KW Economics prepares household services analysis for product liability cases venued in Missouri: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Missouri damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
Product liability claims often involve children, homemakers, and retirees whose economic loss is concentrated in household work rather than wages, so the household services valuation is frequently the largest component. The economist draws the pre-injury hours from the household's account and time-use data for a person of the same circumstances, apportions the loss by category using the medical restrictions in the record, prices each category at the local replacement wage, and projects the loss over the period of limitation or the person's expected life. In a mass tort setting the same documented method is applied to each claimant's own household so results are consistent in method and individual in result.
Replacement-cost valuation of the household production an injured or deceased person can no longer provide: meal preparation, cleaning, home and vehicle maintenance, shopping, child care, and care of other household members. The hours are drawn from national time-use data adjusted to the person's household composition and pre-injury role, and each category is priced at the local wage for the occupation that would replace it, then projected and discounted over the period of loss.
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.
Missouri courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report meets that inquiry by stating its assumptions and naming the source of every rate and table.
Highest court: Missouri Supreme Court. Court system: courts.mo.gov.
Federal venues: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Missouri Division of Workers' Compensation.
Missouri pairs a wrongful death action for the survivors' pecuniary losses, services, companionship, and the decedent's pre-death suffering with a survival action where death resulted from another cause, and the value of medical treatment is proved by the amounts actually paid or still owed rather than the amounts billed. Pure comparative fault reduces the award in proportion, the common-law collateral source rule otherwise applies, and prejudgment interest in tort turns on a written settlement offer that the judgment then exceeds.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony and rebuttal of opposing household services opinions.
Product liability claims often involve children, homemakers, and retirees whose economic loss is concentrated in household work rather than wages, so the household services valuation is frequently the largest component. The economist draws the pre-injury hours from the household's account and time-use data for a person of the same circumstances, apportions the loss by category using the medical restrictions in the record, prices each category at the local replacement wage, and projects the loss over the period of limitation or the person's expected life. In a mass tort setting the same documented method is applied to each claimant's own household so results are consistent in method and individual in result.
Missouri courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report meets that inquiry by stating its assumptions and naming the source of every rate and table. Product Liability cases venued in Missouri are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; 46 judicial circuits; all civil, criminal, domestic, and probate matters), with final appeals to the Missouri Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the Eastern District of Missouri and Western District of Missouri.
Missouri pairs a wrongful death action for the survivors' pecuniary losses, services, companionship, and the decedent's pre-death suffering with a survival action where death resulted from another cause, and the value of medical treatment is proved by the amounts actually paid or still owed rather than the amounts billed. Pure comparative fault reduces the award in proportion, the common-law collateral source rule otherwise applies, and prejudgment interest in tort turns on a written settlement offer that the judgment then exceeds. 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 Missouri rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Household Services or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.