KW Economics provides lost earnings analysis for matters venued in Michigan. 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 Michigan 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.
Michigan's Circuit Court 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 Michigan Workers' Disability Compensation Agency. Final appeals in the Michigan court system run to the Michigan Supreme Court. Michigan is served by 2 federal district courts, where the same analyses are offered under the federal expert-disclosure framework.
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.
Michigan's wrongful death act gathers the survival and death claims into a single action: the estate recovers the decedent's conscious pain and suffering and medical and funeral expenses, and the surviving family recovers lost financial support, services, society, and companionship. Awards are reduced after verdict by collateral-source payments other than those subject to a lien, a plaintiff whose fault exceeds half loses noneconomic damages while economic damages are only reduced, the court reduces future damages to present value under a statutory formula, and interest on the judgment runs from the filing of the complaint. Outside the civil courts, wage-loss disputes in workers' compensation matters proceed before the Michigan Workers' Disability Compensation Agency.
Lost earnings analysis for Michigan 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 Michigan, including the following communities.
KW Economics offers complementary services to support your Michigan cases.
Yes. KW Economics provides lost earnings analysis for attorneys handling matters venued in Michigan, 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 Michigan 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 Michigan is scheduled case by case: in the Michigan trial courts by the case management or scheduling order, and in the federal district courts serving Michigan 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 Michigan or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.