Wrongful Death

A wrongful death is when one person’s death is caused by another’s criminal, malicious, or negligent conduct. It is a legal term used to describe the claim you have against someone else who caused the death of your loved one.The following are examples of wrongful deaths:

  • A balcony collapses due to unsound and unsafe construction practices, resulting in a person’s death.
  • A drunk driver crashes with another car and kills the other car’s driver.
  • A physician fails to disclose to a patient that a lab report detected cancer cells, thus allowing the cancer to metastasize and ultimately kill the patient.

Who Can File Suit?

In many states, the decedent’s immediate family members are vested with the ability to file a wrongful death lawsuit. This is often the surviving spouse, a child or children, and/or sometimes parents and siblings, depending on the specific circumstances.

Who can I sue in a wrongful death lawsuit?

Generally, you can sue any person or entity who caused the death of your loved one through action or in-action. Sometimes, this is more than one person or entity. We will work with you and for you to help identify these people or entities, and hold them accountable.

What Compensation Can You Recover?

In a wrongful death suit, the family may recover monetary compensation for their loss.The types of compensation available to you in a wrongful death lawsuit will depend on the specific facts your case, as well as the applicable state law. However, there are typically two broad categories of damages: economic damages, and non-economic damages.

Economic damages may include:

  • The victim’s income capacity for a projected lifespan;
  • Services performed by the victim that now must be performed by another person;
  • Gifts that the victim would likely have bestowed upon the survivor had the decedent been alive; and
  • Medical, hospital, and funeral expenses.

Non-economic damages, i.e. pain and suffering, may include:

  • The loss of the victim’s companionship, advice, love, and moral support;
  • The loss of sexual relations between married spouses;

During this time of tragedy, we are here to help you. If you lost a loved one to wrongful death, please contact our law firm right now for a free consultation at 877.LAW.3707.

What are ‘Survival Actions’?

Survival actions are claims that provide for the recovery of damages for the specific personal injuries that your loved one sustained, in addition to your recovery for wrongful death. They are named survival actionsbecause the personal injury claim survives the person who suffered that injury and died.

In a survival action, the jury is often presented with evidence regarding what the decedent went through before his or her death,to help them determine the amount of damages to award. This may include decedent’s degree of consciousness, severity of the pain they experienced, and their apprehension of impending death, along with the amount of time they suffered.

Where do we Start?

Since each wrongful death case is different, the first action we take will depend on the specific circumstances of your case. However, we start working on your case the day you hire us. This may include any of the following:

  • Identifying and preserving critical evidence;
  • Identifying key witnesses and obtaining supporting statements from them;
  • Calculating the losses involved, including loss of projected earnings, loss of love and companionship, and medical bills.
  • Notifying any insurance company of our representation of you; and
  • Working with experts to establish liability.

Our goal is to make this as easy as possible for you, so that you can focus on being with your loved ones and beginning the grieving and healing process.

What is a Statue of Limitations?

The statute of limitations is the time limit within which someone with a valid claim has to file a lawsuit. Like all claims, wrongful death lawsuits are subject to a statute of limitations. If your wrongful death action is not filed in the proper court before the applicable statute of limitations expires, you risk permanently waiving your right to any compensation. The specific statute of limitations time period differs depending on which state the claim would need to be filed in (which is likely the state where the death was caused and occurred).Please contact us to confirm the statue of limitations for your wrongful death case. Otherwise, you may be risking your entire case.

How is your firm Different? Why should I hire you?

This law firm is different.

We are different because we take a personal interest in your case. We care about you. We started this law firm to make a difference in our clients’ lives, and we live by that guiding principle every day.

We are different because we return your phone calls, and we do so promptly. We are different because we call you. We stay in constant communication with you throughout ourjourney together.

We are different because of our backgrounds. We are not your typical personal injury lawyer. We have worked at big law firms and for big companies and we bring this experience to your case.

Contact Us

During this time of tragedy, we are here to help you. If you lost a loved one to wrongful death, please contact our law firm right now for a free consultation at 877.LAW.3707.