Damages: Expert Testimony and Future Inflation

The question of the measure of compensatory damages in personal injury and wrongful death actions is of paramount concern to both aggrieved parties and defendants. In the determination of total compensation for the plaintiff, one frequently occurring issue —future damages — involves complex economic theory and statistical projections in the computation of such items of prospective loss as future earnings. At this point in the trial it is crucial that expert testimony be admitted so that jurors can fathom the technical complexities of these future financial determinations. Inflation has become an accepted ingredient of our contemporary society. Whether or not a jury should be allowed to consider testimony by expert economists on possible future rates of inflation, however, has become a source of controversy in both state and federal courts