Life care plan costing applied to product liability litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
Product liability injuries such as burns, amputations, and neurological injuries produce life care plans with long horizons and heavy recurring items, and the injured person is often a child whose plan runs for a full life expectancy. The economist carries each item forward with category-specific medical cost growth, schedules replacements at the plan's intervals, and discounts the stream over the life expectancy the medical evidence supports. In a mass tort setting the same growth, discount, and life expectancy conventions are applied across the claimants' plans so the valuations are consistent in method and each traces to its own plan.
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.
The claim consists of lost earnings and earning capacity from the date of injury across the person's expected worklife, lost fringe benefits, the replacement value of household services, and the present value of future care costs documented in a life care plan or treating recommendations. In a fatal injury the components become the survivors' loss of support, household services, and the estate's claim where the framework provides one. In mass tort settings the analysis may also require a consistent methodology applied across many claimants with different ages, occupations, and injuries. The drivers are the earnings and benefit history, the medical and work-capacity opinions, and the care plan.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing present value opinions, and revaluation when the plan is updated.
Over the full life expectancy the medical evidence supports, with items that begin or end at stated ages scheduled accordingly and growth applied from the valuation date to each year of care. The report shows the annual stream so counsel can see how the plan's phases contribute to the total.
Yes. The economist documents the growth rates by category, the discount rate, and the life expectancy conventions once and applies them to each plan, so the valuations are comparable across claimants while each remains tied to its own plan.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.