TEA.6.3

Description

Given the potential monetary awards in civil litigation, the adversarial nature of the legal system, as well as the stringent admissibility criteria for expert testimony, vocational experts (VEs) are asked to offer useful opinions to the court to help unravel the complexities of determining whether the plaintiff has suffered a loss of earning capacity. The current article discusses the VE’s role in litigation, the vocational expert’s requisite training and credentials, the methodologies and process used in analyzing case data, as well as the need to cogently communicate opinions to the referral source, the forensic economist and the trier(s) of fact. This article is also designed to aid attorneys in articulating sound operational referral questions and to maximize the vocational expert’s usefulness in forensic matters.