Research & Publications

Damages: Estimating Pecuniary Loss (Chapter 4)

by Cara L. Brown

Chapter 4 - Projecting Working Life Expectancy

Chapter 4 addresses contingencies that affect the working life expectancy of a plaintiff. Working life expectancy refers to a measure of the number of years that the average person will spend in the labour force. The various negative contingencies that are needed to adjust the number of years the plaintiff would have worked in the absence of the accident include a mortality contingency, a participation contingency, an employment contingency, and a disability contingency. The application of these contingencies in concert is referred to as the LPED method, and to date, the LPED method is the only one used by Canadian forensic economists to project working life expectancy. That is only because, up until now, working life expectancy tables had yet to be developed for Canadian civil litigation purposes). Notably, Chapter 4 presents working life tables commissioned from Statistics Canada which, for the first time, are reproduced and adapted for use in Canadian tort cases when estimating work life expectancy and the impact of an interruption due to ill health or a permanent reduction in working life expectancy. These tables are similar to sophisticated working life tables already in use by American forensic economists, and use of these tables is discussed as an alternative to the LPED method.