KW Economics prepares rebuttal analysis for product liability cases venued in Hawaii: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Hawaii damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
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 exposure tracks the injury: burns, amputations, and neurological injuries produce large future earnings and care losses; less severe injuries produce a bounded past loss and limited future treatment. Because product cases often involve children, homemakers, and retirees, the household services and care components frequently outweigh the earnings loss, and the analysis must be built from those components rather than from wage records that do not exist. For fatal injuries the exposure follows the wrongful death structure with the personal consumption deduction as the key assumption.
Hawaii courts ask whether an expert opinion is relevant and reliable and whether it will help the jury, treating the reliability factors the federal courts use as helpful rather than required and not insisting on general acceptance; the witness is qualified by training and experience. An economic damages report is examined on whether its assumptions have a published basis and fit the record.
Highest court: Hawaii Supreme Court. Court system: courts.state.hi.us.
Federal venues: District of Hawaii.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Hawaii Disability Compensation Division.
Hawaii's wrongful death statute lets the surviving spouse, children, parents, and dependents recover their own losses of support, services, and companionship and lets the estate recover the decedent's lost future earnings net of personal consumption, so the economist prepares both a survivor-support projection and a net-earnings projection. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the courts apply the collateral source rule with limited statutory exceptions, and prejudgment interest is discretionary.
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.
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.
Hawaii courts ask whether an expert opinion is relevant and reliable and whether it will help the jury, treating the reliability factors the federal courts use as helpful rather than required and not insisting on general acceptance; the witness is qualified by training and experience. An economic damages report is examined on whether its assumptions have a published basis and fit the record. Product Liability cases venued in Hawaii are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; larger civil cases, felonies, family court division), with final appeals to the Hawaii Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of Hawaii.
Hawaii's wrongful death statute lets the surviving spouse, children, parents, and dependents recover their own losses of support, services, and companionship and lets the estate recover the decedent's lost future earnings net of personal consumption, so the economist prepares both a survivor-support projection and a net-earnings projection. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the courts apply the collateral source rule with limited statutory exceptions, and prejudgment interest is discretionary. The report presents past and future amounts separately, states every rate and table with its source, and shows the result under the alternatives the other side is likely to argue, so counsel can apply the Hawaii rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Rebuttal or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.