Vocational Expert, Independent File Review, Expert Witness Testimony

KWA helps determine the vocational and return-to-work implications, including diminished earning capacity, if relevant, and provides testimony in

• Family Law/Divorce

• Personal Injury

• Workers’ Compensation cases

Expert Qualifications and Standards

Since 1923, the standard for admissibility of expert scientific testimony has rested on the legal precedent established in Frye v. United States. The so-called "Frye" test of admissibility has been widely embraced, requiring that scientific evidence meet "general acceptance " criteria. This demanded that, prior to being considered admissible by the Court, expert testimony must be based upon "scientific principle or discovery, ... sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs."

However, in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 113 S. Ct. 2786, 2795 (1993), the United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Rules of Evidence superseded Frye and provided the standard for admitting expert scientific testimony. Among others, the Supreme Court referenced Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which requires scientific expert testimony to be reliable (based on scientific knowledge, methods and procedures) and relevant (testimony which will assist the Trier of Fact).

Specifically, under Daubert, a judge will consider:

Job Search Software Under Daubert

One general expectation is that the instruments used to assess disabilities and predict their consequence will need to be reliable (provide consistent results) and valid (measure what it is expected to measure) and have known acceptable error estimates (accuracy of predictions).

Job Search Software programs represent trait-factor job-person matching systems. Their main task is accomplished through the use of the specialized database management system that stores and retrieves information. Employability search inputs for specific client include past relevant work history and a Worker Qualifications Profile. Outputs typically include potential job title matches, transferable skills, expected earning capacity/wage potential and links to lists of likely employers.

At KWA we use the McCroskey Transferable Skills Program (MTSP), the most comprehensive, up-to-date and powerful Job-Person Matching. Transferable Skills Analysis, Values, Needs, Vocational Interest & Personality Reinforcer (VIPR) Type Indicator, and Earning Capacity Estimation System available in the U.S. in all vocational and expert assessments.

The McCroskey Dictionary of Occupational Titles (McDOT), TestPlot Program (McPLOT) and McCroskey Transferable Skills Program (MTSP)

These programs use the McCroskey Vocational Quotient Systems(VQs) index of job complexity to order the world of work in terms of maximizing job matches and earning capacity relative to individual employability. The McPLOT program combines percentile test results, physical capacities and environmental rating scores to produce the 24 vocationally significant aptitude variables listed in the McDOT database (a 1996 updated version of the 1991 US DOL DOT). These aptitudes can be combined with past work history in the MTSP program to produce transferable skills job matches and employment potential job titles relative to general and/or specific geographic locations (Canada & Canadian Provinces, the United States, all 50 individual states, Puerto Rico, and hundreds of U.S. County databases), various specific location codes for those titles, job market access and expected Pre- and Post-income per hour predictions. The VQ-Wage predictions are modified by Geographical Location codes, age, and a yearly U.S. Wage inflation rate to produce the individualized Pre-injury and Post-injury Earning Capacity Range estimates.

Attorney Comment:
Because you have an excellent reputation with both sides, I will start proposing you as an agreed expert.