Rebuttal analysis applied to product liability litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
Product liability damages reports often concern claimants without a conventional earnings history, and the review tests how the opposing report built the earnings base for a child, student, homemaker, or retiree, whether the household services and care components rest on the record or on assumptions, and, in a mass tort, whether one method was applied consistently across claimants or adjusted case by case. The economist checks the educational and occupational assumptions, the time-use and replacement wage sources, the life care plan pricing and growth rates, and the discounting, and quantifies the effect of each correction.
Critique of an opposing economic damages, valuation, or forensic accounting report for plaintiff or defense counsel. The review tests the assumptions, data sources, discount rates, worklife and life expectancy inputs, growth rates, mitigation treatment, and arithmetic behind the opposing number, identifies the errors that matter, and quantifies how the conclusion changes when they are corrected. The result supports cross-examination, a rebuttal report, or a motion directed at the reliability of the opinion.
The claim consists of lost earnings and earning capacity from the date of injury across the person's expected worklife, lost fringe benefits, the replacement value of household services, and the present value of future care costs documented in a life care plan or treating recommendations. In a fatal injury the components become the survivors' loss of support, household services, and the estate's claim where the framework provides one. In mass tort settings the analysis may also require a consistent methodology applied across many claimants with different ages, occupations, and injuries. The drivers are the earnings and benefit history, the medical and work-capacity opinions, and the care plan.
We issue a rebuttal report where one is disclosed and provide deposition and trial testimony, cross-examination outlines, and support for motions directed at the opinion.
By checking the educational attainment assumed against the record, the occupational earnings data against its source, the age at which earnings were assumed to begin, and the worklife applied, and by showing the result under the alternative attainment levels the record supports.
Yes. The economist checks whether the method is documented, whether it was applied to each claimant's own records, and whether individual results deviate from the method without explanation, and states the effect of correcting the deviations.
Request a consultation on Rebuttal or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.