Household Services Timeline and Turnaround
Counsel can expect a household services report typically 30 to 60 days from receipt of complete records, and the phases below follow the order of the work. Records review opens the engagement, the interview and the task and hour quantification sit inside that review, and the valuation and the draft follow once the hours are settled; economic coordination for present value runs alongside when the case needs it. Documentation of the household at engagement is what shortens the run.
Typical timeline
- Engagement and records review1 to 2 weeks
- Interview and quantificationScheduled within the review period
- Valuation and draft report2 to 3 weeks after the interview
- Economic coordinationAs required for present-value calculation
- Deposition and trial testimonyAs scheduled by counsel and the court
Questions about household services timeline and turnaround
Which phase of a household services engagement takes longest, and why?
The valuation and draft report, because each affected task has to be carried from hours to dollars with replacement-cost wage data matched to the task and the area, and the reductions, residual capacity, horizon and any overlap with care hours, have to be documented line by line. The interview and quantification are shorter, and shorter still when the household's records are complete.
What delays a household services report?
Thin documentation of the household, most often: without records of the pre-injury division of household labor, the interview has to be scheduled and the tasks reconstructed from it before any hour can be counted. A life care plan that is still being prepared delays the reconciliation of care hours, and the economist's present-value calculation cannot start until the hours are settled.
Can KWVRS expedite a household services report for a court deadline?
Rush turnarounds are accommodated case-by-case. An expedited household services analysis needs the household documented at engagement, the individual and family available for the interview promptly if one is needed, and a final life care plan where care hours have to be reconciled. Where the case also needs present value, the economist's calculation is scheduled with the rush rather than after it, so the two reports are expedited together.
When should a household services analysis be commissioned relative to the disclosure deadline?
With room for the economist's work after it: a household services report is due typically 30 to 60 days from receipt of complete records, and any forensic economics present-value analysis runs after the hours are settled. Send the life care plan as soon as it exists, because the care hours it provides are subtracted before the loss is valued, and a plan that arrives late reopens the quantification.
Do the phases of a household services engagement run in sequence or overlap?
The interview and the quantification overlap the records review, since the interview is scheduled inside that period and the tasks are counted as the facts come in. The valuation waits for the hours to be settled and the draft for the valuation, so those two run in sequence, and economic coordination for present value runs alongside the draft when the case needs it rather than after it.
Related reading
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