Wrongful death analysis applied to product liability litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
When a product causes a death, the economic claim follows the wrongful death structure with the personal consumption deduction as the key assumption. Because product cases often involve children, homemakers, and retirees, the household services and support components frequently carry more of the loss than the earnings component, and the economist builds the analysis from the household's account and time-use data where wage records do not exist. Earnings for a child or student are projected from the educational path and occupational data, personal consumption from household expenditure data adjusted to the household, and each survivor's loss is discounted to present value.
The economic loss to survivors when a wage earner or homemaker dies: the decedent's lost earnings and fringe benefits net of personal consumption, the household services the decedent would have provided, and the financial support that would have flowed to dependents. Which elements are recoverable, and whether the loss is measured to the estate or to the survivors, vary by state, so the analysis is structured to the framework counsel identifies and every assumption is stated so it can be examined.
The claim consists of lost earnings and earning capacity from the date of injury across the person's expected worklife, lost fringe benefits, the replacement value of household services, and the present value of future care costs documented in a life care plan or treating recommendations. In a fatal injury the components become the survivors' loss of support, household services, and the estate's claim where the framework provides one. In mass tort settings the analysis may also require a consistent methodology applied across many claimants with different ages, occupations, and injuries. The drivers are the earnings and benefit history, the medical and work-capacity opinions, and the care plan.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony, rebuttal of opposing opinions, and supplemental calculations if the framework or the record changes.
From the educational path the record supports and occupational earnings data for that level, starting at the age the child would have entered the workforce, with a personal consumption deduction appropriate to the household the child would have formed. The report states the assumptions and shows the result under alternatives.
Yes. The economist documents one method for earnings, consumption, household services, and support, then applies it to each decedent's own records so the figures are consistent in method and individual in result.
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