Personal injury economic damages analysis applied to motor vehicle accident litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
In a motor vehicle accident claim the integrated report scales to the injury. A moderate injury yields a bounded past earnings loss, household services during recovery, and the cost of future surgery or treatment; a catastrophic crash yields lifetime earnings and care losses in which the present value of attendant care and equipment can exceed the earnings loss. The economist builds each component from the record, applies consistent growth, discount, and life expectancy assumptions across all of them, and presents each component separately so the report supports settlement evaluation against policy limits as well as trial.
An integrated economic damages report for an injured person: lost earnings and fringe benefits, lost household services, and the present value of future medical and care costs supplied by treating providers or a life care plan. One report carries every economic component to a single present value with consistent growth, discount, and life expectancy assumptions, so counsel can present the damages as a whole and the jury sees one set of numbers.
The claim is made up of past lost earnings while the person was out of work, future lost earnings or reduced earning capacity where the injury limits the work the person can return to, lost fringe benefits, the replacement cost of household services during recovery and afterward, and the present value of future care costs when a life care plan or treating recommendations exist. For a fatal crash the analysis becomes a wrongful death loss to the survivors. The drivers are the earnings and benefit history, the employer's records on the period out of work and any accommodation, and the medical and work-capacity opinions in the record.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing economic reports, and recalculation when the life care plan or the medical record is updated.
Yes. Household work the person could not perform during recovery is valued at the cost of replacing it, and any permanent limitation on household work is projected over the person's expected life. The hours come from the household's account and time-use data for similar people.
From the employer's benefit plan documents where available, covering retirement contributions, health insurance premiums, and paid leave. Where the documents are not available, published data on employer costs for employee compensation supply a benefit rate for the industry and occupation, and the report states which approach was used.
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