Brown Economic Consulting Inc.
Quantifying Economic Loss Damages Arising From the Negligence of Others
Our firm provides litigation support to lawyers and insurers when economic damages must be quantified for loss of income, loss of dependency on income, loss of opportunity (or loss of a capital asset), cost of care, loss of housekeeping capacity, and tax gross-up calculations. We also quantify damages arising from loss of financial interdependency (loss of marriage benefit), loss of pension benefits, lost years’ claims, loss of insurability, delay in schooling due to sexual assault, and loss of disability income. Court-ready assessments are supported with court testimony if the case proceeds to trial.
Resources
- Appeal Decision
- Cost of Care
- Court of Appeal
- Court of Appeal BC
- Economic Damages Calculator
- Fairness Principle
- Fatality
- Fatality Case
- Household Methodology Rates
- Housekeeping Capacity
- Housekeeping Damages
- Housekeeping Damages Calculator
- Injured Plaintiff
- Legal Memorandums
- Legal Memorandums from Damages
- Loss of Income
- Loss of Marriage Benefit
- NFLD Case
- Participation Contingency
- Participation Rates
Why Choose Brown Economic Consulting?
Our firm is committed to evidence-based assessments that are tailored to the plaintiff’s human capital characteristics, whether hired by the plaintiff or defence counsel (assignments are accepted on a “first-come, first-serve” basis). In conjunction with this objective, an unparalleled commitment to excellence informs all work, whether it is a written assessment, updating Ms. Brown’s text, Damages: Estimating Pecuniary Loss, publishing peer-reviewed articles, and authoring Brown’s Economic Damages Newsletter since 1995, distributing at no charge to interested subscribers. Along with creating refinements to the practice of forensic economics in Canada, Brown Economic hosts 5 online calculators, of which 3 are free to use and are updated regularly with economic data.
Working With Our Firm
Experts in the Field
Free Resources Available
Exceptional Customer Services
Certified Across Canada
Meet Cara Brown
Cara Brown began her career in forensic economics in 1988. Ms. Brown established her own consulting firm in 1995. Since then, Ms. Brown has been responsible for creating and structuring court-ready assessments in civil litigation arising from all manner of interruptions (motor vehicle accident, medical malpractice, slip & fall, aviation accidents, sexual assault, wrongful confinement, wrongful imprisonment, and oppression actions). Ms. Brown has also testified several times in estate dispute cases. In addition to producing reports and testifying on their behalf, Ms. Brown has undertaken a great deal of research, advancing the field of forensic economics in Canada by publishing Damages: Estimating Pecuniary Loss by Thomson Reuters (currently in its 34+ edition) and contributing peer-reviewed articles to numerous journals, such as the Journal of Forensic Economics, Journal of Legal Economics, Alberta Law Review, UBC Law Review, and The Advocates’ Quarterly.
Ms. Brown is the sole author of all critiques of other expert work and is routinely asked to compose sample questions for direct evidence and cross-examination of economic evidence. Brown Economic’s specialty is the melding of Canadian case law with forensic economic principles, which ensures that all reports that are prepared will be helpful to the court and contain the court-endorsed methodologies for quantifying economic loss damages.
Our Economic Consulting Expertise
- Wage Deficit
Approach (WDA) - Expertise in
Fatality Matters - Cost of Care & Loss of Housekeeping Capacity
- Assessing Income Losses in Sexual Assault Cases
- Court
Testimony - Advisory Assistance on Economic Evidence
Approach (WDA)
In cases where the true impact of the injury is obscured by economic or other factors or will emerge over time, Statistics Canada’s disability surveys can be used to apply a wage deficit percentage based on the plaintiff’s severity or type of disability to derive a potential income loss.
Fatality Matters
Brown Economic has been hired in landmark wrongful death cases since the early 1990s: Duncan v. Baddeley (1999); Millott v. Reinhard (2001 & 2002); Fullowka et al v. Royal Oak Ventures et al (2004 – the Giant Mine cases); Palmquist v. Ziegler (2010); and Baker v. Poucette (2016 & 2017). Ms. Brown is the only forensic economist in Canada to have published two articles in the Journal of Forensic Economics (2004 & 2012) using Statistics Canada’s Surveys of Household Spending (SHS), which publish PCRs by family size and family income level.
Cost of care recommendations and life care plans must be converted to lifetime present value sums by a forensic economist, who also incorporates key negative contingencies. Awards for lost housekeeping capacity can be calculated separately or as part of the cost of care fund.
Enduring sexual assault, especially in the tender-age years, can negatively affect schooling, employment, and income levels. Brown Economic has prepared hundreds of loss reports in such cases, such as BMG v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General) (2007), in which the court awarded the plaintiff $500,000 for loss of earning capacity.
Testimony
All written documents contain the promise of corroboration through testimony given under oath. Ms. Brown has testified in almost all regions in Canada, including the 3 northern territories, as well as in Texas and North Dakota. Ms. Brown has also given evidence in more than a dozen jury trials, such as the Saskatchewan case of Biletski v. University of Regina (2017, 2019) where the court of appeal affirmed the jury’s award of more than $12 million to the plaintiff.
Ms. Brown has testified across Canada on more than 150 occasions since 1989. In the past 25 years, this has included composing sample questions for direct evidence and sample cross-examination questions for economic, accounting, actuarial, and cost of care experts. Ms. Brown has also been invited by counsel to assist in evaluating testimony given by opposing experts.
Take Advantage of Our Calculators
Working Life/Life Expectancy Calculator
This calculator estimates an individual’s remaining years of working life expectancy and life expectancy based on his or her current age, gender, and education level, and Statistics Canada’s working life expectancy estimates and mortality tables for each region.
Housekeeping Damages Calculator (HDC)
The HDC will provide a preliminary estimate of the plaintiff’s/deceased’s past and future potential loss of housekeeping capacity from his/her age at the date of incident to age 80. Replacement rates by region, along with key economic contingencies, are applied to generate the online loss estimates.
Income Damages Calculator (IDC)
The IDC estimates the claimant’s potential loss of income, from the date of incident to trial or mediation (“past loss”) and from the date of valuation (mediation or trial) to retirement age (“future loss”). The IDC draws upon Brown Economic’s vast database of wages and contingencies from the most recent Statistics Canada’s Census, along with deducting income taxes (if required), adding pre-judgment interest at legislated rates, and reducing the sums to present value using the mandated real discount rates in each region.