The loss of your loved one can always affect you mentally and physically. It can even be worse when the loss is due to the negligence of someone else. While it’s impossible to bring the loved ones back to life, you can always take the right steps to ensure the party at fault is held responsible. The best option is to bring a wrongful death claim.
This is where a wrongful death attorney comes in handy because they can help you with the legal process. This type of legal action can seem simple, but proving that the other person is at fault can be quite hard, that is why it is advised to consult with a wrongful death lawyer. The good news is that a good lawyer knows the legal process and can assist you to get full compensation. This article discusses what you should know about a wrongful death attorney.
Understanding wrongful death
A wrongful death attorney refers to a type of lawyer who can represent you when you lose a loved one due to the wrongful or negligent acts of another party. In most cases, these lawyers have years of experience handling personal injury litigation. Thus, they can help protect your rights, get rightful compensation, and more.
When pursuing such claims, it’s important to work with professionals who specialize in areas related to your case. For instance, Frost Law Firm, PC handles complex personal injury and product liability cases, which can be crucial if a defective product contributed to the wrongful death.
A wrongful death suit is simply a civil action that the survivors or estate of the person who passed away bring due to negligent or intentional actions of someone else.
Every place has laws that govern issues of wrongful death. Some of them include a person who can bring a suit, the specific type of case one can file, and when to file a claim and damages associated with wrongful death suits. There are usually three parties eligible to bring a wrongful death claim against a party at fault, which are a child, spouse, or deceased parent.
The wrongful death application by the spouse is due to emotional trauma and the lost companionship. Children can get an award for the loss of their deceased parent. The parents can only get damages for the lost relationship and emotional trauma if their child was a minor.
Not all states agree that parents of adult children or adult children cannot file wrongful death lawsuits. That said, the more distant the family relationship is, the harder it can be to get a legal address against wrongful death. Due to the different laws in each state, it is important to hire a local attorney with expertise in your area. For example, Scranton Law Firm are experienced in wrongful death lawsuits in California and can therefore offer the appropriate guidance for that state.
The wrongful death suit damages are categorized as financial and non-financial damages. The financial damages can assist you to pay for any losses incurred from negligent actions like medical bills, funeral expenses, and many more. On the other hand, non-financial damages cover the losses that are quite hard to quantify, like loss of a benefit to a relationship with the person who dies.
However, before you can get these damages, there is a need to prove that some of your arguments are true. Therefore, the burden of proving the case elements lies on you, so you need to meet the burden of proof just like the deceased was alive.
There is a duty of care where you need to demonstrate that the party at fault had a duty of care to the deceased. For instance, when it’s a wrongful death case that happens due to a vehicle accident, you must show that the party at fault had the responsibility of driving carefully and obeying the road’s rules.
Once you can prove duty of care, then you need to show that the party at fault breached the duty of care to the deceased. So in car accident cases, you have to prove that the party at fault failed to follow the relevant traffic laws.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to prove breach of care duty. You must also connect between the damage caused and that breach. Hence, you need to prove that it was the party at fault’s actions that led to the wrongful death.
The importance of hiring a wrongful death lawyer
Regardless of whether or not you succeed in learning about proving the wrongful death suit, you still need to search for a wrongful death lawyer Sacramento (or in whichever city you live) to hire and be at your side. This is because the wrongful death attorney will have handled countless cases similar to yours, and are well versed and experienced in the matter.
So they tend to understand what to look for when it comes to evaluating case strategy options. Because they deal with many wrongful death clients, the attorney can know the legal elements surrounding your case even better than you can.
By nature, insurance companies want to pay little compensation to protect their profit margins. They can employ a couple of lawyers to fight wrongful death lawsuits, so hiring a competent attorney to protect your rights can counter their legal efforts to overcome you.
The good thing is that a wrongful death attorney with many years of experience can know how to play this game. Therefore, your lawyer can use this insight against the insurance company. Also, this lawyer can have goodwill in their industry to assist them to get more essential assistance to help your case in ways you can never do yourself.
Wrongful death cases can sometimes take too long to complete. Even worse, there is a lot of paperwork, so you need to have plenty of time to do it yourself. This is the reason why it makes sense to hire an attorney, especially if you don’t have enough time and resources to handle the case by yourself.
An attorney makes sure that you have someone on your side with the right skills and experience fighting on your behalf. As a result, you can deal with the case while performing other important duties and have peace of mind.
Best of all, it can sometimes be hard to value your claim, so you need an attorney who has experience handling similar cases to yours to value your claim for you. Using paralegals and associates, there is a good chance that your attorney can bring a detailed analysis of the situation you’re experiencing.
This can be quite useful when it comes to compensation so that you can receive what you deserve. Wrongful death lawsuits can also be hard for you because you may still be grieving your loved one. Hence, hire a wrongful death attorney to give you support and help during this difficult time.
