Dispatches from the courtroom: Using economic expert testimony to tell the jury about the deceased checkered history

In wrongful death cases it is not uncommon for economic experts to unknowly inform the jury with information about the deceased person's history that may not have been otherwise admitted.

In some cases, the information used in a thorough economic analysis requires the economist to review information such as the medical records and criminal records. This type of information can be extremely important in situations where the deceased had a short or sporadic work history.

For instance a person who has a history of drug abuse and incarceration and has not work consistently or regularly will generally have lower expected future earnings than a person with similar past problems who has worked more consistently. In short the latter person, from an empirical standpoint may be past their problems while the former may not be. Economists in court settings routinely use data from various sources to determine the effect of personal behavior factors on wages

Although needed by the economic damage expert, the discussion of the deceased's past drug use or incarceration may be new news to the jury who is hearing the wrongful death case.

The next series of post will discuss the experiences of one our sponsoring economists who recently testified in a high profile wrongful death case.