Question

Multiple Choice Question:

Jennifer Jones, a 38-year-old employee at a metal fabricating plant, was injured in a work-related accident. She has not returned to work and her doctor states that she has permanent back injuries that preclude her from performing the job activities that were required of her at the metal fabricating plant and, in fact, her injuries made it impossible to work anywhere. Her employer claims that Jennifer's injury claims are grossly exaggerated and she could, in fact, return to work and perform her former job-related duties. Additionally, company management states that even if she could not return to her job at the metal fabricating plant, there are numerous minimum wage jobs that Jennifer could perform. In support of its claims, the company's personnel manager provided documents from Jennifer's file that showed she had missed work for alleged back problems on 12 occasions in the two years before the accident occurred. Before the accident, Jennifer Jones was earning $30,000 a year at her job, and the value of her fringe benefits the company provides was 30 percent of her wages. Her average work-related expenses (commuting, union dues, special clothing) average $4,200 per year. Jennifer indicated in her deposition testimony that absent the injury that occurred while at work, she planned to work until she was 65 years old. Jennifer also testified that she has been unable to perform about half of her household services since the accident.

In a work-related injury case like this, it can be said that:

a. One would never include the value of lost household services in the damage calculations.

b. The value of lost household services would be included and the amount would depend on the level of injuries and their impact on the injured party's reduced ability to perform household services.

c. The value of lost household services would be included for a stated period of time such as five or ten years.

d. Although the value of lost household services are sometimes included in damages estimates for job-related injury cases, such costs are never included in wrongful death damage calculations.

Answer 1

Answer is

d. Although the value of lost household services are sometimes included in damages estimates for job-related injury cases, such costs are never included in wrongful death damage calculations

When a person provides household services to his or her family they are not paid for, but they have real economic value that should be included in many personal damage calculations. In a wrongful discharge case, lost household services would not be part of the damage calculation. In calculating the value of lost household services in a personal injury case, the expert must: Determine the amount of lost household services the victim suffered. Determine the total amount of household services the victim provided before the accident. Determine the amount of value that should be assigned to the victim's household services. In a wrongful death case, there is no need to determine the extent of the disability in computing wage-related damages or the value of lost household services, but such an assessment is necessary in a disability case.