The P Problem and the Estimation of Worklife Expectancy Losses in Personal Injury Cases

To the extent that vocational rehabilitation experts assert worklife expectancy losses in personal injury cases, they must understand, and be prepared to analyze, the participation rate and the employment rate components ofworklife expectancy. It is shown that 79-91 percent of the statistical decline in worklife expectancy for the self-defined disabled is a decline in participation rates, not the employment rates which are the more typical focus of forensic vocational analysis. The problem is enlarged because voluntary declines in participation due to injury may fail the duty to mitigate damages.