How Is The Amount Of Damages In A Wrongful Death Case Determined?
Tragically, when a loved one dies due to the negligence or misconduct of someone else, the pain and suffering for the family may just be beginning. However, the law allows family members to engage a lawyer and file a wrongful death lawsuit to receive compensation in the form of a wrongful death claim. While a civil wrongful death lawsuit cannot result in criminal punishment for the person liable in the claim, a lawyer can help the family members collect financial damages in a lawsuit. The damages a awarded to family in a wrongful death lawsuit vary according to a number of conditions. If your lawyer wins financial damages for the estate of the decedent in your lawsuit, the courts will then distribute the claim award according to the terms of the decedent’s will.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim?
A wrongful death claim can only be filed by the personal representative of the decedent’s estate, who will be appointed by the court if they are not named in the will. The personal representative should consult a wrongful death lawyer if they believe they have grounds for filing a wrongful death lawsuit. A lawsuit can be filed when the surviving family members believe there may have been medical malpractice, an auto or airplane accident, a job-related accident due to the employer’s negligence, criminal activities, or death while participating in a supervised activity.
Calculating Wrongful Death Lawsuit Damages
If you decide that a wrongful death lawsuit is warranted, you and your wrongful death lawyer must calculate reasonable and fair damage requests in your wrongful death claim. If the decedent was an adult, the damages in your wrongful death lawsuit should reflect the decedent’s:
- Age and life expectancy
- Earning capacity
- Health and intelligence
- Family members, their needs and their losses
- Medical and funeral expenses
- Interest from the date of the decedent's death
If the decedent in your claim was a stay-at-home wife and mother, a child, or an elderly person, your legal team will often want to call expert witnesses to calculate the impact of the loss of that person to the family in the wrongful death claim. For a stay-at-home wife and mother, the argument will be for a wrongful death claim covering the increased expenditures of the family in caring for the home and training the children. In a wrongful death lawsuit for a child, the family will rarely be awarded a large claim because it is difficult to speculate how much the death of the child will cost the family. However, your wrongful death lawyer will call expert witnesses during the wrongful death lawsuit to speculate about the care that a child might have provided their parents in old age, among other things when calculating damages in a wrongful death claim.
If you seek to file a wrongful death claim for an unborn child, you should consult a wrongful death lawyer to learn your state laws. Some states do not consider a fetus eligible for wrongful death claims, while some do allow wrongful death lawsuits for unborn children.
Legal Parameters of Wrongful Death Lawsuits
Learn your state laws concerning wrongful death lawsuits as soon as you consider one. If you and your lawyer determine that your circumstances warrant a valid legal claim, be sure your lawyer determines the statute of limitations in your state for filing a wrongful death claim. In most states, the statute of limitations for a wrongful death lawsuit begins with “discovery,” or the time you and your personal injury lawyer realize there might be grounds for a wrongful death claim.