Resources for Attorneys

Every damages case in which a vocational, economic or life care opinion is offered passes through four decisions, each of them counsel's. The considering stage decides whether the record supports an expert opinion at all: whether the medical findings describe a change in what the person can do, whether earning capacity or the cost of future care is contested, and which disciplines the question calls for. A settled injury with no dispute over work or care may need no expert.

The retaining stage fixes the engagement: the questions the expert will answer, the records the expert will receive, the calendar the report must meet and the order in which several experts will work. A vocational opinion usually precedes the economic analysis that prices it, and a life care plan precedes the present value of its items, so the sequence is part of the decision.

The deposition stage decides what the expert must be ready to defend under oath: every record relied on, every restriction adopted from a treating provider, every wage or cost source and every step of the method that connects them to the opinion. It also settles how two experts on the same side divide a question so that neither offers an opinion the other also holds.

The trial stage decides how the opinion is presented: the order of direct testimony, the demonstratives that put the pre-injury and post-injury comparison or the care timeline in front of the fact finder, and the plain account of a method the fact finder has not met before. The testimony must agree with the deposition transcript in every particular.

The attorney journeys on this site form a grid: four stages across, twelve case types down, one page for every cell. Each journey page opens with a short statement of what the stage means in that case type and then gives counsel working material in a fixed order: a checklist, the questions to put to a prospective or retained expert, a timeline, the records to gather, the pitfalls seen most often at that point, and a short set of questions and answers with their sources.

The grid reads in either direction. Across a row, one case type runs from the first conversation with an expert to the verdict; down a column, one stage is compared across case types. The stage index pages list the twelve case types for one stage, and each case-type hub carries an overview of all four stages with a link to each journey page. The journey pages are working checklists, not legal advice; attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.

The case type decides which disciplines are in play. In the catastrophic injury types, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation and burn injury, the future care question is nearly always present, so a certified life care planner is retained early, a vocational expert is added where residual work capacity is contested, and a forensic economist reduces both to present value. In the broader personal injury and motor vehicle accident types the same roles apply, but the decision turns on what is disputed rather than on the diagnosis.

Medical malpractice matters pair a standard of care review by the firm's physician reviewer with the same damages experts. In a wrongful death matter the vocational question becomes a reconstruction of the decedent's earning capacity and worklife, and the economist adds lost household services. Workers' compensation matters put employability and earning power to the vocational expert in an administrative forum, and long term disability matters ask whether the claimant can perform the prior occupation or any occupation.

Wrongful termination matters use the vocational expert on mitigation and the economist on back pay and front pay, and matrimonial matters use the vocational expert to state what a spouse is able to earn, with engagements accepted from either spouse's counsel. In every case type the retaining side does not change the method: the same records, the same sources and the same arithmetic support the opinion whichever party retained it.

Each of the twelve case-type hubs collects what the journeys assume: the case type's summary, its vocational, economic and life care impact, the stage overview, its own questions and answers and a page for every state and territory. The hubs are traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, wrongful death, medical malpractice, burn injury, personal injury, workers' compensation, long term disability, wrongful termination, matrimonial and motor vehicle accident.

The four stage indexes list the twelve journeys for one stage: considering an expert, retaining an expert, preparing for deposition and trial testimony. The grid below links every journey page directly. A reader who knows the case type starts at its hub; one who knows the stage starts at the index.