What Records Does a Vocational Expert Need?

The medical file establishes the restrictions the opinion applies, so it is read for what the treating providers wrote about work: lifting and carrying limits, tolerance for sitting, standing and walking, cognitive or psychiatric restrictions and the date each was set. A functional capacity evaluation, where one was performed, shows what the person demonstrated under standardized testing. The expert applies restrictions and does not create them.

Transcripts, degrees, licenses, certifications and training certificates fix the level of education the occupational analysis may assume and the fields the person has been trained in. A license that lapsed, a program left unfinished or a credential earned after the injury each changes the occupations the transferable skills analysis can consider, so the dates matter as much as the titles.

The work history is taken job by job: employer, dates, title, the duties actually performed and the demands of each. Wage records anchor the pre-injury earning capacity: W-2 forms, tax returns, pay statements and, for a self-employed claimant, business returns and ledgers. Benefit summaries add the fringe benefits the forensic economist will value. Where a title and its duties differ, the duties control the coding.

Neuropsychological evaluations, psychological assessments and any vocational testing already administered are reviewed before the expert decides whether new testing is needed, so the person is not tested twice on the same instrument. Independent medical examination reports and return-to-work assessments belong in the same group.

Deposition transcripts of the claimant, the treating providers and the employer's witnesses record sworn accounts of the work performed, the symptoms reported and the accommodations offered, which the expert compares with the records and the interview. Any vocational or economic report already served, from either side, is reviewed in full: an opinion that does not address the other expert's records basis leaves the point uncontested.

The scheduling order fixes the date the report must be served and the close of expert discovery, and it is requested at engagement so the work is planned backward from the deadline. The engagement letter adds what the order does not: the questions the report is to answer, whether an interview is expected and whether testimony is anticipated; the engagement process page shows where each item enters the work.

The list counsel works from when assembling the file:

• Treating provider records, pre- and post-injury, with every written restriction and its date
• Imaging reports and specialty consultations
• Functional capacity evaluation, if one was performed
• Independent medical examination and return-to-work reports
• School transcripts, diplomas, licenses, certifications and training records
• Employer job descriptions and the person's own account of the duties
• W-2 forms, tax returns and pay statements, before and after the injury
• Business returns and ledgers for a self-employed claimant
• Benefit summaries: health coverage, retirement contributions, paid leave
• Test reports already completed: neuropsychological, psychological, vocational
• Deposition transcripts of the claimant, the providers and the employer's witnesses
• Every vocational or economic report already served, from either side
• Pleadings, interrogatory answers and the scheduling order

A gap does not stop the evaluation; it narrows the opinion, and the report says so. Without wage records the pre-injury capacity rests on published wages for the occupations held rather than on the person's own earnings. Without written restrictions the expert reports what the medical file supports and names the provider whose statement would settle the point. Each gap is listed with the request made for it, and a supplemental opinion follows when the record arrives (Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, 2023).