Pennsylvania · PA
Pennsylvania Vocational Expert Witness Services
A Pennsylvania vocational expert evaluates employability and earning capacity when a person's ability to work is in dispute after an injury, an illness or the loss of a job; in a workers' compensation claim that evaluation is the earning power assessment. The opinion is offered in the Court of Common Pleas of the county where the action is venued, in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania and before the workers' compensation judges of the Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication. Kincaid Wolstein Vocational and Rehabilitation Services (KWVRS) prepares Pennsylvania vocational evaluations. Plaintiff and defense.
Pennsylvania's Court of Common Pleas is the primary trial-level forum for civil matters. Final state-court appeals run to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is served by 3 federal district courts. The Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) administers vocational rehabilitation in the state.
Vocational Expert in Pennsylvania
Comprehensive earning capacity evaluations and vocational assessments for litigation. Our vocational experts analyze an individual's ability to work, earn wages, and sustain employment given their education, training, experience, and medical restrictions.
What does a Pennsylvania vocational expert evaluate, and where is the opinion offered?
In a Pennsylvania personal injury, employment or disability matter the vocational expert answers three questions: can the person work, at what, and for how much. The answer comes from the file and from testing. School, training, medical and employment records establish what the person did before the injury and what the medical restrictions now allow; a vocational interview and standardized testing document the skills the person carries; a transferable skills analysis maps those skills onto the occupations that stay within the restrictions; and a labor market survey reports whether those occupations exist in the area where the person lives and works and what they pay. The report compares earning capacity before and after the injury and states the difference, with every occupation, wage and source named, so that the opinion can be reproduced by the opposing expert and examined at deposition.
Vocational opinions in Pennsylvania are offered in three kinds of forum: the Court of Common Pleas, the trial court of the county in which the action is venued; the three federal districts; and the Office of Adjudication, whose workers' compensation judges decide disputed claims. When a party's earning capacity is in controversy in a civil action, the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure also let the court, on motion, order the party to submit to an evaluation. A civil decision may be appealed by either party, and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts. Federal employment and disability matters proceed in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania on the schedule each court's order sets.
For a matter venued in Philadelphia the forums are these. The First Judicial District's trial court is the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and civil actions with a vocational claim are heard in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Trial Division, Civil. Federal actions arising in Philadelphia are heard by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse, Philadelphia, as the court's site names it. A disputed workers' compensation claim is assigned to a workers' compensation judge who hears cases in or around the county where the employee resides, and the Office of Adjudication's directory lists a Philadelphia office in its Southeastern District.
In a Pennsylvania workers' compensation claim the vocational expert's work is the earning power assessment, which the Workers' Compensation Act and the Department of Labor and Industry's regulations govern. The expert interviews the injured worker, reviews the physical restrictions the medical evidence supports, completes a transferable skills analysis and conducts a labor market survey that identifies positions within those restrictions in the worker's usual employment area, with the employer, the duties and the wage of each position documented so that the worker and the parties can examine them. The report states the earning power the survey supports and is presented before the workers' compensation judge of the Office of Adjudication who decides the claim; what the assessment means for the benefit is a question for the judge and for counsel, not for the expert, and the expert states no rule of entitlement. The interview the Act provides for is the insurer's to require, and the method is the same whether the injured worker's counsel or the insurer retains the vocational expert.
Under the regulations, the vocational expert who conducts an earning power assessment interview discloses to the employee in writing, before the interview, the role and limits of the relationship; serves a written initial report on the employee and the employee's counsel, if known, within 30 days of the interview; and serves each later report, an earning power assessment or a labor market survey among them, on the employee and counsel at the same time it goes to the insurer or its counsel.
Every Pennsylvania report is written to what its forum requires of an expert disclosure, and deposition and trial testimony follow the case calendar. Attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case. KWVRS works with attorneys nationwide from its New Jersey, Virginia and Rhode Island offices. Plaintiff and defense.
Venues by county, the court structure and the administrative forums are on the Pennsylvania state page.
