How a Wrongful Death Lawsuit Works
Did you know that more than 190,000 people die every year as a result of a wrongful death?
While the sudden loss of a loved one is devastating, the negative effects that your family suffers from after loss can be lessened with monetary help. There’s a specific area of legal practice that allows the families of someone who has died as a result of wrongful or negligent death to recover the quantified monetary value of a person’s life.
What is a wrongful death lawsuit? How does a wrongful death lawsuit work?
Today, we’ve created a complete guide to help you better understand have a wrongful death lawsuit works. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
A wrongful death lawsuit is a type of lawsuit that the surviving family members create after their loved one has died.
A death must be caused by the result of accident, intentional homicide, medical malpractice, injury, or negligence to be considered a wrongful death.
There’s no way you can quantify an economic value the loss of a loved one, but your family has been left financially vulnerable after a loved one passed away. Paying for the funeral costs, any medical bills, and having to support the rest of your family without your loved ones could be exceedingly tricky.
This is why many families choose to file a wrongful death lawsuit to seek monetary coverage after the loss of a loved one.
Common Causes of a Wrongful Death
There are a variety of causes that can be involved with a wrongful death lawsuit. Some of these causes include:
- Birth accidents
- Product defects
- Truck, motorcycle, or automobile accidents
- Accidents that occur on-premises
- Stabbings, blatant violence, or shootings
- Supervised activities such as daycare or adult care
- Nursing home abuse or neglect
- Occupational exposure or occupational hazards
The executor of the deceased loved one’s estate is the person who can file a wrongful death lawsuit. You should be aware of the beneficiaries’ independence of the deceased loved ones, so make sure that you’re up-to-date on your state’s laws.
What You Can Recover in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit
It’s very challenging to put a monetary value on the life of a loved one. When deciding how much you want to include in your wrongful death lawsuit, you have to balance several factors around the details of the death.
Information such as the overall health of your loved one, as well as their age when they died, will be relevant factors that help you to decide the monetary value that you included in a wrongful death lawsuit. You should also be aware of their capacity to support you and any children they had.
Other deciding factors will include had the accident happened, what type of injury that caused the death of a loved one, and if there were any significant medical bills that your family had to endure after your loved one died.
Economic damages such as will be part of the amount you’re able to recover in a wrongful death lawsuit:
- Medical bills
- Burial expenses
- Funeral expenses
- The loss of income of your loved one
However, not all damages are closely related to an economic value. There are some states that allow you to recover non-economic damages, such as:
- The suffering and pain of your loved one before the died
- Emotional distress
- The loss of your family’s care and comfort
- Lost inheritance
- The services that your loved one would have provided if they were alive
When you’ve lost a loved one as a result of wrongful death, you must understand the statues of limitation that are specific to where you live. Understanding your legal rights will help you to better prepare for a wrongful death settlement.
What Must Be Proven in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
For a defendant to be held liable during a wrongful death lawsuit, the Wrongful Death Attorney in Albuquerque has to provide a burden of proof that the victim would have met if they were still alive.
In other words, this means that you’ll have to show the courts that the defendant that’s responsible for the death of your loved ones should have provided them with the duty of care and that they breached this.
Who Could Be Awarded Damages and a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
If you’re unsure what damages will be awarded to who during a wrongful death lawsuit, there are several factors that interact with the eligibility surrounding the relationship the deceased had with their family members. The damages from a wrongful death lawsuit can be awarded to spouses, parents, and children.
Spouses will be awarded the damages if they’ve lost their companionship and experience emotional trauma surrounding the death of their deceased spouse.
Minor children may be awarded damages as a result of the death of a parent. However, this award does not usually happen for adult children.
Parents will be awarded damages if a minor child has passed away due to the neglect or abuse caused by another person. However, a parent may not be awarded damages if the death is of an adult child.
Understanding How a Wrongful Death Lawsuit Works
The loss of a loved one in a tragic accident is a traumatic experience to suffer through. By understanding what is a wrongful death lawsuit and how it works, you’ll be better able to protect you and your family against any financial loss caused by the death of your loved one.
Are you interested in finding an attorney to fight for you in a wrongful death lawsuit? Click here to learn more.