When Do You Need Vocational Assessment?

When someone claims that they can “no longer work” because of a severe car accident, or because they suffer from a disability, there needs to be a person who can make sense of that phrase.  

At first blush, the idea that someone can “no longer work” might make some kind of intuitive sense. Yet, given the nature of the various options we have for “work,” the notion that someone can “no longer work” becomes a little too vague upon closer inspection.     

Indeed, the concept of “work” covers any number of activities for remuneration from working on an assembly line to being a brain surgeon, and everything in between. Therefore, we need someone who is a “vocational expert” who can arrive, with some scientific precision, at conclusions with regard to a person’s ability to work based on their limitations, and based on the number and types of jobs available in a particular region of the country. 

The circumstances in which a vocational expert is most needed is in personal injury cases and disability cases.

Personal Injury Cases

Once it is determined that the defendant’s negligence resulted in the injuries suffered by the plaintiff, the most important determination in a personal injury case is the number of damages the plaintiff should receive. Simply stated, once a person is injured – possibly permanently injured – due to an accident, the question of how to financially compensate for that injury is the paramount question.

In finding a measure of a person’s economic damages due to an injury, the concepts of “lost earnings” and “lost earning capacity” become prominent concepts. That is to say that a jury needs to note what a person was making in his or her career before the accident, and what the person is capable of earning after the accident.  

That is, of course, where you need an expert to provide a vocational assessment of the injured plaintiff. The vocational expert needs to evaluate a person’s entire life to arrive at an accurate, defensible vocational assessment. That means that the expert must understand the person’s interests, abilities, physical capabilities, and prior work history. It also requires a review of medical records, an in-depth interview with the injured person, and an assessment of the person’s educational background.

Finally, the vocational assessment must include a look at the job market in the person’s commutable region. Thus, a vocational expert will be able to inform the jury both on what a person is now able to do post-accident, and what jobs are available to him or her.  

Though a “vocational assessment” might sound like a rather technical type of evidence in a personal injury case, it really is the most important information to help a jury come to an economic damages number in a personal injury matter.

Disability Cases

Vocational assessments play a similar role in disability cases as well. As you likely know, many people who file for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) are denied after they make their initial disability application. That should not deter you, however.

A vocational assessment expert can help you ultimately obtain SSDI benefits. 

Many times, the Social Security Administration will review your work history and your medical reports, and then it will conclude that you are capable of performing previously held jobs. Hence, you will get an initial denial. During an appeal of that denial, however, a vocational expert will get to take a close look at your abilities. The expert will then be able to provide quantifiable results (based on your background, education, work experience, and physical limitations) to show that you are, in fact, unable to perform jobs that you previously held before the disability.  

Is a Vocational Assessment Always Necessary?

If you have a personal injury or disability claim, your attorney will ultimately make that determination. Yet, vocational experts are typically utilized in both types of cases because the evidence the expert provides both prior to trial and as a witness at the trial or hearing is invaluable. It can provide much needed persuasive material when juries are otherwise hard-pressed to make distinctions about earning capacity without help. Also, with complex cases, involving confusing medical information, an expert will emphasize those things that are most important.