KW Economics prepares economic damages analyses - lost earnings, wrongful death economic loss, household services, employment damages, and business damages - for matters venued in New York. Earnings in New York are shaped by regional wage markets that do not stop at the state line, so an earnings projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own work history and to wage data for the area where the plaintiff actually worked, whichever side of the line that is, rather than to a statewide or national average. Plaintiff and defense.
With about 20 million residents, New York contains more than one distinct wage market, and the analysis uses the one the plaintiff actually worked in: occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for that metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area, and household and cost-of-living data from the American Community Survey. 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 New York litigation. Each projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to New York wage data, and written to the jurisdiction's expert evidence standards.
Analyses for New York 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 New York. 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.
New York's wrongful death recovery has long been measured by the pecuniary injuries to the distributees, which puts lost earnings, lost household services, and the value of parental guidance at the center of the case, while the decedent's conscious pain and suffering is recovered in a survival claim by the estate. Pure comparative fault reduces the award in proportion, awards are reduced after trial by collateral-source payments that replace a cost or expense the jury awarded, larger future damage awards are converted to structured payments by the court, and prejudgment interest in a wrongful death action runs from the date of death.
New York State Workers' Compensation Board
Highest court: Court of Appeals. Federal venues: S.D.N.Y., E.D.N.Y., N.D.N.Y., W.D.N.Y.
New York presents a distinctive litigation environment for forensic economists. Unlike most states, New York's Supreme Court functions as the primary trial court - not an appellate body - and personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, and employment cases in that court routinely turn on economic damages testimony. New York's wrongful death measure has long centered on the pecuniary loss to the distributees, which puts the economist's projection of lost earnings, lost household services, and the value of a parent's guidance at the heart of a death case, and the state's collateral-source offset and structured-judgment procedures shape how a future-damages award is actually paid.
The state's five boroughs, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and Upstate New York are distinct wage markets with materially different earnings histories and costs of living. An earnings projection for a Manhattan professional, a Long Island tradesperson, and a Buffalo manufacturing worker rests on different occupational wage data, different fringe benefit structures, and different commuting patterns, and each must be anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to the wage data for the area where the plaintiff actually worked rather than to a statewide figure.
New York's workers' compensation system handles wage-loss benefits through the Workers' Compensation Board, but the tort claims that flow from the same injuries, and the employment discrimination and wrongful termination cases heard in state and federal court, call for economic loss analyses written to New York's expert disclosure practice. KW Economics has extensive familiarity with New York's courts, its regional wage markets, and the standards that New York judges apply to economic damages opinions.
New York Supreme Court (trial court), Appellate Division (four departments), Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts for SDNY, EDNY, NDNY, and WDNY, New York Workers' Compensation Board
Common case types: Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Medical Malpractice, Employment Discrimination, Motor Vehicle Accident.
New York's Supreme Court 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 New York State Workers' Compensation Board. Final appeals in the New York court system run to the Court of Appeals. New York is served by 4 federal district courts, 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 New York, for plaintiff and defense counsel alike. Every projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to wage data for the area of New York 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 New York 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 New York's general-jurisdiction trial courts and, where jurisdiction allows, in the federal district courts serving New York. 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 New York 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 New York law that counsel confirms; the report is structured so each component can be included or removed.
Request a consultation on New York cases or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.