Wrongful Death Economic Damages

A wrongful death economist measures the financial loss to the survivors: the support the decedent would have provided, the household services they would have performed, the gifts and benefits the family would have received, and funeral and burial costs, all reduced to present value. Grief and companionship are for the jury. The economist addresses economic loss only, and states every assumption that drives it.

What a wrongful death economist quantifies

• Loss of financial support. The decedent’s projected earnings and employment benefits, less the share the decedent would have spent on their own consumption. What remains is the support that would have reached the family.
• Loss of household services. Childcare, home maintenance, transportation, meal preparation and similar work the decedent performed. Hours come from published time-use data and are priced at the market cost of replacing them. See how household services are calculated.
• Loss of gifts and benefits. Regular contributions the survivors could reasonably have expected, supported by the family’s history rather than assumed.
• Funeral and burial expenses. A matter of record, taken from invoices.

The earnings projection rests on the same inputs a lost earnings expert witness uses in an injury case: earnings history, education, occupation, worklife expectancy and wage growth. The difference is what is subtracted. In an injury case the plaintiff’s own consumption continues; in a death case it ends, and it comes out of the loss. For the injury-side method, see calculating loss of earning capacity.

California: CACI 3921 and who may recover

Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 identifies who may bring a wrongful death claim: the decedent’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and issue of deceased children or, if there are none, those entitled to the decedent’s property by intestate succession, along with certain dependents, including a putative spouse, stepchildren and parents who relied on the decedent for support.

CACI No. 3921 (Wrongful Death, Death of an Adult) lists four categories of economic damages:

1. The financial support the decedent would have contributed to the family during the decedent’s life expectancy before death or the plaintiff’s life expectancy, whichever is shorter.
2. The loss of gifts or benefits the plaintiff would have expected to receive from the decedent.
3. Funeral and burial expenses.
4. The reasonable value of household services the decedent would have provided.

The instruction also directs that future economic damages be reduced to present cash value. The “whichever is shorter” rule matters to the arithmetic: when the survivor is older than the decedent or in poorer health, the survivor’s life expectancy may set the horizon, and the calculation is run for each plaintiff accordingly.

The estate’s survival claim is separate. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.34(a), damages are limited to the loss the decedent sustained or incurred before death, such as earnings lost and medical expenses incurred between injury and death, and exclude pain, suffering and disfigurement. A temporary exception in § 377.34(b) allowed those damages in actions filed on or after January 1, 2022 and before January 1, 2026 (and in certain actions granted trial preference before 2022). It was not extended, so for survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, the pre-death economic loss is again the core of the claim.

The assumptions that move the number

A wrongful death figure is built from a handful of assumptions. Each is stated in the report with its source, so it can be tested rather than defended.

• Personal consumption. The share of income the decedent would have spent on themselves. It varies with household size and income level, and a few percentage points change the total materially. We state the rate, its source and why it fits this household.
• Worklife expectancy. How long the decedent would likely have worked, from published worklife data by age, sex and education, adjusted only where the record supports it.
• Life expectancy. From published life tables, such as the National Center for Health Statistics United States Life Tables. Life expectancy sets the outer horizon for household services; under CACI 3921, support runs over the shorter of the decedent’s or the plaintiff’s life expectancy.
• Wage growth. Drawn from published earnings data and the decedent’s own history, not a round number chosen for convenience.
• Discount rate and present value. Future losses are discounted at a rate tied to a cited, published source, such as U.S. Treasury yields matched to the length of each stream, and stated as of the present-value date; the same discipline applies to life care plan present value.

What the economist does not value

CACI 3921 separately allows noneconomic damages for the loss of the decedent’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support, and tells the jury it must not consider the plaintiff’s grief, sorrow or mental anguish. Noneconomic damages are the jury’s to assess. We do not put a dollar figure on them, and we do not describe household services in terms that overlap with companionship. Keeping the categories separate keeps the economic figure clean on cross-examination.

When the decedent was a child or had no earnings

Household services do not depend on earnings. A decedent who was not employed, such as a parent at home or a retiree, may still have provided substantial services, and those are valued at replacement cost from time-use data.

The death of a minor child is different, and the analysis has to be described carefully. CACI No. 3922 allows parents to recover the value of the financial support and household services the child would have provided, and requires them to subtract the present cash value of the probable costs of the child’s support and education. With no earnings or work history, the projection rests on statistical paths by education and region, and the support that would have flowed back to the parents is a matter of evidence rather than assumption. The resulting figure can be modest, and if it is, the report says so.

Reviewing the other side’s economist

We are retained by both plaintiff and defense counsel, and the method does not change with the side of the caption. When we review an opposing wrongful death report, we rebuild the calculation from its stated inputs first. Then we vary each assumption to see which one the total depends on. The usual candidates are a personal consumption rate below what the household data support, a worklife horizon longer than the tables or the decedent’s health would suggest, wage growth that outruns the decedent’s history, and a discount rate that is not tied to a cited source.

We concede what the record supports and challenge only what it does not, and we present a range rather than a rival number. See rebuttal of an economic damages report.

Pre-death care and alternative scenarios

When the decedent lived for a time after the injury, care actually provided before death is a documented, past expense. If a life care plan was prepared while the injured person was alive, its projections of care after the date of death are not a loss anyone incurred; what remains is the record of care actually delivered.

Disputed assumptions are carried through as alternatives, not averaged away. Our two-scenario life care plan study was a personal injury matter, not a death case: the vocational expert gave two work-life scenarios and we carried both through to separate totals. We handle a disputed worklife or consumption assumption in a death case the same way.

Wrongful death is part of our personal injury litigation support practice, which also covers wildfire and mass-disaster claims.

Who leads the work

Wrongful death engagements are led by Roman Garagulagian, Ph.D., principal economist (Ph.D. in Economics, Claremont Graduate University; Vice President–West and board member, National Association of Forensic Economics; referee, Journal of Forensic Economics). Analysts may support the work, but the designated expert owns the methodology, assumptions, analysis, report and testimony. We do not designate one expert and hand the file to another.

If you have a matter now, start with a conflict check using party names only. If the other side has served an economist’s report, send us the report for review. When records are ready, upload the case files securely.

Frequently asked questions

Does the economist value grief or companionship?

No. Loss of love, companionship and similar losses are noneconomic damages for the jury, and CACI 3921 tells jurors not to consider grief, sorrow or mental anguish. The economist addresses economic loss only.

What is personal consumption and why does it matter?

It is the portion of income the decedent would have spent on themselves. It is subtracted because it would never have reached the family. Because it applies to every future year of earnings, a small change in the rate moves the total materially, which is why we state it and its source explicitly.

Can you value household services when the decedent had no earnings?

Yes. Household services are valued independently of employment, at the market cost of replacing the work the decedent performed, with hours drawn from published time-use data.

Do you work for defendants?

Yes. We are retained by both plaintiff and defense counsel. For defendants, the work is usually a review of the plaintiff economist’s assumptions, and we tell you which ones the record supports as well as which it does not.

What records do you need?

For a conflict check, party names only. Once engaged: the death certificate, tax returns and W-2s for several years before death, employment and benefits records, household composition and the survivors’ dates of birth, funeral and burial invoices, and any vocational or medical opinions already disclosed.

How is present value handled?

Future losses are projected year by year and discounted to a stated present-value date at a rate tied to a published source, such as Treasury yields matched to the length of each stream. The rate and its source are cited in the report, so the other side can reproduce the figure.