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5 J. Legal Econ. 23 (1995)
Do We Double Count Damages in Severe Personal Injury Cases

handle is hein.journals/jole5 and id is 135 raw text is: Frank D. Tinari* Do We Double Count Damages in Severe Personal Injury Cases?1 Introduction n tort litigation involving persons who have sus- tained catastrophic injury, claimed damages can easily mount into the millions of dollars. Com- ponents of loss to the injured party and family members may include lost net earnings and benefits, the pecuniary value of the plaintiffs loss of his or her former ability to perform household services, the loss of advice and counseling serv- ices to family members (if the plaintiff has suffered mental im- pairment), the loss of companion- ship services (if the impairment interferes with the plaintiff's ability to spend time with family mem- bers) and the costs of lifetime medi- cal care. Often, the last component is so large that the others appear relatively minor in magnitude. The underlying rationale in these cases is to compensate victims in such a way as to provide replacement funds sufficient to reinstate their former economic status. Gener- ally, tort law is aimed at attempting to make whole the prior economic condition of victims of wrongful acts. Except for lifetime medical care, these losses are typically treated in accordance with the fol- lowing expression: L= LE+LH+LC+LG (1) where L is the total estimated pecu- niary loss, consisting of the present pecuniary value of the losses of E, net earnings; H, household serv- ices; C, companionship services; and G, guidance, advice and coun- *Frank D. Tinari, Professor of Economics, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey Tinari: Do We Double Count Damages in Severe Personal Injury Cases?

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