KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for personal injury cases venued in New York: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to New York 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.
New York courts ask whether the methodology behind an expert opinion is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and, separately, whether the economist applied it reliably to the facts of the case; qualification rests on training and experience. Forensic economic methods for lost earnings, household services, and present value are published and long used, so the examination of a damages report usually turns on its inputs and their support in the record.
Highest court: Court of Appeals. Court system: iapps.courts.state.ny.us.
Federal venues: Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, Northern District of New York, Western District of New York.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the New York State Workers' Compensation Board.
New York's wrongful death recovery has long been measured by the pecuniary injuries to the distributees, which puts lost earnings, lost household services, and the value of parental guidance at the center of the case, while the decedent's conscious pain and suffering is recovered in a survival claim by the estate. Pure comparative fault reduces the award in proportion, awards are reduced after trial by collateral-source payments that replace a cost or expense the jury awarded, larger future damage awards are converted to structured payments by the court, and prejudgment interest in a wrongful death action runs from the date of death.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing present value opinions, and revaluation when the plan is updated.
The same four steps apply to a personal injury case venued in New York; the damages framework above decides which components enter the total. Establish the but-for earnings and fringe benefit base from the tax, wage, benefit, and personnel records, or from occupational data for a career still in training. Project the base over a statistically expected worklife with a stated wage growth rate and compare it with the post-injury path the record supports. Value household services from time-use data and local replacement rates, and price the future care in the life care plan item by item with medical cost growth. Discount every future stream to present value at a stated rate and show the sensitivity of the total to the contested assumptions.
New York courts ask whether the methodology behind an expert opinion is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and, separately, whether the economist applied it reliably to the facts of the case; qualification rests on training and experience. Forensic economic methods for lost earnings, household services, and present value are published and long used, so the examination of a damages report usually turns on its inputs and their support in the record. Personal Injury cases venued in New York are heard in the Supreme Court (General jurisdiction trial court for major civil cases and felonies; one in each county), the County Court (Outside New York City; felonies and mid-sized civil cases), and the Court of Claims (Claims against New York State), with final appeals to the Court of Appeals. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, Northern District of New York, and Western District of New York.
New York's wrongful death recovery has long been measured by the pecuniary injuries to the distributees, which puts lost earnings, lost household services, and the value of parental guidance at the center of the case, while the decedent's conscious pain and suffering is recovered in a survival claim by the estate. Pure comparative fault reduces the award in proportion, awards are reduced after trial by collateral-source payments that replace a cost or expense the jury awarded, larger future damage awards are converted to structured payments by the court, and prejudgment interest in a wrongful death action runs from the date of death. 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 New York rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.