KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for traumatic brain injury cases venued in Pennsylvania: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Pennsylvania 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.
Pennsylvania courts ask whether the methodology behind an expert opinion is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and whether the economist is qualified by training and experience to apply it. The methods of forensic economics for lost earnings, worklife, 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: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Court system: pacourts.us.
Federal venues: Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Western District of Pennsylvania.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
Pennsylvania keeps the wrongful death and survival actions distinct: the wrongful death claim covers the beneficiaries' lost support, services, and funeral and administration expenses, while the survival claim covers the decedent's pain and suffering and lost earnings for the rest of the projected worklife net of the decedent's personal maintenance, so the economist prepares both a support projection and a net-earnings projection. 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, where past medical expenses and lost earnings already paid by certain benefits are not recoverable, and the civil rules add delay damages to bodily injury and death awards.
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 traumatic brain injury case venued in Pennsylvania; the damages framework above decides which components enter the total. Establish the but-for earnings path from the person's history or, for a young person, from occupational data for the path they were on. Draw the post-injury path from actual earnings and the work-capacity opinions in the record, and measure the earnings gap over the remaining worklife. Value household services and family supervision from time-use data and local rates, and price the care plan item by item with medical cost growth. Discount every future stream to present value at a stated rate and show the total under each supervision and work-capacity scenario.
Pennsylvania courts ask whether the methodology behind an expert opinion is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and whether the economist is qualified by training and experience to apply it. The methods of forensic economics for lost earnings, worklife, 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. Traumatic Brain Injury cases venued in Pennsylvania are heard in the Court of Common Pleas (General jurisdiction; 60 judicial districts; civil, criminal, family, and orphans' court divisions), with final appeals to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Western District of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania keeps the wrongful death and survival actions distinct: the wrongful death claim covers the beneficiaries' lost support, services, and funeral and administration expenses, while the survival claim covers the decedent's pain and suffering and lost earnings for the rest of the projected worklife net of the decedent's personal maintenance, so the economist prepares both a support projection and a net-earnings projection. 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, where past medical expenses and lost earnings already paid by certain benefits are not recoverable, and the civil rules add delay damages to bodily injury and death awards. 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 Pennsylvania rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.