Damages in Tort Actions

Dr. Fred Raffa is the Senior Economist in the consulting firm Raffa Consulting Economists, Inc. He holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Economics--all earned at Florida State University. Upon finishing his Ph.D. in 1969, Dr. Raffa began an academic teaching career at the University of Central Florida. He retired from there in 1998 as a tenured full professor of economics. While at UCF, he chaired the Department of Economics from 1976-1980.

Raffa Consulting Economists was formed in 1998, upon Dr. Raffa's retirement from UCF. The firm provides assistance to attorneys, insurance companies, and government agencies in a wide range of economic loss claims--including personal injury; wrongful death; employment dispute; workers' compensation; crop damage; and commercial litigation encompassing contract disputes, anti-trust claims, patent or trademark infringement, and construction delay matters. Dr. Raffa has testified in over 750 trials and gives in excess of 100 depositions every year. He is the author of a three-volume series entitled Evaluation of Economic Loss, published as part of the LexisNexis publication Damages in Tort Actions. These volumes are among the longest running current publications in the field of forensic economics.

Paul M. Deutsch Ph.D., CRC, CCM, CLCP, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education with a specialization in Rehabilitation. He is in his 37th year in the field of Rehabilitation and has been in private practice since June 1, 1976. He is a Board Certified Vocational rehabilitation counselor, Board Certified case manager and Board Certified life care planner. Dr. Deutsch is a Fellow of the International Academy of Life Care Planners and is licensed in the State of Florida under Chapter 491 of the Psychology Practices Act as a Mental Health Counselor, (FL MH#0000117). He specializes in working with catastrophic disabilities resulting from either a birth or traumatic onset.

Dr. Deutsch is best known for having developed the basic principles, tenets, methodologies and processes of Life Care Planning. He first published on Life Care Planning as a fundamental tool of Case Management in Damages in Tort Actions in 1981. Dr. Deutsch has contributed twelve volumes and more than ninety-five peer reviewed journal articles and chapter contributions including A Guide to Rehabilitation, (Deutsch, Paul M. and Sawyer, Horace, 1985 Mathew Bender, 2003 AHAB Press) and "Innovations in Head Injury Rehabilitation" (Deutsch, Paul M. and Fralish, A Kathleen, 1986 Mathew Bender and 2003 AHAB Press). His work has been fundamental in the development of life care planning as a trans-disciplinary sub-specialty throughout rehabilitation.

Dr. Deutsch is the co-author of "Evaluation and Proof of Economic Loss," Volumes 9 through 11 of Damages in Tort Actions (LexisNexis Matthew Bender).