Injured parties file lawsuits to recover "compensatory damages" to recover value lost through the tortious action of another. They want to be made whole. And modern attorneys can work with technology experts to determine the dollar value of damages to compensate the injured party, litigator Jeff Kaliel says.
Different kinds of lawsuits require different kinds of expertise to calculate damages.
Lawyers for Both Sides Consult Technology Experts, Jeff Kaliel Points Out
What kinds of technology experts work with lawyers to determine damages?
Individuals often hire doctors, engineers, accountants, builders, and annuity experts to put dollar amounts to their claims.
A similar procedure may apply in mass torts, "class action" suits in which individuals can accept or reject a settlement proposed in the court.
Class actions are much more complicated.
The challenge of setting damages for cases where a single defendant has caused small damages to many people involves bridging the gap between individual-level experiences into meaningful data about the collective damages suffered by everyone in a group.
Attorneys may work with statisticians to ensure they are giving appropriate weight to the damages of each individual in that group or, in legal terms, in a class. They may enlist the expertise of data scientists to calculate a single number that gives the fairest compensation calculable for an entire class of people.
Your attorney must be able to explain very complex analysis in very simple terms.
But in class actions, in which hundreds or thousands or even millions of people have been injured by a defective product, an unlawful practice, or pervasive actionable negligence by the defendant, determining the amount of damages requires different expertise.
What Kinds of Lawsuits Require Technical Experts?
Class actions can arise from damages caused by a defective product. They can seek compensation for toxic exposure, or unfair hiring practices, or securities fraud. Class actions can seek just compensation for insurance claims for groups of plaintiffs involved in a catastrophic event.
Technical experts may be called on to testify in the fairness hearing, the session in open court in which the judge makes sure that any proposed settlement is fair to all the parties.
Your lawyer's role in managing your case goes far beyond working with technology experts, of course. Your lawyer will seek to understand your judge. Your lawyer will know what your judge has awarded other litigants in similar cases. Your lawyer will make informed judgments about the cost of litigating against opposing counsel to recover what you deserve.
But access to litigation analysts can make the critical difference in recovering the greatest possible compensation for your injuries, Jeffrey Kaliel advises. Seek counsel with access to technical subject matter experts to achieve your best result.
Who Is Jeffrey Kaliel?
A 2005 graduate of Yale Law School, Jeffrey Kaliel has been appointed as lead counsel in numerous class action lawsuits. He has won contested certification motions, defended dispositive motions, and supervised in data-intensive discovery. His access to technical expertise has helped him recover hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of techtimes.com
