THE BURBANK GROUP
New York Medical Malpractice Award Site
(
www.NY50A.com)|
New York 50A Operating Systems and Terms
|
The Valuation Solution New York has adopted a comprehensive and complex system for determining the value of an Award. This complexity and the competing suggestions that adjustments and offsets should be applied either at or after the verdict, but apply both to past and future damages, have largely consigned the valuation process to a post-verdict, poorly understood chore, rather than an interactive process that facilitates timely and fair resolution of a case.
The statutes and related case decisions provide a framework determining the value to be placed on an Award. That framework includes
While the concepts contained in the statutes should be understood by the attorneys, as should the choices about their application, The attorney should rely on the expertise and systems of others, and the documentation of the application of the statutes contained in any reconciliation. We have created uniform and comprehensive systems for generating, processing and valuing personal injury and wrongful death Awards. While the various statutes governing personal injury and wrongful death dictate somewhat different methods for valuing Award components, they can be reduced to uniform processes that produce standard sets of reports that include Award summaries, Valuation summaries, reconciliations of Awards to Valuations, monthly and annual payments, annual discounted values and, when used, direct comparisons of net values at different rates and under different sets of variables. Our objective has been to simplify and document the valuation process, to provide a comprehensive answer and to incorporate options for valuing alternate scenarios. We provide our clients with
Information We provide evaluation of the statutes, explanation of how the statutes and case decisions are incorporated into the valuation, and analyses of issues related to various functions and elements of loss. Statute evaluations include
Explanation of how the statutes and case decisions are incorporated into the valuations are covered under
Analyses of issues are included on theNY 50A/50B Forum. As issues of significance arise, analyses of available information will be performed and presented through the forum. To date, the greater part of the analyses relate to the application of discount rates indexed to the 10-Year Treasury and a strategy for settlement, capabilities for valuing Awards, and the treatment of Pain and Suffering. System Operations - New York 50A Personal Injury – A description of how Medical Malpractice Personal Injury Awards are valued, how interest is calculated and how Award payment schedules are updated to the judgment and payment dates. System Operations - New York 50A Wrongful Death – A description of how Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Awards are valued and how interest is calculated. Solutions Award Development provide vehicles for building an Award using generally accepted methodologies, incorporating statutory limitations and providing the capability of updating Awards for the passage of time and the movement of portions of future damages to past damages. 50A Award Development is designed to deal with personal injury and wrongful death actions in line with the various statutes. In wrongful death actions, future loss elements are treated as lump sums without any discounting. The future award elements must still be developed and taxes applied and the allocation of elements between past and future damages should also take place. While future Collateral Source offsets might be excluded as there are no future payments against they could be offset, past Collateral Source offsets are an open question. Valuation Worksheets are designed to generate a single comprehensive valuation by applying appropriate statutory provisions, and incorporating allocations, adjustments and offsets. Expense ratios and fee rates are applied to produce Net future Award values by element, net past damages and net lump sums. Initial monthly payments are calculated in line with the statutes. In the event that interest is to be applied, the report is expanded to reflect the various levels of discounting, if any, and the various levels of interest. Amended 50A Worksheet This worksheet applies the new rules on computation and application of lump sums, treats future Loss of Services and Loss of Consortium as lump sums, applies discount rates indexed to the 10-Year Treasury rates and the sliding scale fee rates as prescribed in the statute. Indexed 50A Worksheet This worksheet allocates $250,000 in lump sums across the elements of future loss, treats future Loss of Services and Loss of Consortium as lump sums, applies discount rates indexed to the 10-Year Treasury rates and the sliding scale fee rates as prescribed in the statute. The Original 50A Worksheet This worksheet allocates $250,000 in lump sums across the elements of future loss, treats future Loss of Services and Loss of Consortium as lump sums, applies individual discount rates for each element and the sliding scale fee rates as prescribed in the statute. The Valuation Summaries, Negotiation Worksheets, periodic payment and discount payment schedules are contained on Original and Indexed 50A Reports Reconciliation Element future Awards together with individual adjustments, offsets and allocations are documented on the Negotiation worksheet. The opening amounts agree with the initial amounts listed on the Valuation Summaries, and the Net Discounted Values also agree with the Valuation Summaries. The detail proves out the Summary. Excluding the impact of Collateral Source offsets, the total of the discounted annual payment schedule by element agree with the Net Discounted values. If expenses and fees are allocated against an element's discounted value prior to applying the value of any offset, the total of the discounted annual payments will closely agree with the Net Discounted values. Flexibility The valuation can be directly and quickly adjusted
The changes are reflected on an updated Summary and shown on a side-by-side comparison of different Award scenarios. The basic valuation is updated only on selection of an alternate scenario, at which time the Negotiation Worksheet and future payments schedules are updated. Interest is directly and quickly applied to the Valuation, together with the components of any discounting associated with wrongful death actions or bifurcated personal injury verdicts, and interest associated with pre-verdict, pre-judgment and pre-payment interest. Service and Support We provide information, the valuation solution together with testing of alternate scenarios, and the documentation to support the validity of any valuation. The valuation solution is provided in three ways.
We are prepared to provide training and materials for users, at a negotiated price plus out-of -pocket costs. We will provide support on an ongoing basis.
For fuller discussion of Service and Support go to - Service and Support
|
|
|
Contact Information
|