Scottish Ogden Tables
The purpose of a compensation claim is to put the claimant in the same position as he would have been if he had not sustained the accident. Those representing compensators must ensure that the tools available allow us to achieve this end, are valid.
There has been recent publicity about life expectancies in Scotland. It transpires that in parts of Glasgow when measured at birth the life expectancy of a male is only 64 years. This depressing statistic means that a man from there is unlikely to live to the present retirement age of 65.
This led us to consider whether our reliance on the Ogden Tables for Multipliers to determine the extent of future losses in relation to earnings, services, care, pension etc is justified. The Ogden Tables proceed on the 2002 based National Population Projections prepared by the Office for National Statistics. It transpires that these projections relate to population studies in England and Wales only. Projections are produced for Scotland (and also for the whole of the UK) but the Ogden Working party have not chosen to use either. The consequence is that when we use Ogden Tables without adjustment we are applying a multiplier which is not based on Scottish data.