Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
Vocational rehabilitation expert rates in the federal vaccine program (NVICP)
Not every program expert is a physician. Vocational rehabilitation experts and life-care planners appear in the damages side of vaccine-injury petitions, and special masters rule on their hourly rates the same way: 21 determinations across 15 named billers (13 individuals, 2 firms), 2014–2025. The exhibit cites each expert under their own specialty label — a life-care planner is cited as one, not relabelled.
Rates set or approved by special masters
| 25th percentile | $180 |
| Median | $225 |
| 75th percentile | $250 |
Since 2015: median $225/hr across 14 named experts, 20 rate determinations.
About this forum
These rates come from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: decisions of the special masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on petitions under the Vaccine Act. The program pays petitioners' attorneys' fees and costs — including expert fees — from its trust fund when a petition qualifies (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(e)), so requested expert hourly rates are ruled on in writing, in published fee decisions, by one court with a developed rate practice. We never pool these with the federal-court bands; a special master pricing record review is not a district judge pricing a deposition.
From the record
Three of the determinations behind this band, described the way the exhibit cites them — the exhibit itself names the experts, quotes the decisions, and links each one to the public court document it came from:
- vocational rehabilitation · Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. · July 2025 · $325/hr · approved as requested
- life care planning · Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. · July 2025 · $300/hr · approved as requested
- life care planning · Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. · May 2025 · $185/hr · approved as requested
For petitioners' counsel
If you file fee applications in the program, this band is the precedent you would otherwise assemble by hand. Special masters do move rates: of the 21 determinations behind this band, 18 were approved at the requested rate; the rest were not. An application that shows the requested rate sitting inside what special masters have already allowed, with the decisions cited, is cheaper to write and harder to cut. The exhibit is the same document at the same price whether you buy it or your expert does.
The band above is free and stays free. The exhibit is the version you hand to counsel: your rate placed among the band's 15 values — one per named biller (13 individuals, 2 firms) — with the percentile stated, the qualifying decisions quoted and cited, and every citation linked to the public court document it came from. Prepared for your rate and setting, delivered to your inbox in minutes.
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