Wrongful death analysis applied to wrongful death litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
The wrongful death economic analysis measures what the decedent would have contributed to the household over the rest of an expected life: net lost earnings and fringe benefits after the personal consumption deduction, the replacement value of the household services the decedent provided, and the financial support each dependent would have received over the period of dependency. The economist builds the earnings base from the decedent's records, derives personal consumption from household expenditure data adjusted to the household, values household services from time-use data and local replacement rates, and discounts each survivor's loss to present value. Because states differ on which components are recoverable and by whom, the report is organized to the framework counsel identifies.
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 components are the decedent's lost earnings and fringe benefits over a projected worklife, a personal consumption deduction that removes the portion of income the decedent would have spent on themselves, the replacement value of household services the decedent provided, lost financial support to dependents measured over each dependent's period of dependency, and in some frameworks the accumulation the decedent would have left to the estate. The records that drive the analysis are the decedent's tax returns, wage and benefit records, the household's composition and expenditures, and documentation of the services and care the decedent provided at home.
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.
Over the period each survivor would reasonably have depended on the decedent: for a spouse, typically through the decedent's expected life or worklife; for a child, through the age of majority or the completion of education, as the record and the governing framework support. The periods are presented separately so counsel can address them individually.
Yes. When the framework separates the two, the report presents the components applicable to each so the same underlying figures support both without double counting, and states which components belong to which claim.
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