Personal injury economic damages analysis applied to spinal cord injury litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
For a spinal cord injury the integrated report joins a lost earnings analysis that usually reflects the end of the prior occupation with a life care plan dominated by attendant care, equipment replacement cycles, supplies, home and vehicle modifications, and periodic hospitalization. The economist projects the but-for earnings path, sets against it the post-injury path the work-capacity opinions support, values household services across the person's life, and prices the plan item by item with the cost growth appropriate to each category and the replacement intervals the plan specifies. Home-based and facility-based care scenarios are presented when the plan offers both.
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 consists of lost earnings and earning capacity, measured as a total loss when the person cannot return to work or as the gap between the prior path and a sedentary or part-time alternative when they can; lost fringe benefits; the replacement value of household services across the person's life; and the present value of the life care plan, which for spinal cord injury is dominated by attendant care, wheelchair and equipment replacement cycles, supplies, home and vehicle modifications, and periodic hospitalization for complications. The drivers are the earnings and benefit history, the work-capacity opinions in the record, and a life care plan with frequencies and replacement intervals stated for each item.
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.
Each item is scheduled at the interval the life care plan specifies, priced at current cost, grown at the applicable rate to each replacement date, and discounted back to present value. The report lists the schedule so counsel can see how many replacements the horizon contains.
It is valued at the local market rate for the level of care involved, for the hours the plan and the record support, and shown separately from paid care so counsel can present it under the governing framework. The report checks that the same hours are not also counted as lost household services.
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