Articles & Analysis
Practical articles on vocational rehabilitation, forensic economics, life care planning, and the legal standards that govern expert testimony - written for attorneys and legal professionals navigating damages issues.
Earning capacity evaluations are central to damages calculations in personal injury, workers' compensation, and matrimonial cases. This post explains what the evaluation involves, how opinions are formed, and why earning capacity differs from actual earnings.
Two broad framework families govern the admissibility of expert testimony in U.S. courts: a reliability-based gatekeeping framework used in federal courts and a majority of state courts, and a narrower general-acceptance framework retained in a smaller number of states. Understanding which framework applies in your jurisdiction is essential to retaining experts and challenging opposing opinions.
A properly prepared life care plan is the foundation of future damages in catastrophic injury cases. This post explains what goes into a life care plan, how costs are researched, and how to evaluate the quality of a plan in litigation.
Vocational experts play a central but often misunderstood role in personal injury litigation. This post explains what a vocational expert does, when their involvement is necessary, and how their testimony interacts with medical and economic evidence.
Loss of household services is a compensable economic damage whose valuation requires individualized, market-based analysis. This post explains the methodology for valuing unpaid household labor and how it fits into a comprehensive damages analysis.
Forensic economists apply structured methodology to translate injury or death into specific dollar amounts. This post explains the analytical framework, the data sources used, and the key variables that most affect the final damages figure.