KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for personal injury cases venued in Maryland: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Maryland damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
For a personal injury claim the life care plan supplies the future medical and care items, and the economist's role is the economic translation of those items into a present value that reconciles with the plan. Each item's frequency, duration, and unit cost is carried forward with the medical cost growth appropriate to its category, summed year by year over the applicable life expectancy, and discounted with the rate stated. The result can stand alone or enter an integrated damages report on the same growth, discount, and life expectancy assumptions as the earnings and household services components.
Reduction of a life care plan's line items to a single present value. The plan's items, frequencies, durations, and unit costs are carried forward with medical cost growth appropriate to each category, then discounted over the applicable life expectancy. Plan authorship stays with the life care planner; our role is the economic translation of the plan into a damages figure that reconciles with the plan and can be examined item by item.
Which component dominates depends on the person's age, occupation, and residual capacity. For a young worker who can no longer perform a skilled trade, future earnings loss over a long worklife usually outweighs everything else. For a person who returns to work at reduced hours or lower pay, the loss is the gap between the but-for path and the post-injury path, and the size of that gap is the contested question. Where a life care plan exists, its present value is often the largest single figure in the report, and household services losses can be substantial when the injured person did most of the home's unpaid work.
Maryland courts now apply a reliability inquiry to all expert testimony: the trial judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the method is one the profession has tested and accepted, and whether it was reliably applied to the facts of the case. An economic damages report is written to that standard, with each rate and table traced to its source.
Highest court: Supreme Court of Maryland. Court system: courts.state.md.us.
Federal venues: District of Maryland.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission.
Maryland pairs a wrongful death action for the beneficiaries' pecuniary loss and solatium with a survival action for the estate, and a statutory limit applies to the noneconomic portion of most awards while economic damages are unlimited. Contributory negligence remains a complete bar, the common-law collateral source rule applies, and prejudgment interest on unliquidated tort damages is generally not available.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing present value opinions, and revaluation when the plan is updated.
For a personal injury claim the life care plan supplies the future medical and care items, and the economist's role is the economic translation of those items into a present value that reconciles with the plan. Each item's frequency, duration, and unit cost is carried forward with the medical cost growth appropriate to its category, summed year by year over the applicable life expectancy, and discounted with the rate stated. The result can stand alone or enter an integrated damages report on the same growth, discount, and life expectancy assumptions as the earnings and household services components.
Maryland courts now apply a reliability inquiry to all expert testimony: the trial judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the method is one the profession has tested and accepted, and whether it was reliably applied to the facts of the case. An economic damages report is written to that standard, with each rate and table traced to its source. Personal Injury cases venued in Maryland are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; larger civil cases, felonies, equity, domestic relations), with final appeals to the Supreme Court of Maryland. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of Maryland.
Maryland pairs a wrongful death action for the beneficiaries' pecuniary loss and solatium with a survival action for the estate, and a statutory limit applies to the noneconomic portion of most awards while economic damages are unlimited. Contributory negligence remains a complete bar, the common-law collateral source rule applies, and prejudgment interest on unliquidated tort damages is generally not available. 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 Maryland rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.