Wrongful death lawyers use a variety of techniques in order to calculate the pecuniary loss of the decedent to his or her immediate family. For instance, a lawyer may use actuarial tables taken from the insurance industry in order to determine a decedent's life expectancy at the time of his or her death, based on his age. Evidence as to the decedent's average earnings at the time of his death,, combined with the expected number of years that he or she would have continued to work, will help calculate the amount of loss of future income to the decedent's family as a result of his or her death. If the decedent was unemployed at the time of his or her death, evidence of past earnings, as well as the reasons for the current unemployment, can help to determine the appropriate amount of pecuniary damages. Plus, a lawyer can use expert testimony in order to present evidence in support of a request for a pecuniary damages award. Expert testimony can be particularly helpful in cases that involve the death of a stay-home-mother; in this case, the expert could attempt to quantify the value of the mother's services in terms of providing child care, cooking meals, and otherwise keeping up a home.