In many ways, analysis of a lost earnings under a wrongful death claim are similar to the analysis of the impact of permanent disability.  Our experts work with depositions of all relevant parties, an interview with the plaintiff's family (where possible), and earnings records (W-2's, tax returns, pay stubs, etc.) to derive the decedent's expected lost earning stream.  However, with wrongful death, there is obviously no need for analysis of post-incident earnings.

A possible complication, depending upon the jurisdiction and hiring attorney's needs, is the determination of how much of that income stream the decedent would have consumed for his or her personal needs.  This "Personal Consumption" analysis determines the remaining income that is lost by the decedent's dependents and/or heirs.  Vocational Economics performs this analysis using government expenditure surveys, recognizing that many of the typical family expenditures are "fixed" in nature and will not decrease merely due to the absence of the decedent.

See Vocational Economic Analysis for more information on the analysis process and the expert options offered by Vocational Economics.

Some other considerations for analysis include:

• What if the plaintiff was a child who had not yet established an earnings history at the time of disability?  Or, what if the plaintiff was working, but had not yet reached his or her full earnings potential (perhaps a recent college graduate)?  The Use of Proxies page addresses these special concerns.
• Supplementary Analyses contains a description of other analyses commonly sought by customers to complement a loss of earnings analysis.

Last Modified: Thursday August 07, 2003 09:13 AM

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