Real cases often present factual scenarios that do not fit easily into preconceived notions of a “type” of case. We hear attorneys use labels such “auto accident”, “personal injury”, “premises liability”, “wage and hour”, and “wrongful death” all the time. Those descriptions provide context on what happened and give clues as to the types of damages that are available. However, those labels can also be incomplete. So, what do we do when the description provided does not tell the whole story?

In this blog post we will look at addressing an inbetweener situation that arises when a personal injury victim dies after a significant amount of time after living with the injury. First off, what kind of case is this personal injury or wrongful death? The reality is that it both a personal injury and wrongful death lawsuit assuming the personal injury action survives death.

As we have addressed in the past, personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits have many common elements, but one significant difference is usually present, consumption. If we have both a personal injury element that does not require consumption and a wrongful death element that does require consumption, how can we model this?

The first thing to take note of is the timing. Although cases can have elements of damages that overlap, in general a party is only able to collect once for a damage incurred. Knowing this, we can parse out the damages based upon whether the injured party was alive or deceased by taking note of their date of death.

Damages from the initial injury until the date of death can be defined as personal injury in nature. This provides a discrete period for which a practitioner can apply the logic and law of personal injury to the damage calculations.

Damages from the date of death until the end of the person’s life expectancy can be defined as wrongful death in nature. During this period, adjustments should be made to damage calculations to reflect the loss of support provided to the survivors.

Juris Economics allows practitioners to calculate both options in the following manner. First, address the personal injury damages by running a complete report from the date of injury until the date of death with the correct demographic and economic information for the injured party without consumption. This will represent the loss to the individual, estate, or successor in interest.

Next, calculate wrongful death damages by running a second report starting at the date of death and continuing through the injured person’s life expectancy. The same demographic and economic information should be used. However, the numbers will be reduced for personal consumption. This represents the loss to the survivor(s).

The total value of all losses from the date of injury will be the sum of the two reports, personal injury and wrongful death. Should this you find yourself in this situation and you need to run an additional report, contact Juris Economics to receive an additional report credit. We can also assist in providing a customized report summary to describe the totality of damages.

Should you need assistance with damage or mitigation calculations, please contact Juris Economics at (858) 477-9537or sales@juriseconomics.com