Spinal Cord Injury lawyers

Spinal cord injury clients face the hard reality of the potential inability to work. This issue needs to be evaluated with expert rehabilitation specialists and forensic economists to help prepare a proper presentation of a client’s wage loss or loss of earning capacity.

Rehabilitation specialists will assess the client to determine what skills still exist and what occupational options are still available, if any.  The specialist will also consult with the client’s doctors, as well as review any necessary medical records to better evaluate the potential for future employment.

Also, rehabilitation specialists help discover capabilities and possible career paths for the client, which helps to satisfy the emotional distress that comes with spinal cord injuries.

Rehabilitation counselors will investigate the client’s pre-injury course of employment, and depending on the client’s age, other relevant educational factors are considered in order to effectively assess the probable occupational options.  Ultimately, the goal is to keep the client on the same educational and professional paths that were intended before the spinal cord injury occurred, within reason.

While in the most spinal cord injury cases, employment will not be allowed, and it rarely, if ever, benefits a client to claim a total wage loss where some employment opportunities exist. For that reason, unless counsel is sure that employment would be prohibited, given the extent of injury, proper work-up of a spinal cord injury case necessitates a strong vocational rehabilitative specialist.

Once the specialist’s work is complete, the information should be conveyed to an appropriate forensic economist. The economist will express appropriate damages for the life care plan and present value of future medical expense, as it is the economist’s burden to carefully review all wage information and documentation of the client. The past wage loss is compiled from the date the spinal cord injury occurred.

Based on the findings received from the rehabilitation specialist, the economist computes the client’s lifetime earnings capacity (in solid dollars), but for the injury causing event. Often times an economist will present two or more scenarios of earnings capacity depending on the client’s age.

Though no one is able to predict with absolute accuracy the exact job and pay that the client would have definitely pursued if not for the spinal cord injury. While the estimate becomes easier when the client’s injury occurred at a later age in life, the economist must testify as to the client’s likely losses based upon the probable pre-morbid career path or paths.

For minors, the economist will determine the lifetime wage loss based on expected pre-morbid educational accomplishment. Meaning an economist, to a reasonable degree of economic probability, will determine what an individual in a given area of the country could expect to make if that individual were to graduate from high school or college without having suffered from a spinal cord injury. Projected earnings will be adjusted accordingly if the minor’s parents achieved graduate or post-graduate college level education.

Mitigating income is determined based upon those skills and employment options assessed by the rehabilitation specialist. Mitigating income will be limited by the projected post-morbid work life expectancy determined to be appropriate by the medical specialist.

It is necessary for a strong forensic economist to assess a spinal cord injury case to assist the jury in determining appropriate net discount rates and rates of inflation as the economist’s opinion is based on sound, historical, and governmental data. The forensic economist also further assists the jury in understanding present value since most jurisdictions require future losses be relegated to present value.

Even where occupational mitigation is impossible due to extent of physical injuries, the forensic economist must compute and state valid opinions as to the past, present and future wage loss of the client. Jurors’ total awards appear to be anchored in the special damage loss established by the plaintiff. Tragically, spinal cord injury cases provide counsel with ample opportunity to establish significant special damages.

If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal injury through no fault of your own, you may be entitled to compensation. Call the Strom Law Firm today for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys. 803.252.4800 while you focus on getting better, we will concentrate on your rights.