Key Courts & Venues
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (First Judicial District); Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County (Fifth Judicial District); Courts of Common Pleas of Lehigh, Erie, Berks, Lackawanna, Dauphin, Northampton, Lancaster and Bucks Counties; Superior Court of Pennsylvania; Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers' Compensation; Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication (Department of Labor and Industry)
Sources: Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Courts of Common Pleas (the county courts by judicial district) (reviewed 2026-09-11); Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Courts of Common Pleas, Judicial Districts: the counties by district (Philadelphia County the First Judicial District, Allegheny County the Fifth) (reviewed 2026-09-11); Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Superior Court: one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts (reviewed 2026-09-11); Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, How the Courts Operate: either party may appeal a civil decision to the appellate courts (reviewed 2026-09-11); First Judicial District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Courts), Court of Common Pleas, Trial Division (reviewed 2026-09-11); United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse, Philadelphia (reviewed 2026-09-11); United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (offices in Scranton, Harrisburg, Williamsport and Wilkes-Barre) (reviewed 2026-09-11); United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (court locations in Erie, Pittsburgh and Johnstown) (reviewed 2026-09-11); Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication (WCOA): disputed workers' compensation cases are handled by workers' compensation judges within the WCOA; a filed petition is assigned to a judge who hears cases in, or near, the county where the employee resides (reviewed 2026-10-21); Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication, Contact WCOA: the Philadelphia office (Southeastern District) (reviewed 2026-09-11); Pennsylvania General Assembly, Unconsolidated Statutes, Workers' Compensation Act: earning power is determined by the work the employee is capable of performing and based upon expert opinion evidence which includes job listings with agencies of the department, private job placement agencies and advertisements in the usual employment area, the usual employment area in which the employee lives within the Commonwealth or, for an employee who lives outside it, the usual employment area where the injury occurred; the insurer may require the employee to submit to an interview by a vocational expert who is selected by the insurer and who meets the minimum qualifications established by the department through regulation; when the insurer receives medical evidence that the claimant is able to return to work, its written notice to the claimant states that the employee has the right to consult with an attorney in order to obtain evidence to challenge the insurer's contentions (reviewed 2026-10-21); Pennsylvania Code, Department of Labor and Industry, Qualifications for Vocational Experts Approved by the Department: for an expert who had not conducted earning power assessment interviews before June 23, 2007, certification by the American Board of Vocational Experts, the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, the Commission on Disability Management Specialists Certification or another nationally recognized organization the Department publishes in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and a bachelor's or postgraduate degree in rehabilitation counseling or a related counseling field, with criteria of their own for experts who conducted them before that day; a workers' compensation judge resolves disputes over the qualifications; the expert's written disclosure of the role and limits of the relationship before the interview, the initial report served on the employee and counsel within 30 days of the interview, and later reports served on them when they go to the insurer or its counsel (reviewed 2026-10-21); Pennsylvania Code, Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, Evaluation of Earning Capacity: when the earning capacity of a party is in controversy, the court in which the action is pending may order the party to submit to an evaluation by a suitably licensed or certified evaluator, who may testify as a witness on the issue of damages only and not as a witness on the issue of liability (reviewed 2026-10-21); Pennsylvania Code, Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, Physical and Mental Examination of Persons, whose provisions the evaluation of earning capacity follows: the order is made only on motion for good cause shown and upon notice and specifies the time, place, manner, conditions and scope and the person by whom it is made; the person examined has the right to have counsel or other representative present, except in actions for custody, partial custody and visitation of minor children (reviewed 2026-10-21)
Forums for Vocational Expert opinions in Pennsylvania
Vocational Expert opinions in Pennsylvania are offered in the Court of Common Pleas, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Western District of Pennsylvania and before the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication. Attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.
Sources: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication (reviewed 2026-09-11)
Venues in Pennsylvania
Each venue links to its city page, which carries the trial court, the appellate body and the federal district with their sources. Attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.
