Contents: Claims by Elderly Parents for Loss of Caregiving by Adult Children by Hugh P. Finnigan The article addresses the fact that many adult children accept at least some responsibility for the provision of care to their aging parents. This leads to a possible claim by elderly parents for the loss of caregiving services, if […]
Read More...Year: 2005
Death and Retirement: Allowing for Uncertainty
In this article Christopher Bruce explains how experts deal with situations in which there is uncertainty about the plaintiff’s future income path – such as when it is not known whether the plaintiff will recover from his or her injuries. He also comments on an error that experts often make when dealing with such uncertainty.
Read More...Claims by Elderly Parents for Loss of Caregiving by Adult Children
The article addresses the fact that many adult children accept at least some responsibility for the provision of care to their aging parents. This leads to a possible claim by elderly parents for the loss of caregiving services, if an adult child is seriously injured or killed. The purpose of his article is to review some recent research that examines the factors that determine whether an adult child will care for an elderly parent.
Read More...Summer 2005 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter (volume 10, issue 2)
Contents: The Discount Rate Revisited by Christopher Bruce, Derek Aldridge, Kelly Rathje, and Hugh Finnigan In this article we review the recent evidence – both statistical and theoretical – concerning the discount rate (or real rate of interest). We review a number of different interest rates for each quarter since 1995 and find that every […]
Read More...Estimating the Impact of Mid-Career Retraining
In this article we investigate an issue we have not seen raised anywhere else in the literature on personal injury damages: When an individual is injured in their 30s or early 40s, and has to retrain for a new career, will that individual begin in that career at a salary equivalent to those of individuals with the same age as the plaintiff? Or will the plaintiff’s starting salary be more similar to those of younger individuals in the new career – perhaps 25-29 year-olds? The authors present information from a recent study that investigated this question; and comment on the use of this study for personal injury cases.
Read More...The Discount Rate Revisited
In this article we review the recent evidence – both statistical and theoretical – concerning the discount rate (or real rate of interest). We review a number of different interest rates for each quarter since 1995 and find that every series has trended downward virtually continuously over the entire period. We then review the theoretical arguments that have been put forward to explain why this trend has been observed; and ask whether it is better to base a forecast of future rates of interest on the rates that are currently being observed or on averages of historical rates. We conclude that it would be inappropriate to rely on historical figures and instead we recommend use of multiple rates, based on the rates currently available for a variety of short- and long-term government bonds.
Read More...Spring 2005 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter (volume 10, issue 1)
Contents: The Impact of Disability on Earnings: Reliable Data by Christopher Bruce From his analysis in his previous article, Dr. Bruce concluded that, to be reliable, evidence must be based on data sets that meet two criteria: First, the number of observations must be large enough that one can be certain that a representative sample […]
Read More...The Impact of Disability on Earnings: Reliable Data
From his analysis in his previous article, Dr. Bruce concluded that, to be reliable, evidence must be based on data sets that meet two criteria: First, the number of observations must be large enough that one can be certain that a representative sample has been drawn. And, second, the data set must include individuals drawn from all of the comparison groups that are of interest.
In this article Dr. Bruce uses these two criteria to identify a set of research reports that he considers to be reliable; and he summarises the findings of these reports with respect to the impact that each of spinal cord injuries, chronic pain, visual and hearing disabilities, and brain damage have on both education and earnings.
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