Wrongful Death
Wrongful Death as the name implies, is a death that should never have occurred, but did in fact occur, due to the negligence or wrongful act of another person or entity.
When someone wrongfully causes the death of a loved one, there are state statutes in place that allow for a surviving spouse, the children, or other relatives of the deceased, to bring a civil action to recover damages against the person or entity that wrongfully caused the death of their loved one.
Negligence that gives rise to a wrongful death can come in many forms, below is a listing of just a few brief examples:
Motor vehicle collisions were the negligent acts of another person resulted in the death of your loved one.
Negligent product design or negligently manufactured products, that caused the death of your loved one. Some examples are: power tools, power equipment, warehouse equipment, construction and excavation machinery, and everyday home and business products, etc…
On the job, or other workplace accidents that lead to the death of your loved one.
Slip and Fall and other premises liability type accidents and personal injury where either the walking surfaces were not property maintained or were in some way defective or damaged which caused the slip, fall, and death of your loved one.
Intentional bad acts like assaults, battery, and other wrongful touching or contact and other criminal acts that lead to the death of your loved one.
Deaths caused by drunk drivers or drivers under the influence of drugs at the time of the collision.
Negligent nursing home or adult home care, or elder abuse that leads to, or is the direct caue of, the death of your loved one.
Similar to other types of personal injury litigation, surviving family members can recover a wide range of monetary damages in wrongful death cases such as:
Economic Damages: Also know as “Special Damages” examples are the descendant’s medical expenses, cost of nursing care, funeral costs and expenses, lost income from lost work and lost future income, and property loss, the loss to the family of the descendant’s lost future income, and other support from the employment of the decendant, or income from a private business endeavor of the descendant, just to name just a few examples.
Non-Economic Damages: The pain and suffering caused to the descendant from the time of the injury, to the moment of death. The pain and suffering caused to the family of the decendant, following the death of the decendant. The loss of the care, comfort, support and affection that is suffered by the surviving family of the decedant following the death of the decedent.
Punitive Damages: Punitive damages are awarded for willful and wanton, extreme or outrageous behavior that leads to the death of another person. Courts award punitive damages to punish this kind of behaviour from individuals and other entities and also to deter this kind of behavior from individuals and other entities.
Punitive damages are reserved for the kind of behavior that would shock the conscious, some examples of this are:
Intentional killings like manslaughter, and murder
Patterns of abuse, abandonment, neglect, negligent monitoring or custodianship conserning your loved one when they are in the care of another person or entity that leads to the death, or causes the permature death of your loved one.
Criminal activity or criminal actions that result in, or cause the death of, your loved one.
Medical malpractice that leads to, or causes the death of your loved one.
Wrongful death cases require a legal team to throughly investigate the claim, gather facts and evidence, and records in support of the litigation, but most importantly, a great legal team will understand that the loss of a person is an irreplacible loss that cannot ever really be fully made whole again. Families are irrepairably effected, lives are changed, and the survivors and those left behind will never fully be the same again.
Situations like these demand a caring legal team who can look beyond the mechanics of legal practice, and understand the real emotional affects of the loss of a family member can have on the surviving family who must now continue on without their loved one, a loss made worse, especially when considering the fact that, their loved one did not have to die and that their lives ended unjustifibly prematurely
If you are suffering and coping with the loss of a loved one who died through the negligence or intentional bad acts of another person, call Accident Injury Attorneys today and schedule your free wrongful death consultation with our firm.
