Litigation Support
Pacey Economics Group has extensive experience providing economic analyses to the legal community and is accustomed to the time constraints and demands associated with litigation. The firm houses its own library of government, professional, and trade association surveys and studies plus the related academic literature and also draws upon internet access for critical documents. Our analyses meet the highest standards of accuracy and we also anticipate and research alternative avenues of analysis that are likely to be forwarded by the opposing party. Areas of analysis include:
Labor Economics
- Projection of lost earnings, incorporating future productivity and inflationary trends in the economy, age-earnings profiles, employment opportunities of disabled workers and personal expenditures analysis;
- Short and/or long term loss of earnings associated with termination, separation, or displaced worker issues;
- Evaluation of vocational retraining options, and hence, wage opportunities given information regarding functional and cognitive abilities;
- Personal expenditure analysis based on information from client and tracked to family budget data;
- Valuation of household services based on review of government and academic surveys and literature plus client interview information;
- Valuation of life care plans incorporating recommendations from rehabilitation and medical care specialists, health care price/cost and trends, interest return factors, etc.;
- Special research addressing the time and financial contributions of children based on the child's habits of industry, etc.
Commercial
- Measure lost profits as a result of business interruptions and/or reasonable royalty calculations;
- Incorporate business cycles, start-up nature of businesses, potential synergies, and risk factors, etc.;
- Estimation of damages arising from breach of contract, patent infringement, trade secret theft, and related controversies.
General
- Valuation of the tax implications relating to different legal claims;
- Discounting to present value (which includes identifying the appropriate range of growth and interest rates) based on principles of economics and forecast information from private and government agencies who specialize in this area;
- Valuation of settlement proposals and assistance in settlement conferences;
- Expert witness testimony provided in state and federal courts.
Labor Economics
Labor economics is a field of specialization within economics that focuses on the demand for and supply of labor in the market place. This includes:
- The study and analysis of employment trends for different industries, earnings profiles for individuals with similar work characteristics, labor force participation rates, occupational mobility, etc.;
- The impact of education and/or impairments on earnings opportunities; · The prevalence of or change in macroeconomic factors which effect overall productivity such as technological advancements;
- The value of employer provided benefits such as pension, health coverage, etc., to wage earnings;
- Personal consumption (expenses) decisions of individuals based on income levels, composition of family, age, education, etc.
This specialty is quite useful when managing and evaluating class action suits in injury and/or employment matters. Thus, with the labor economics background, our firm can better develop an individual's future earnings profile, likely benefits derived from certain employment patterns, and probable consumption decisions. Pacey Economics Group has a highly trained professional staff to address these topics and has accumulated hundreds of articles, surveys, and studies. This information provides a more thorough understanding of labor markets and assists in our evaluations of damages in specific litigation cases, especially injury, death, employment, and occasionally commercial matters.
Business & Finance
Many companies often encounter specific problems that directly or indirectly affect the way a business is managed, the level of revenues generated, and the impact on earnings and profits. Pacey Economics Group has dealt with a broad range of business and finance-related issues for both litigation disputes and non-legal matters. The following provide some examples of our experience in non-litigation business and finance matters:
- Special expertise in valuation studies, for example, cost-benefit analysis of proposed projects, evaluating comparable publicly rated companies;
- Provide theoretical foundation and empirical analysis in regulatory environments dealing with the competitive effects of regulatory decisions; · Analyses of market conditions on business/industries;
- Providing economic advice on policy issues regarding mergers and acquisitions, diversification, and risk and returns;
- Complex economic analyses of comparability of companies and market as well as valuation of intangibles such as patents;
- Verifications of financial projections for firms requiring independent corroboration for borrowing purposes.
Antitrust Issues
The economist is critical in the determination of antitrust behavior as the analysis requires a comprehensive understanding of market structure, industry, and performance measures. Assessing the impacts from claims of anticompetitive practices requires a thorough understanding of the facts including operations of the particular company plus industry practices in general. This information then allows one to define the relevant market, evaluate entry conditions and quantify efficiency issues. Once the relevant market is defined and a determination of market power is identified, the economist turns to issues of business/firm conduct. Conduct would include consideration of:
- Pricing strategy;
- Responsiveness to changes;
- Collusive or predatory price and non-price activity;
- Advertising strategy;
- Research and innovation;
- Legal tactics or other matters.
Once the market structure and conduct are determined, the economist then analyzes the impact of these conditions on the performance of the market and the particular firm. Over the years, Pacey Economics Group has evaluated antitrust issues for a broad spectrum of industries ranging from cable industry, movie theatres, hospitality amenities, and other specialized industries within the economy. In addition to identifying these antitrust issues, the firm is oftentimes called upon to evaluate the damages associated with such antitrust behavior. Whether evaluating the antitrust claim or measuring the economic damages associated with such a claim, Pacey Economics Group works closely with counsel to ensure the necessary discovery documents are available, opposing expert analyses are critiqued, etc.