American Samoa is used to test that history, to project a career that was still developing, and to value residual earnings after the injury, and household composition and cost-of-living data come from the American Community Survey. The source behind each figure is documented in the report.
Personal injury, wrongful death, employment, and commercial damages claims are heard in American Samoa's general-jurisdiction trial courts and, where jurisdiction allows, in the federal district courts serving American Samoa. Wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the compensation forum rather than the civil courts. Attorneys are responsible for confirming the venue and the governing damages rules for their specific case.
The decedent's earnings and fringe benefits are projected over a documented worklife expectancy, reduced by the decedent's own personal consumption where the measure of damages in American Samoa calls for it, and combined with the value of the household services the decedent would have provided. Each future year is then discounted to present value at a documented rate tied to the growth assumptions, so the report shows the lump sum that replaces the lost stream today. Which components are recoverable is a question of American Samoa law that counsel confirms; the report is structured so each component can be included or removed.
Request a consultation on American Samoa cases or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.