KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for traumatic brain injury cases venued in Massachusetts: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Massachusetts 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.
Massachusetts courts ask whether the reasoning and methodology behind an expert opinion are reliable, which can be shown either by general acceptance in the profession or by the reliability factors the federal courts use, and whether the witness is qualified by training and experience. Forensic economic methods satisfy that inquiry through their published literature, so the examination usually turns on the inputs and their support in the record.
Highest court: Supreme Judicial Court. Court system: mass.gov.
Federal venues: District of Massachusetts.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents.
Massachusetts measures wrongful death by the fair monetary value of the decedent to the beneficiaries, including lost income, services, protection, care, assistance, society, and companionship, and permits punitive damages for gross negligence, with the decedent's own conscious suffering recovered by the estate. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the common-law collateral source rule applies outside medical malpractice, and prejudgment interest on tort awards runs from the commencement of the action.
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.
Massachusetts courts ask whether the reasoning and methodology behind an expert opinion are reliable, which can be shown either by general acceptance in the profession or by the reliability factors the federal courts use, and whether the witness is qualified by training and experience. Forensic economic methods satisfy that inquiry through their published literature, so the examination usually turns on the inputs and their support in the record. Traumatic Brain Injury cases venued in Massachusetts are heard in the Superior Court (General jurisdiction; larger civil cases, major criminal cases), with final appeals to the Supreme Judicial Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts measures wrongful death by the fair monetary value of the decedent to the beneficiaries, including lost income, services, protection, care, assistance, society, and companionship, and permits punitive damages for gross negligence, with the decedent's own conscious suffering recovered by the estate. Recovery is barred once the plaintiff's fault exceeds the combined fault of the defendants, the common-law collateral source rule applies outside medical malpractice, and prejudgment interest on tort awards runs from the commencement of the action. 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 Massachusetts rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.