Household Services in Wrongful Death Cases

What Household Services Include

Household services encompass unpaid work maintaining the home and family: cooking, cleaning, childcare, transportation, home maintenance, and yard work. When a decedent performed these tasks, survivors may recover the cost to replace them.

Stay-at-home parents and spouses without wage income may still generate substantial household services loss even when wage loss is zero.

Valuation Methodology

The market replacement cost approach multiplies hours the decedent devoted to household tasks by market rates for equivalent services from BLS or regional wage surveys. Historical patterns—who did what in the household—support hours assumptions.

Some economists use standardized tables by household composition; others use custom surveys of decedent and survivor testimony documented in depositions.

Coordination With Wage Loss

Wrongful death cases may include both decedent wage loss and household services. Experts must use consistent life expectancy and avoid assuming the decedent simultaneously worked full-time and performed full-time household hours without support.

Surviving spouse's increased household burden may affect survivor claims in some jurisdictions separate from decedent services loss.

Avoiding Double Recovery

• Life care plan paid caregiving vs. household services loss
• Total disability assumption vs. household services while employed
• Childcare costs in survival action vs. household services childcare component
• Overlap with loss of consortium (non-economic) vs. economic household services

Expert Selection

Some forensic economists perform household services analysis; others coordinate with specialists. Future Earnings Expert network intake identifies economists who include household services in scope or coordinate with dedicated experts for complex households.