Estelle R. Hutchinson is a Diplomate of the American Board of Vocational Experts (ABVE). This status requires a minimum of 7 years of experience as a Vocational Expert, multiple peer reviews of forensic work products, and a passing score on the ABVE National Certification Examination. A Diplomate must also accrue continuing education credits to maintain and build forensic skills and knowledge. The role of a forensic vocational expert is to determine what an individual could have earned prior to injury and compare that to their probable earning capacity following an incident.
Vocational assessment and counseling skills are the foundation for successful vocational/rehabilitation counseling and planning. Comprehensive vocational testing may include interest, personality, aptitude, and achievement testing. Some assessments, particularly for those with a long work history, may not require the use of testing instruments and may rely solely on transferable skills analysis. It is of the utmost importance that services be matched to the needs of the individual undergoing assessment as well as to the questions that must be addressed for the referral source.
Key services offered by VocDirections includes the following:
Estelle R. Hutchinson is the owner of VocDirections, providing vocational expert and vocational rehabilitation consulting services. The firm has recently moved from Providence to Warwick, Rhode Island.
Ms. Hutchinson has performed assessment of employability and/or rehabilitation potential for workers’ compensation, veterans, family law, maritime, long-term disability, personal injury, and longshore and harbor worker cases. The nature of the assessment is tailored to the type of case and legal venue. An assessment in a divorce case would likely focus on an individual’s earning capacity based on his/her education, employment experience and acquired work skills. Where injury and disability impact employability, a formulation of loss of earning capacity assists in structuring the damages in a legal case.
Ms. Hutchinson has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Clark University and went on to obtain a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling at Boston University. She completed a Master of Business Administration program at Northeastern University. More recently, she received a Master of Science Degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Capella University.
She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and a Diplomate of the American Board of Vocational Experts. She is a Past President of the American Board of Vocational Experts, and a Past President of the New England Chapter of the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals. She is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Forensic Vocational Analysis.
