Trinidad and Tobago is pushing the boundaries of innovation in actuarial science with the launch of a groundbreaking tool this week.
The new ‘Smart Tables Framework’ is designed to assist the legal system in calculating damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases, making complex financial assessments more precise and accessible.
Actuaries, professionals who apply mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to evaluate and manage risk, play a critical role in these calculations. They evaluate the likelihood of future events, such as insurance claims or pension payments, and advise on how to minimise potential financial losses.
Speaking at the Launch of the Smart Tables Framework, UWI’s Actuarial Science Director, Stokely Smart, explained that this programme has been tailored specifically for Trinidad and Tobago, ensuring that the data used is both relevant and accurate.
“Which is a framework for quantifying the lump sum payment for loss of earnings due to personal injury or death in civil law cases in common law jurisdictions in the developing world. And Trinidad and Tobago is the first jurisdiction in which this framework has been rolled out, and what’s sort of unique and innovative about the framework is that it uses indigenous inputs of assumptions for mortality and interest rates and such to come up with the calculations.”
Mr. Smart said no such programme exists in the developing world, thereby making such awards from the courts at times arbitrary and varying from court to court.
He said this groundbreaking system will create fairness in the system.
“As a result, it will level the playing field for those receiving these awards, especially as things are now. The folks that don’t have access to great financial means are more likely to get awards that may be lower, and as a result, this will give awards that are more egalitarian, I should say.”
Also speaking at the launch was the Head of the Law Association Lynette Seebaran-Suite, who encouraged her colleagues to adopt the Smart Tables.