KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for spinal cord injury cases venued in Louisiana: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Louisiana damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
A spinal cord injury life care plan carries attendant care, wheelchair and equipment replacement cycles, supplies, home and vehicle modifications, and periodic hospitalization for complications, each with its own frequency, replacement interval, and cost category. The economist schedules each replacement at the interval the plan specifies, grows each item at the rate appropriate to its category, discounts the stream over the life expectancy the medical evidence supports, and presents home-based and facility-based care scenarios when the plan offers both. The report lists the replacement schedule so counsel can see how many cycles the horizon contains.
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 present value of attendant care over a lifetime is usually the largest figure, followed by future lost earnings for a person injured early in a working life. Equipment costs recur on replacement cycles and are sensitive to the cost growth rate applied, and home and vehicle modifications add one-time and recurring items. Because the level of injury determines attendant care hours and the person's capacity for alternative work, the report's total moves with those inputs, and the life expectancy the medical evidence supports sets the horizon for every stream.
Louisiana courts ask the trial judge to act as gatekeeper for expert testimony, examining whether the economist is qualified, whether the method is reliable and accepted in the profession, and whether it was applied reliably to the facts of the case. An economic damages report answers those questions by tying each input to the record and citing its published sources.
Highest court: Louisiana Supreme Court. Court system: lasc.org.
Federal venues: Eastern District of Louisiana, Middle District of Louisiana, Western District of Louisiana.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation Administration.
Louisiana's civil code provides a survival action for the decedent's own damages and a separate wrongful death action for the designated beneficiaries' losses, both measured under a pure comparative fault system. The collateral source rule applies with exceptions the courts have carved out for amounts written off by providers, and judicial interest runs on tort awards from the date of judicial demand.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing present value opinions, and revaluation when the plan is updated.
A spinal cord injury life care plan carries attendant care, wheelchair and equipment replacement cycles, supplies, home and vehicle modifications, and periodic hospitalization for complications, each with its own frequency, replacement interval, and cost category. The economist schedules each replacement at the interval the plan specifies, grows each item at the rate appropriate to its category, discounts the stream over the life expectancy the medical evidence supports, and presents home-based and facility-based care scenarios when the plan offers both. The report lists the replacement schedule so counsel can see how many cycles the horizon contains.
Louisiana courts ask the trial judge to act as gatekeeper for expert testimony, examining whether the economist is qualified, whether the method is reliable and accepted in the profession, and whether it was applied reliably to the facts of the case. An economic damages report answers those questions by tying each input to the record and citing its published sources. Spinal Cord Injury cases venued in Louisiana are heard in the District Court (General jurisdiction; civil and criminal cases at the parish level), with final appeals to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, Middle District of Louisiana, and Western District of Louisiana.
Louisiana's civil code provides a survival action for the decedent's own damages and a separate wrongful death action for the designated beneficiaries' losses, both measured under a pure comparative fault system. The collateral source rule applies with exceptions the courts have carved out for amounts written off by providers, and judicial interest runs on tort awards from the date of judicial demand. 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 Louisiana rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.