- Philadelphia County: Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Trial Division, Civil
- Allegheny County: Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Civil Division
Expert disclosure in Pennsylvania
KWVRS provides vocational and life care expert services for attorneys handling matters venued in Pennsylvania. KWVRS provides forensic economic analysis with its affiliated firm, Kincaid Wolstein Economics. The state's courts of common pleas handle personal injury, medical malpractice, motor vehicle, products, and employment cases concentrated in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading. Contested workers' compensation claims are heard by workers' compensation judges of the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication.
- KWVRS supports plaintiff and defense counsel in Pennsylvania across the state's broad case mix.
- Pennsylvania's pretrial expert disclosure framework allows either an interrogatory-style response signed by the expert or a separate report; attorneys confirm the specific scope for their case.
Attorneys confirm the governing rule and timing for their case. Read the Pennsylvania expert disclosure page.
Case Types
- Traumatic Brain Injury matters in Pennsylvania: TBI can reduce sustained attention, executive function, processing speed, short-term memory, and emotional regulation. Traumatic Brain Injury in Pennsylvania
- Spinal Cord Injury matters in Pennsylvania: Depending on neurological level, individuals with SCI may retain capacity for seated, sedentary, or technology-assisted work, or may require substantial workplace accommodation. Spinal Cord Injury in Pennsylvania
- Amputation matters in Pennsylvania: Upper extremity amputations typically affect fine motor tasks, bilateral coordination, and lifting capacity. Amputation in Pennsylvania
- Wrongful Death matters in Pennsylvania: For a decedent, the vocational component reconstructs earning capacity at the time of death using education, training, work history, industry trajectories, and labor market data. Wrongful Death in Pennsylvania
- Medical Malpractice matters in Pennsylvania: Vocational opinions in medical malpractice focus on the post-injury loss relative to the but-for baseline, integrating the claimant's pre-event vocational profile with medical restrictions attributable to the alleged breach. Medical Malpractice in Pennsylvania
- Burn Injury matters in Pennsylvania: Burn survivors may face limitations in heat tolerance, sun exposure, manual dexterity, and public-facing work due to visible scarring. Burn Injury in Pennsylvania
- Personal Injury matters in Pennsylvania: A vocational evaluation establishes residual functional capacity, transferable skills, and labor market options consistent with post-injury medical restrictions. Personal Injury in Pennsylvania
- Workers' Compensation matters in Pennsylvania: Vocational analysis in workers' compensation focuses on return-to-work planning, job analysis of the pre-injury position, identification of alternative work within medical restrictions, and when applicable retraining or vocational rehabilitation services. Workers' Compensation in Pennsylvania
- Long Term Disability matters in Pennsylvania: LTD vocational analysis applies the relevant policy definition (own occupation, any occupation, reasonable occupation) to the claimant's documented functional capacity and transferable skills, identifying whether suitable occupations exist within medical restrictions. Long Term Disability in Pennsylvania
- Wrongful Termination matters in Pennsylvania: Vocational analysis addresses the claimant's reasonable job search, the availability of comparable positions in the relevant labor market, and the time required to secure comparable or alternative employment. Wrongful Termination in Pennsylvania
- Matrimonial matters in Pennsylvania: A vocational evaluation reconstructs the spouse's earning capacity based on education, training, work history, and local labor market conditions, addressing any re-entry timeline and retraining needs. Matrimonial in Pennsylvania
- Motor Vehicle Accident matters in Pennsylvania: Vocational analysis translates MVA-related injuries (orthopedic, TBI, SCI, chronic pain) into residual functional capacity and occupational options within the relevant labor market. Motor Vehicle Accident in Pennsylvania
Vocational Expert Across Pennsylvania
Our experts serve clients throughout Pennsylvania, including the following communities.
Related Services in Pennsylvania
KWVRS offers complementary services to support your Pennsylvania cases.
Frequently asked: Vocational Expert in Pennsylvania
What is an earning power assessment in a Pennsylvania workers' compensation claim?
An earning power assessment is a vocational expert's opinion of the jobs an injured employee can perform and what they pay. Pennsylvania's Workers' Compensation Act determines earning power by the work the employee is capable of performing and bases it on expert opinion evidence that includes job listings with agencies of the Department of Labor and Industry, private job placement agencies and advertisements in the usual employment area: the usual employment area in which the employee lives within the Commonwealth or, for an employee who lives outside it, the usual employment area where the injury occurred. The expert completes a transferable skills analysis and a labor market survey for that area.
