Financial Loss Calculations

Edgeworth Chief Executive Officer Dr. John H. Johnson calculated damages owed to a handicapped Brazilian immigrant who had slipped on the steps of a Washington, D.C., courthouse because the building was not ADA compliant. The man’s injuries prohibited him from ever returning to the workforce, saddled him with significant healthcare costs, and made him unable to complete simple household tasks. Dr. Johnson and his team calculated the tangible financial losses that the man sustained as a result of his injuries, relative to what his situation would have been absent the event.

Dr. Johnson and his team also quantified the loss associated with the man’s inability to perform simple household tasks. Their damages approach involved the determination of the amount that a third-party would have to be paid to complete these tasks, based on the amount of time that the third-party would have to spend and on their wage. The cost of these services serves as an indicator of the loss that that the man incurred, regardless of whether he had to pay for these services or whether friends performed these services gratis.

Dr. Johnson wrote more about this case in a blog for the A Billion + Change network.