Forensic Economics Cost and Fee Structure
The cost of a forensic economics engagement is the economist's time across four billed phases: data review, modeling, the report and testimony. Two drivers dominate: the records the analysis rests on, earnings records, tax returns and employment and benefits documentation, and the vocational or life care foundation the damages are built on, since a contested earning capacity or an itemized plan multiplies the categories to model. Counsel controls the damages claimed and the completeness of the records sent.
Typical range
Forensic economic analyses are scoped to the damages at issue and the records required to support them. KWVRS provides a written fee schedule and a cost estimate before work begins. Economic analysis is performed with KWVRS's affiliated firm, Kincaid Wolstein Economics (kweconomics.com).
What drives cost
- Number and type of damages claimed, such as lost earnings, lost earning capacity, lost household services, fringe benefits, and life care plan present value
- Volume of earnings records, tax returns, and employment documentation to analyze
- Whether worklife, earnings growth, and discount rate assumptions are contested
- Need for present-value modeling and sensitivity analysis
- Number of report revisions and rebuttal analyses requested
- Deposition and trial testimony, including preparation and travel time
Billing structure
Economic analysis is billed at an hourly rate for data review, modeling, report preparation, and testimony. A retainer is established at the outset and applied against time incurred. The current rate schedule and retainer terms are provided on request and confirmed in a written engagement agreement.
Questions about forensic economics cost and fee structure
What drives the cost of a forensic economics engagement?
The number and type of damages claimed, above all: lost earnings, lost earning capacity, household services, fringe benefits and the present value of a life care plan are each a separate stream to build, discount and test. The volume of earnings records behind them comes next, then whether the worklife, growth and discount assumptions are contested, which adds sensitivity analysis and rebuttal work.
How is a forensic economics engagement billed, and what is the retainer applied against?
Hourly, with the retainer drawn first against the data review that establishes the earnings base and then against the modeling, where most of the hours sit because each damages category claimed is built and discounted as its own stream; the report and testimony phases are billed only as far as the case goes. The analysis is performed with Kincaid Wolstein Economics, the affiliated firm for forensic economic analysis.
Does KWVRS provide a cost estimate before a forensic economics engagement begins?
Yes, and the estimate is built category by category, so name the damages claimed when you ask. Send the earnings history (pay records, tax returns, employment and benefits documentation), the vocational or life care report the damages rest on where one exists, any economic report the other side has served, and the deadline the analysis must meet.
Does deposition or trial testimony add to the cost of a forensic economics engagement?
Yes. The testimony cost page states how preparation and the deposition or trial time are charged. What an economist prepares is the account of the inputs, the worklife, growth and discount assumptions and their sources, so the sensitivity range can be explained on the record, together with the demonstrative that presents the present-value calculation. Revisions when the underlying vocational or life care opinion changes are billed as further hours.
Is a review of an opposing forensic economics report priced separately?
Yes. Auditing an opposing economist's report is scoped on its own when that report is produced: the earnings base it starts from, the worklife and growth figures it assumes, the rate it discounts at, how it handles benefits and household services, and whether its arithmetic reproduces are each checked and re-run. It can stand alone or be added to an analysis already under way.
Does a contested discount rate add to the cost of a forensic economics analysis?
It adds modeling time. When the worklife, earnings growth or discount rate assumptions are disputed, the report carries a sensitivity analysis across the reasonable range of each, and the rebuttal of an opposing economist's choices is a further phase. The assumptions themselves are drawn from government data and peer-reviewed sources and documented with their sources, so the added work is the range, not the search.
Related reading
Ready to Get Started on forensic economics engagements?
Contact KWVRS to discuss scope, timing, and the deliverables appropriate to the matter. Plaintiff and defense.