Who may conduct an earning power assessment interview in Pennsylvania?
The Workers' Compensation Act lets the insurer require the injured employee to submit to an interview by a vocational expert who is selected by the insurer and who meets the minimum qualifications the Department of Labor and Industry sets. For an expert who had not conducted earning power assessment interviews before June 23, 2007, the regulations require certification by the American Board of Vocational Experts, the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, the Commission on Disability Management Specialists Certification or another nationally recognized organization the Department publishes in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and a bachelor's or postgraduate degree in rehabilitation counseling or a related counseling field. A workers' compensation judge resolves disputes over the qualifications.
Can a Pennsylvania court order a vocational evaluation in a civil action?
Yes. When the earning capacity of a party is in controversy, the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure let the court in which the action is pending order the party to submit to an evaluation by a suitably licensed or certified evaluator. The order is made only on motion for good cause shown and upon notice, and it specifies the time, place, manner, conditions and scope of the evaluation and the person who conducts it; outside custody actions, the person evaluated may have counsel or another representative present. The evaluator may testify on the issue of damages only, not on liability. Attorneys confirm the rule that governs their case.
Where are vocational opinions offered in Pennsylvania?
Vocational opinions in Pennsylvania are offered in three kinds of forum. Civil actions are tried in the Court of Common Pleas of the county where the action is venued, and either party may appeal a civil decision to the appellate courts, among them the Superior Court of Pennsylvania; federal employment and disability matters are heard in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania; and disputed workers' compensation claims are decided by the workers' compensation judges of the Workers' Compensation Office of Adjudication. The Philadelphia venue page names Philadelphia County's courts, and the Pennsylvania matrimonial page describes the earning capacity assessment in a divorce or support matter.
Does KWVRS work for plaintiff and defense counsel in Pennsylvania?
Yes. Plaintiff and defense counsel retain KWVRS for Pennsylvania vocational evaluations. In a workers' compensation claim the insurer may retain a vocational expert for the earning power assessment, and the injured worker's counsel may retain one to review that assessment or to give an independent opinion of earning power. The method is the same whoever retains the expert: the same records, the same transferable skills analysis and the same published wage data, so that the opposing expert can reproduce the analysis. The retaining party frames the question; the file decides the answer.
How long does a Pennsylvania vocational evaluation take?
A full report is typically 30 to 60 days from receipt of complete records, depending on records volume, on whether an interview and testing are scheduled and on whether a labor market survey is run for the person's area. Deposition and trial testimony follow the case calendar once the report is served, and a rush schedule is arranged case by case when it is requested at engagement. The vocational evaluation timeline guide sets out the phases that make up that time.
What does a Pennsylvania vocational expert cost?
Before any work begins, counsel receives a written fee schedule and an estimate for the requested scope, and the engagement agreement sets the fee and its payment terms; testimony is priced on the fee schedule apart from the report. The scope turns on the volume of records, the number of vocational issues in dispute, whether an interview and testing are needed, whether a labor market survey is run for the person's area and whether deposition or trial testimony follows. The vocational expert cost and engagement guide explains each driver and how an engagement is structured.
How is a Pennsylvania vocational report organized for expert disclosure?
A Pennsylvania vocational report is organized to the disclosure requirements of the forum in which the matter is pending, which differ between the Court of Common Pleas, the federal districts and the Office of Adjudication. The report documents the methodology, the records and data sources relied on and each opinion, so that it can be served as the expert's disclosure and reproduced by the opposing expert. The Pennsylvania expert disclosure page summarizes the state's practice; attorneys confirm the governing rule and its timing for their case.
Ready to Get Started on Vocational Expert in Pennsylvania?
Contact KWVRS to discuss scope, timing, and the deliverables appropriate to a vocational expert services engagement in Pennsylvania. Plaintiff and defense.