KW Economics prepares economic damages analyses - lost earnings, wrongful death economic loss, household services, employment damages, and business damages - for matters venued in Guam. Wage levels and the cost of living in Guam 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 154,000 residents, Guam 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 Guam litigation. Each projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to Guam wage data, and written to the jurisdiction's expert evidence standards.
Analyses for Guam 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 Guam. 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.
Guam's wrongful death action, patterned on California's, is brought for the heirs' losses, and the decedent's own pre-death claims survive to the estate; claims against the government proceed under a separate claims act with its own procedures. Comparative fault reduces recovery in proportion, and the treatment of collateral-source payments and prejudgment interest follows Guam's own statutes and case law, which counsel should confirm for the specific claim.
Guam Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation Commission
Highest court: Supreme Court of Guam. Federal venues: D. Guam.
The Superior Court of Guam 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 Guam Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation Commission. Final appeals in the Guam court system run to the Supreme Court of Guam. Guam is served by 1 federal district court, where the same analyses are offered under the federal expert-disclosure framework.
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 Guam, for plaintiff and defense counsel alike. Every projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to wage data for the area of Guam 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 Guam 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 Guam's general-jurisdiction trial courts and, where jurisdiction allows, in the federal district courts serving Guam. 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 Guam 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 Guam law that counsel confirms; the report is structured so each component can be included or removed.
Request a consultation on Guam cases or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.