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The Knowles Group has been providing professional forensic economic services to the legal community since 1979. Over the decades, we’ve worked with thousands of attorneys in dozens of states. We’ve testified in both state and federal courts.

We provide many services to our clients, such as the development of past and future economic loss estimates in the areas of compensation, business, and medical care costs.

Our Process

We first review all available documents and will then start the necessary economic research. Once completed, we will provide our expert opinions on potential economic losses with exhibits and or a report narrative.

Our Specializations

We specialize in presenting relatively complex economic procedures and conclusions in formats that are understandable to the non-economic community. The four primary services we provide to our clients are:

Litigation Consulting

There are instances that may require our services without the need or want for formal retention or disclosure. Flexibility and experience would allow us to help you assess opposing economic demands prior to settlement negotiations or mediation. This can be as simple as a phone discussion of case variables or a quick review of damage estimates. Our lengthy experience and retention on over 1,000 cases allows us to give you accurate responses and critiques to opposing demands after listening to a few factors in the case. We can give you a rough estimate of economic damages in the span of hours without authoring a report, if this is something you desire.

A portion of our consulting work focuses on opposing deposition preparation. The majority of our cases ask us to prepare questions for opposing forensic witnesses. This can be an efficient use of your time when preparing for your deposition of the plaintiff and opposing vocational or economic experts. Giving yourself that different perspective when walking into the deposition can lead to questions answered for the record that potentially would not have been brought up.

Economic Damage Calculation

Our economic damage calculation services look at whether the plaintiff suffered economic damages as a result of the incident or their injuries. To come to this conclusion, we first perform a records review that looks at all the materials in the file, as well as such important documents as tax returns, social security, and personnel records to name just a few.

We then look at the depositions from the plaintiff as we try to create a pre-incident financial picture of the individual. Damage calculations can stem from several types of values as we offer different mitigating or alternative employment opportunities.

From the records review, we can develop an earnings capacity for the individual, which is paramount to past and future loss calculations as we determine the individual’s pre-incident earnings capacity.

Forensic Economics (vs. Forensic Accounting)

There is a significant distinction between a forensic accountant and a forensic economist. Accountants who often work in the capacity as forensic experts, are often ill-equipped academically to perform the job they are tasked. This isn’t to say that accountants are incompetent, but rather, their main focus is accounting, not economics.

A forensic economist not only has the academic background, but the training and experience to ascertain complicated economic matters such as income loss, financial damages, and other economic losses. While forensic accountants are very good at calculating numbers, unless they’re specially trained and credentialed in the economic sciences, they can quickly find themselves in over their heads.

We intelligently look at every financial aspect of income, business earnings, or other economic factors. We also analyze specifics concerning expense items and partnerships to paint an accurate financial picture of either the individuals or company we’re reviewing. This is what separates us from forensic accountants.

We use a wide variety of forensic audit methods to accomplish this. From depositions and court documents to public records such as federal income tax returns, business valuation resources, and partnership agreements, we’ll determine the facts and then write our expert opinions or offer compelling deposition testimony.

Expert Witness Testimony

When it comes to hiring a forensic economic expert witness, it’s essential to choose an experienced firm that has a proven track record. At the Knowles Group, we specialize in helping our clients determine past and future economic loss estimates with regards to compensation, business valuation, and medical care costs.

We’re different in that we provide our expert testimony services to all members of the bar regardless of their representation. We’ve also testified in both state and federal venues in many different states. Our ten years of experience enable us to offer expert advice and testimony for our clients at a level unsurpassed by our counterparts.

Our estimation process includes researching case specific and economic data in the public domain, analyzing data and presenting conclusions in narrative reports, developing present-day value estimates, and presenting findings in deposition or trial formats.

We have both the experience and ability to successfully present complex economic procedures and conclusions in formats that are understandable to the non-economic community. This helps ensure that our testimony has the maximum impact possible.

Put our decades of experience to work for you as we provide compelling forensic economic witness testimony for both plaintiff and defense.

If you require an expert forensic economic witness who can calculate economic damages, loss of wages, and provide litigation consulting, give us a call at (206) 860-9477 or click here to learn more about the services that we offer.