Personal Injury Cases

An Academic Study and a District Court Dispute the Hedonic Damages Theory

By Jerome M. Staller, Ph.D.  and Scott F. Gibson, Esq. The “hedonic damages” theory, under which some experts claim to be able to assign a dollar value to the “enjoyment of life,” has come under attack on two fronts recently — an academic study brings into great question the validity of such testimony, and an opinion
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Hedonic Damages

By Chad L. Staller, MBA, JD, MAC What Is Hedonic Damages? Despite repeated stakes through the heart of hedonic-damages testimony — studies showing that the theory is unreliable, new evidence showing that the basis for such testimony in injury cases is nonexistent, and numerous successful motions-in-limine barring such testimony — the economic hedonists are still
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Worklife Tables Skew Damages Claims

by Jerome M. Staller, Ph.D. A recent trend warrants careful consideration by plaintiff and defense counsel in personal-injury matters where damages to earning capacity is a key issue. Certain vocational counselors, usually with degrees in education or career counseling, are representing themselves as having expertise in economics — specifically, the ability to calculate lost earnings
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Problems With The ‘New Worklife Tables 2006’: Still Problematic Despite Changes

by Jerome M. Staller, Ph.D. Anthony M. Gamboa, Jr. of Vocational Econometrics Inc. (VEI) has produced a new edition of his New Worklife Expectancy Tables (the Tables), which purport to show, using statistical averages, how much work loss an injury will cause over the injured person’s lifetime. The Tables are used almost exclusively by plaintiffs
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Delayed-Diagnosis Damages: A Gray Area in Need of Clarification

By Jerome M. Staller, Ph.D. In failure-to-diagnose or delayed-diagnosis cases where the plaintiff’s life expectancy has been or may be reduced by the defendant’s actions, economic damages fall into a hazy area somewhere between personal-injury damages and death damages. Measuring damages either under strict personal-injury standards or strict death standards can lead to some significant
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Determining the Lost Earning Capacity of Injured Business Owners

By Chad L. Staller, JD, MBA, MAC Damages to business owners are not necessarily synonymous with lost profits. When dealing with an injury claim involving a business owner, these four questions are crucial to effective discovery: What type of business entity does the plaintiff have an interest in? Who is the claimant, the business or
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A Tax Break for Plaintiffs Raises Interesting Issues

By Chad L. Staller, J.D., M.B.A., M.A.C. and Stephen M. Dripps The Third Circuit recently delivered a significant clarification on economic damages in employment matters. In Eshelman v. Agere Systems Inc., 554 F.3d 426 (2009), the court held that plaintiffs in employment-discrimination suits may recover for the negative tax consequences of receiving a lump-sum award for back pay. (Circuit
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