Expert Witness Blog
In Using Vocational Rehab Experts and Life-Care Planners to Prove General Damages, author Geoffrey S. Wells discusses the use of vocational rehabilitation and life-care planning experts. He begins by telling us that the use of a vocational rehabilitation expert and a life care planning expert witness is even more important today than it has been in the past.
The use of a vocational rehabilitation expert should be implemented anytime your clients have permanent injuries that either impair their ability to do their old jobs or impair their ability to do any job. One of the most importatnt aspects of a good vocational rehabilitation plan is assessing the loss of earning capacity. The loss of earning capacitiy is not just the loss of a particular job, but it is the inability to be able to earn what a person would have been capable of earning had he or she never been hurt. Many defense lawyers gloss over the lost earning capacity component of the vocational rehabiliation plan. I think it is very improtant that the jury understands through the testimony of your expert the whole issue of lost earning capapcity.
More to follow from The Advocate, November 2007.