About present cash value

Abstract

The major goal behind awarding damages in a personal injury action is to compensate a plaintiff for his or her actual loss. When judges and juries are asked to decide upon the amount of money that will compensate a plaintiff for his lost earning capacity, they are asked to decide two things: (1) Over the period of the disability, what is the dollar amount by which the plaintiff's ability to earn income has been reduced. (2) How much money should be awarded to the plaintiff today to compensate fairly for this loss that will occur periodically over the terms of the disability. This article is about the second of those questions.