TEA.6.2

Description

In any assessment of damages in a personal injury tort action, a forensic economist is called upon to convert the analysis of all other damage experts into dollar estimates. Economic experts cannot place dollar values on all damages identified by attorneys and other experts in personal injury tort actions. Some types of harms have no reliable market equivalents. Thus, economic experts cannot develop reliable projections of dollar values needed to address those harms. Economic experts are limited to making assessments of damage elements for which reasonable market equivalents can be found. “Market value” simply means “the sale price of the thing,” whether the “thing” is a good, service or asset. An economic expert can make projections if market equivalents for the losses or replacement needs of the injured person can be established in a manner sufficiently reliable and accurate to be admissible into evidence.