Workers Compensation

Vocational experts have the training and experience to explain how a worker’s injuries affect his ability to perform specific jobs and day-to-day activities as well as determining they cannot perform any job and is therefore regarded as unemployable. The vocational expert opines on the impact vocational rehabilitation has on the worker’s return to his former job or how training can impact the individual’s employability.
A vocational expert provides a written report and can testify when a worker’s case goes to trial. Vocational opinions are based on the following:

  • Worker’s education, training and work experience
  • Transferrable job skills
  • Physical limitations and any other limitations
  • Labor market

An Osterlund claim is a higher administrative standard that is held by the Social Security Administration. In the later standard, the claimant must not be substantially employable meaning they might be capable of earning modest wages, but the combination of his or her medical impairments prevent more. In contrast, an Osterlund claim asserts that the individual’s combination of disabilities and other individual characteristics, such as an inability to read or write or adverse labor market conditions, would reasonably preclude the individual from working in any job.

Family Law

A vocation expert evaluates an individual’s employability and earning capacity, which may include a skills assessment of the local labor market. The individual’s job seeking efforts as well as the impact of reported medical or mental impairments on their employability are also considered.

Personal Injury

A vocational-rehabilitation expert determines potential future jobs and/or career opportunities based on the medical issues of the injured person and assesses a plaintiff’s physical and mental abilities. These may allow or prevent them from obtaining jobs in the labor market at particular salary rates.

In a personal injury case, the plaintiff may claim a past or future loss of earning capacity as a result of their injuries that is equal to the plaintiff’s expected income or earning capacity had the injury not have happened, minus any mitigating income (i.e., the injured plaintiff’s potential earnings with their current physical or mental limitations.)

Railroad

Employment on railroads present significant exposure to occupational illness and injury—sometimes leading to significant losses in earning capacity. A vocational evaluation determines the impact of the injury on future employability and earning capacity. Due to specific job requirements and the high level of public safety required, railroad companies are sometimes unwilling to accept the individual back to their prior position—despite the worker being released to work. In these instances, the vocational expert evaluates the individual’s skills compared to non-railroad work and determines the resulting loss of earning capacity.

Childhood Disability

Medical malpractice involving the permanent disability of a child presents a unique set of challenges for assessing future lost employment and earning capacity. In such instances, the vocational expert considers the child’s future functional capacity, impact of future surgeries, life care planning needs, available academic records and employment and educational achievement of their family.

Long Term Disability

Long Term Disability insurance companies often retain their own vocational experts when denying ERISA claims, however, they may not have all the facts or have relied upon overly broad labor market statistics that do not represent the individual’s actual skills, training and experience. A vocational evaluation that includes all of the available medical opinions as well as a review of the insurance company’s vocational expert’s assertions can serve as a basis to win an appeal.