Wrongful Death Awards: What's Involved in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

Wrongful death awards can be quite high for obvious reasons. How can you put a dollar amount on a human life? In theory, a wrongful death lawsuit doesn't work much differently than any other personal injury lawsuit. The only big difference here is that the stakes go up considerably.

When suing or seeking a settlement for wrongful death, you'll find yourself or your wrongful death personal injury attorney going through the same basic steps.

You've got to be able to identify the cause of death, show that it occurred because of someone else's negligence, and then demonstrate that they are liable. If this occurs then they're responsible for paying a wrongful death settlement, just as they would've been in a personal injury case.

The idea of wrongful death awards is relatively new. In the past there was no means of getting compensation for anything further than personal injury. If the injured person died, then the law assumed there was no one left to compensate for the injury.

This made sense from a legal point of view for a very long time. When the law viewed the deceased as the only victim, damages couldn't be awarded to anyone. As for protecting people from being killed, there was criminal law.

Obviously there were a number of problems with that view...

First, in the eyes of the defendant, it almost made it more favorable for an accident victim to die.

Second, a lot of deaths happen as a result of things not punishable by criminal law. This leaves no legal deterrent against certain actions.

Third, there are almost always more victims than just the deceased.

Wrongful death awards are given because the family of the victim experiences large damages, usually larger than those in a personal injury case. The obvious damages are direct monetary losses such as funeral costs. Believe it or not, funeral costs usually total more than the average medical bill in a personal injury case.

On top of that, there's an incredible amount of pain and suffering. The punitive damages asked for in wrongful death awards can be staggering.

Then there's loss of income. While an injured person loses a few days, weeks or months of work, the wrongful death victim loses a lifetime. If their income was a key part of the family's survival, then that's a lot of money to cover. Because of these types of factors wrongful death awards will often be far more for a younger person than an older person.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to file a wrongful death claim without consulting a wrongful death personal injury attorney.

In certain situations an insurance company will know they're in trouble and, in turn, throw a large amount of money at you. Don't accept it.

Consult with a wrongful death personal injury attorney and do the math. Is their offer fair? Probably not. Can you get more if you file a wrongful death lawsuit? If the answer is yes, then you'll almost always want to hire the lawyer to work the case for you.

Like the more complicated personal injury cases, this is a situation in which you'll need expert legal help. There are too many factors and calculations to make and the stakes are far too high to trust the case to your own inexperience. You must hire a good lawyer to get the absolute best wrongful death award you can.