Solution for Attorney's Economic Damages Catch 22

We were contacted by an attorney last week who believed he was in a Catch 22 regarding economic damages in his case. "I don't think I can get an economic expert to calcualte damages until the court rules on the validity of certain earnings evidence, but if I wait until then, it will be too late to present economic damage testimony." We were happy to inform the attorney that there is a simple solution to this seemingly complex situation.

As economic experts, we have the flexibility to produce reports with multiple scenarios. For example, in this attorney's specific case, there was no doubt that his client sustained injures. There was, however, a dispute regarding if a portion of the plaintiff's earnings after the incident were the result of work he performed prior to or following the injury. The attorney understood the calculation of damages well enough to know that post-injury earnings would be an important part of calculating the plaintiff's future damages. He was pleased to learn that a report could be created that projected the plaintiffs losses in two scenarios that accounted for the potential differences in post-injury earnings.