Personal injury economic damages analysis applied to traumatic brain injury litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
Brain injury claims are where the integrated report earns its place: future lost earnings across a long worklife, the value of the supervision and management of daily affairs that family members now provide, and the present value of attendant care, therapy, medication, and case management in the life care plan all rest on the same life expectancy and discount assumptions. The economist values each component from its own record, prices the plan item by item with category-specific medical cost growth, and presents the total under alternative supervision and work-capacity scenarios so the fact finder can match the number to its findings.
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, often a total loss when the person cannot return to competitive work or a partial loss when they can work only with supports or at a lower level; lost fringe benefits; the replacement cost of household services, including the supervision and management of daily affairs that family members now provide; and the present value of the care plan, which in serious injury includes attendant care, therapy, medication, and case management over a lifetime. The drivers are the earnings history, the neuropsychological and work-capacity opinions in the record, and a life care plan that specifies each item's frequency and duration.
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.
By the hours of supervision or assistance the record supports and the local market rate for the level of service a paid provider would charge, from companion care to skilled attendant care. The report states the hours, the rate, and the source, and reconciles them with any attendant care hours already in the life care plan.
Because residual work capacity and the level of supervision are matters of expert opinion, and the total is highly sensitive to both. Presenting the loss under each scenario lets counsel evaluate settlement against the full range and lets the fact finder attach the number to the finding it makes.
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