Injury & Employment Damages

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Lost Health Benefits May Be A Shrinking Component of Lost Compensation Claims

June 2019 Lost compensation claims value the economic losses associated with employment that is eliminated, interrupted or reduced because of improper employment decisions or environments, personal injury or wrongful death, or other changes in employment circumstances associated with civil litigation.  In many cases, the loss of employer provided healthcare is a material component of these [...]

Daubert Challenge Threatens Class Certification

December 2018 While Daubert provides common challenges to the admissibility of expert testimony, inconsistent positions regarding its applicability at the class certification stage remain. Generally, it is advisable for both plaintiffs and defendants to involve expert witnesses as part of the class certification stage, to clarify appropriate approaches, achievable outcomes and/or demonstrate the strength of [...]

The Value of Higher Education in Lost Earnings Claims May Not Be What You Think

Higher education can provide a host of benefits, including opportunities for increased earnings.  In a typical lost earnings case, many expect that the more education the Plaintiff has or is expected to obtain, the more lost earnings Plaintiff will suffer (all other factors being equal). However, this may not always be the case.  The ultimate [...]

The Appropriate Discount Rate In A Lost Earnings Claim

Damage experts often disagree regarding the appropriate discount rate in a lost earnings claim, a factor that can make a meaningful difference in the economic damages conclusion. A recent article, "An Interactive Settlement Tool Streamlines Negotiations in Lost Earnings Matters", demonstrates the significance of the applied rate on damages. A low discount rate benefits the [...]

Costs Excluded From Prejudgment Interest Calculation In Personal Injury Award

March 2015 Prejudgment interest is often applied to a personal injury award in an attempt to capture the lost value of the use of monies prior to the judgment date.  A recent case, Bean v. Pacific Coast Elevator Corporation (“Pacific Coast”), has addressed whether costs awarded to a plaintiff in addition to damages are also [...]

Statistical Sophistication Would Have Provided A Different Liability Answer

October 2013 Economists and other financial experts are often hired to assess damages, assuming that liability will be proven.  However, liability it self can sometimes be established or disproven based on statistics. For example, in a recently affirmed case involving employment discrimination, the application of a simple method failed to provide the Court with information [...]

Punitive Damages That Are Limited To Simple Multipliers Require A Greater Focus On Compensatory Damages

September 2013 In many cases, punitive damages dwarf compensatory damages. However, one should not overlook the importance of the compensatory element of damages, as they can serve as a limiting factor for the punitive component. In Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Insurance Company (B234271, Aug. 29, 2013), the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s [...]

An Interactive Settlement Tool May Streamline Negotiations in Lost Earnings Matters

Lost compensation is a common element of economic damages in personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful termination, failure to promote and other similar torts.  Economists or CPAs are generally engaged as independent damage experts to calculate lost compensation because of their unique skill set in addressing such losses.  However, these experts are often employed only after [...]

Selecting Discount Rates For Personal Injury & Employment Damage Calculations

Updated February 2021 When calculating damages covering future periods, the future amounts must be reduced to present value to account for the time value of money.  In many cases, economic damage calculations in personal injury, wrongful death, and employment cases use discount rates that are too low. Consequently, the calculated damages pertaining to future periods [...]

Chi-Square Statistical Test Evaluates Independence

Statisticians describe independence as whether the occurrence of one event or characteristic makes it neither more nor less probable that other event(s) or characteristic(s) occur(s). The chi-square test described below is one of the most widely used tests for evaluating independence of variables, particularly when the number of observations and/or variables becomes larger. This article [...]

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