KW Economics prepares economic damages analyses - lost earnings, wrongful death economic loss, household services, employment damages, and business damages - for matters venued in South Dakota. Earnings histories in South Dakota often reflect manufacturing, agriculture, health care, and logistics employment with distinct wage paths and benefit packages, so the projection is built from the plaintiff's own records and from wage data for the plaintiff's own occupation and area rather than from a statewide average. Plaintiff and defense.
With about 887,000 residents, South Dakota 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 South Dakota litigation. Each projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to South Dakota wage data, and written to the jurisdiction's expert evidence standards.
Analyses for South Dakota 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 South Dakota. 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.
South Dakota provides a wrongful death action for the pecuniary injury to the surviving spouse, children, or next of kin, which the courts read to include loss of companionship and society, alongside a survival action for the estate. The state's unusual comparative negligence rule allows recovery only when the plaintiff's negligence was slight in comparison with the defendant's, the common-law collateral source rule applies, and prejudgment interest is allowed on past damages but not on future damages, punitive damages, or intangible losses.
South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Division of Labor and Management
Highest court: South Dakota Supreme Court. Federal venues: D.S.D.
South Dakota's Circuit 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 South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Division of Labor and Management. Final appeals in the South Dakota court system run to the South Dakota Supreme Court. South Dakota 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 South Dakota, for plaintiff and defense counsel alike. Every projection is anchored to the plaintiff's own records and to wage data for the area of South Dakota 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 South Dakota 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 South Dakota's general-jurisdiction trial courts and, where jurisdiction allows, in the federal district courts serving South Dakota. 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 South Dakota 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 South Dakota law that counsel confirms; the report is structured so each component can be included or removed.
Request a consultation on South Dakota cases or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.