A lost earnings engagement moves through 5 steps, from the conflict check to testimony. Each step ends in something counsel can review, and the typical timeline shows how long each phase runs.
Engagement process
Retention and conflict check: We confirm the parties and counsel for conflicts, define the damages questions to be answered, establish the retainer, and agree on the report deadline and any disclosure dates.
Records and data request: We issue a records list covering tax returns, wage statements, employment and personnel files, benefit plan documents, and the medical or vocational opinions that define post-injury work capacity.
Analysis and modeling: We establish the but-for earnings base, apply worklife expectancy and wage growth, model the post-injury earnings path, value fringe benefits, and discount future losses to present value with sensitivity ranges where assumptions are contested.
Draft report and counsel review: We deliver a draft that states every assumption, data source, and calculation, then review it with counsel for completeness and factual accuracy before finalizing.
Final report and testimony support: We issue the final report in disclosure-ready form and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing economic opinions, and updated calculations as new records arrive.
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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). U.S. Department of Labor. bls.gov
Skoog, G. R., Ciecka, J. E., & Krueger, K. V. (2011). The Markov process model of labor force activity: Extended tables of central tendency, shape, percentile points, and bootstrap standard errors. Journal of Forensic Economics, 22(2), 165-229. doi.org
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (n.d.). Daily Treasury par yield curve rates. home.treasury.gov
National Association of Forensic Economics. (n.d.). NAFE's ethics statement. Retrieved August 27, 2026. nafe.net