The author looks at the surviving family members entitled to damages when they’ve lost a loved one and the specialized damages available in settlements of wrongful death accident cases. With larger damages in wrongful death cases and more reason to look for other causes, attorneys and clients need to be aware they may have as little as six months to file a claim in a government entity is partly to blame for the accident.
A wrongful death is the death involving one’s loved one that occurs as a result of the negligent, intentional or reckless conduct of another. When a loved one loses their life in a car accident, for example, the death is often caused by the negligence of the other driver as proved by the circumstances of the accident, the evidence and the testimony of the investigating officers.
When a death occurs as a result of the action of another, the surviving family members can receive compensation for their loss. Such family members are normally the spouse and children of the decedent, but they can also include, when such family members don’t exist or also don’t survive the accident, the dome
stic partner, a putative spouse, the issue of deceased children, stepchildren, parents and others.
Anyone who has gone through the pain of losing a loved one in a wrongful death accident will likely tell you the importance of hiring an attorney to represent your interests if you are a surviving family member. It matters more than you think who you call for your wrongful death case. It also matters more than you think that you hire an attorney who specializes in wrongful death cases.
The damages a surviving family member is entitled to are different in a wrongful death case from a typical accident case involving just injuries. In a wrongful death case, a lawyer can obtain damages that include funeral and burial costs, the costs of medical treatment provided prior to the decedent’s death, damages for the loss of services the decedent would have provided, the loss of comfort, care, guidance, advice, companionship and loss of consortium, as well as for the pain and suffering and grief of the survivors. Such damages may even include the loss of goods that the decedent would have provided as well as the loss of a pension.
While in general one has two years to file a lawsuit in California for the death of another, the time may be as short as six months if a public or government entity is involved, which occurs more often than one would imagine.
Don’t let your rights slip away by not understanding how different a wrongful death case is from a case simply involving injuries. More than once when other law firms haven’t even been interested in a wrongful death case, we’ve had extraordinary results. Not every case is a big one, but it takes an experienced attorney to recognize a good one.
