The U.S. approach to computing economic damages due to personal injury and wrongful death

Abstract

This chapter examines the legal and scientific approaches taken in the United States for computing economic damages due to personal injury and wrongful death. The U.S. law of tort damages conforms to a general economic valuation of reduced or lost productivity due to injury under the goal of assigning tort damages optimally so that harm in the society is minimized. Today, “economic damages” are defined in every U.S. jurisdiction, and the field of forensic economics has produced a body of literature concerned with accurately measuring them.

Citation

Krueger, K.V. and Albrecht, G.R. (2009), "The U.S. approach to computing economic damages due to personal injury and wrongful death", Ward, J.O. and Thornton, R.J. (Ed.) Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Damages Calculations: Transatlantic Dialogue (Contemporary Studies in Economic and Financial Analysis, Vol. 91), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 193-231. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-3759(2009)0000091011