KW Economics prepares life care plan costing for traumatic brain injury cases venued in South Dakota: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to South Dakota 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.
South Dakota courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the trial judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report is written to that standard, with each data series named and each assumption tied to the record.
Highest court: South Dakota Supreme Court. Court system: ujs.sd.gov.
Federal venues: District of South Dakota.
Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Division of Labor and Management.
South Dakota provides a wrongful death action for the pecuniary injury to the surviving spouse, children, or next of kin, which the courts read to include loss of companionship and society, alongside a survival action for the estate. The state's unusual comparative negligence rule allows recovery only when the plaintiff's negligence was slight in comparison with the defendant's, the common-law collateral source rule applies, and prejudgment interest is allowed on past damages but not on future damages, punitive damages, or intangible losses.
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.
South Dakota courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the trial judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report is written to that standard, with each data series named and each assumption tied to the record. Traumatic Brain Injury cases venued in South Dakota are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; 7 circuits across 66 counties; all civil, criminal, and domestic matters), with final appeals to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of South Dakota.
South Dakota provides a wrongful death action for the pecuniary injury to the surviving spouse, children, or next of kin, which the courts read to include loss of companionship and society, alongside a survival action for the estate. The state's unusual comparative negligence rule allows recovery only when the plaintiff's negligence was slight in comparison with the defendant's, the common-law collateral source rule applies, and prejudgment interest is allowed on past damages but not on future damages, punitive damages, or intangible losses. 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 South Dakota rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on Life Care Plan Costing or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.