KW Economics provides lost earnings analysis for matters venued in American Samoa. The projection starts from the plaintiff's own earnings history, tests it against occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area of American Samoa where the plaintiff worked, carries it over a documented worklife expectancy with wage growth, and discounts it to present value. Fringe benefits are valued from the employer's plan documents or from published employer-cost data, and any post-injury earning capacity is offset against the but-for path rather than assumed away. Plaintiff and defense.
The High Court of American Samoa (Trial Division) is the primary trial-level forum for the personal injury, wrongful death, employment, and commercial damages claims these analyses support. Workers' compensation claims, where the dispute is over wage-loss benefits rather than tort damages, are administered by the American Samoa Workmen's Compensation Commission. Final appeals in the American Samoa court system run to the High Court of American Samoa, Appellate Division.
Past and future lost earnings and fringe benefits for a person whose injury has removed them from work or reduced what they can earn. The analysis builds from the earnings history, projects the but-for path over the person's expected worklife with wage growth, and discounts the future stream to present value. When the person can still work in a reduced capacity, the loss is framed as diminished earning capacity, with the post-injury path drawn from a vocational opinion or the treating record and offset against the but-for projection.
In American Samoa, a wrongful death action for the beneficiaries' pecuniary loss and a survival action for the decedent's own claims are heard by the Trial Division of the High Court, and the small on-island wage market means an earnings history often includes government, cannery, or off-island employment. The rules on fault allocation, collateral-source payments, and prejudgment interest follow the territory's own code and case law, which counsel should confirm for the specific claim. Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the American Samoa Workmen's Compensation Commission.
Lost earnings analysis for American Samoa matters is directed by Christopher Skerritt, M.Ed., MBA, Chief of Economic Services, who is available to testify to it.
Our experts serve clients throughout American Samoa, including the following communities.
KW Economics offers complementary services to support your American Samoa cases.
Yes. KW Economics provides lost earnings analysis for attorneys handling matters venued in American Samoa, for plaintiff and defense counsel, with the analysis sized to the engagement scope and built from the records that drive the claim and from data for the American Samoa market rather than from national averages.
A complete engagement typically includes a records request tailored to the claim (tax returns, wage statements, personnel and benefit plan records, and the medical or work-capacity opinions that define the post-injury earnings path), a review of the record and the pleadings, a written statement of assumptions, a report that presents each loss component and its present value, review and rebuttal of any opposing report, and deposition and trial testimony when required. Scope and turnaround are calibrated to the case posture and the governing disclosure framework.
Expert disclosure in American Samoa is scheduled case by case: in the American Samoa trial courts by the case management or scheduling order, and in the federal district courts serving American Samoa by the federal expert-disclosure framework, under which the written report, the materials considered, and the testimony history are served together. KW Economics confirms the disclosure date at retention and sizes the records request and turnaround to it; counsel confirms the governing deadline for the case.
Request a consultation on Lost Earnings in American Samoa or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.