About Present Cash Value

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|The major goal behind awarding damages in a personal injury action is to compensate a plaintiff for his or her actual loss. With that goal in mind, consider the problems presented by an award for damages to be suffered in the future---consider lost earnings capacity, for example.|A disabled plaintiff suffers a reduced ability to earn income which continues over the term of the disability. When judges and jurors are asked to decide upon an amount of money to compensate a plaintiff for this lost earning capacity, they are asked to decide two things. First, over the period of the disability, what is the dollar amount by which the plaintiff's ability to earn income has been reduced? Second, how much money should be given to the plaintiff today to compensate fairly for this loss, a loss which will occur periodically over the term of the disability?...