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Present-value damages, explained

Plain-language guides to how future losses in a Canadian personal-injury claim are brought to present value: the discount rate, mortality, and past vs. future loss. Credentialed by an FCIA/FSA actuary.

• How present-value damages are calculated in Canada

  A plain-language walkthrough of how future losses in a Canadian personal-injury claim are brought to present value: discount rates, mortality, and past vs. future loss.

• Ontario Rule 53.09 and the prescribed discount rate for future damages

  What Ontario's Rule 53.09 is, how the first-15-year and after-15-year discount rates are set, why the rate is updated each year, and why a lower rate raises a future-loss award.

• How the present value of future cost of care is calculated

  How a life-care plan becomes a single present-value figure: item-by-item costs, their schedules, survival weighting, sales tax, and the discount rate.

• How loss of income is calculated in a personal-injury claim

  How past and future income loss are valued: without-incident income, netting off actual and residual earnings, CPI on the past, present value and survival on the future, plus contingencies and collateral offsets.

• Mortality and life expectancy in damages calculations

  How actuarial mortality tables weight each future year for survival, what standard vs. reduced life expectancy means, and why it moves the present value of long-dated losses.

• What a calculator does, and what a retained actuary adds

  The difference between a transparent damages calculator and a retained actuary: what each one produces, and where each fits in a personal-injury file.

• Glossary of personal-injury damages terms

  Plain-language definitions of the actuarial and legal terms used in a Canadian personal-injury damages calculation, from present value to collateral benefits.