How a Wrongful Death Claim Works

Wrongful death claims are brought against a defendant who’s caused someone’s death, often by negligence or associated with some intentional action or other misconduct. A wrongful death claim enables those closely related to a deceased individual to file a case against the party who is lawfully liable for the fatality.

Even though every state’s wrongful death laws are different, these types of lawsuits are generally handled by a wrongful death attorney hired by the surviving family members afflicted from the loss of their loved one.

When Is This Type of Claim Appropriate?

A wrongful death claim may come up in a scenario where a victim who would – if still alive – have a valid personal injury claim, and dies as a consequence of the defendant’s wrongful action.

This type of claim can result from a wide range of circumstances or scenarios, including (but not limited to):

-When a victim is intentionally killed;
-Civil rights violations, like police shootings, restraint asphyxia, and jail deaths;

-When a victim dies as a result of professional malpractice;
-Car accident fatalities involving negligence;

-other wrongdoing.

A wrongful death claim can stem from almost any kind of personal injury situation. However, one notable exception may exist for work injuries that result in death, which generally must be handled exclusively through the worker’s compensation system.

What Must Be Proven?

The lawyer working on the case must present the same claims with the same burden of proof the victim would have if he or she had lived to file the lawsuit.

Using negligence as an example, this means showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant owed the victim a duty of care, that the defendant breached this duty, the breach of duty was a direct and proximate cause of the death, and that the death caused the damages that the plaintiff is trying to recover.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim?

Representatives of the estate of the deceased victim, or in California certain close family members, are the ones who usually file the wrongful death claim. Which survivors are permitted to bring a wrongful death claim can change from state to state.

For example, only certain people are allowed to file a wrongful death lawsuit in California. Only the following can bring a wrongful death claim, according to the relevant statute:

-The victim’s surviving spouse;
-The victim’s domestic partner;
-The victim’s surviving children;

-the decedent’s parents and other children living with the decedent under certain circumstances;
-Anyone “who would be entitled to the property of the decedent by intestate succession”; that can include the deceased person’s parents or the deceased person’s siblings if there are not closer relatives.

The following parties can also bring a wrongful death lawsuit If they can show they were financially dependent on the deceased victim:

-“Putative spouse” and children of the putative spouse
-Stepchildren
-The deceased person’s parents

Wrongful Death Damages

Damages available in a wrongful death case can vary from state to state.  In California, those damages can include:

-The deceased person’s pre-death “pain and suffering” (this called a “survival” claim, typically brought with a wrongful death claim by the decedent’s closest heirs);
-The medical expenses that the deceased victim incurred as a result of the injury before death;
-Funeral and burial costs;
-Loss of the deceased person’s expected income and support to each claimant;
-Value of the services that the deceased would have provided;
-Loss of care, guidance, and nurturing that the deceased would have provided;
-Loss of love and companionship; and
-Loss of consortium (intimate relations).

In a federal civil rights wrongful death claim brought in California, certain survivors of the decedent may also be able to receive damages for the decedent’s “loss of life” — the intangible value of a human life.  A lawyer who specializes in both wrongful death and civil rights may be able to advise you more about such a claim.

The civil rights attorneys at Haddad & Sherwin LLP have a long track record of winning wrongful death cases with results that include large settlements and verdicts for their clients, groundbreaking legal rulings, and important reforms to prevent future harms. At this time, Haddad & Sherwin LLP only handles wrongful death cases in California.