Household services analysis applied to workers' compensation litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
The compensation system does not pay for lost household services, but a third-party action arising from the same work injury can reach them. The economist measures the hours of household work the injury has removed by category from the household's account and time-use data, apportions the loss using the work-capacity and medical restrictions already in the compensation record, and prices each category at the local replacement wage over the period of limitation or life expectancy. The component is presented alongside the earnings loss so the third-party claim is complete and the compensation lien and offset questions can be addressed from one set of numbers.
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.
Depending on the setting, the claim consists of the present value of future indemnity payments under the schedule that applies, the wage loss or reduced earning capacity that benefits are meant to replace, the lost fringe benefits and household services that the compensation system does not pay but a third-party claim may, and the present value of future medical treatment where a settlement closes future medical liability. The drivers are the pre-injury wage records, the carrier's payment history, the post-injury earnings if any, the work-capacity opinions in the record, and the treatment projection when future medical is being valued.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony and rebuttal of opposing household services opinions.
Often. The medical restrictions, the functional capacity findings, and the treating opinions developed for the compensation claim describe what the person can and cannot do physically, and the economist applies them to the household categories. The household's own account supplies the pre-injury hours.
Generally no; the compensation system replaces wages and pays medical treatment. The component belongs to the civil claim, and the report presents it separately from the amounts the compensation system pays.
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