KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for traumatic brain injury cases venued in Hawaii: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Hawaii damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
A brain injury life care plan is dominated by attendant care and supervision, therapy, medication, and case management over a lifetime, and its present value is highly sensitive to the daily hours of paid help the plan specifies and the life expectancy applied. The economist carries each item forward with the medical cost growth appropriate to its category, discounts the stream over the life expectancy the medical evidence supports, and presents the total under alternative supervision levels when the plan or the record offers more than one. Every valued item ties back to the plan so counsel and the plan's author can confirm that the valuation reconciles.
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.
Two components usually dominate: future lost earnings across a long worklife for a young person, and the present value of attendant care and supervision when the plan calls for daily hours of paid help. Because the level of supervision and the person's residual work capacity are both matters of expert opinion, the report's total is highly sensitive to those inputs, and the life expectancy used for the care stream is a second source of dispute. Mild injury with persistent symptoms presents a narrower claim built on reduced hours, lost advancement, and periodic treatment.
Hawaii courts ask whether an expert opinion is relevant and reliable and whether it will help the jury, treating the reliability factors the federal courts use as helpful rather than required and not insisting on general acceptance; the witness is qualified by training and experience. An economic damages report is examined on whether its assumptions have a published basis and fit the record.
Highest court: Hawaii Supreme Court. Court system: courts.state.hi.us.
Federal venues: District of Hawaii.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Hawaii Disability Compensation Division.
Hawaii's wrongful death statute lets the surviving spouse, children, parents, and dependents recover their own losses of support, services, and companionship and lets the estate recover the decedent's lost future earnings net of personal consumption, so the economist prepares both a survivor-support projection and a net-earnings projection. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the courts apply the collateral source rule with limited statutory exceptions, and prejudgment interest is discretionary.
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 brain injury life care plan is dominated by attendant care and supervision, therapy, medication, and case management over a lifetime, and its present value is highly sensitive to the daily hours of paid help the plan specifies and the life expectancy applied. The economist carries each item forward with the medical cost growth appropriate to its category, discounts the stream over the life expectancy the medical evidence supports, and presents the total under alternative supervision levels when the plan or the record offers more than one. Every valued item ties back to the plan so counsel and the plan's author can confirm that the valuation reconciles.
Hawaii courts ask whether an expert opinion is relevant and reliable and whether it will help the jury, treating the reliability factors the federal courts use as helpful rather than required and not insisting on general acceptance; the witness is qualified by training and experience. An economic damages report is examined on whether its assumptions have a published basis and fit the record. Traumatic Brain Injury cases venued in Hawaii are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; larger civil cases, felonies, family court division), with final appeals to the Hawaii Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of Hawaii.
Hawaii's wrongful death statute lets the surviving spouse, children, parents, and dependents recover their own losses of support, services, and companionship and lets the estate recover the decedent's lost future earnings net of personal consumption, so the economist prepares both a survivor-support projection and a net-earnings projection. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the courts apply the collateral source rule with limited statutory exceptions, and prejudgment interest is discretionary. 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 Hawaii rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.