Wrongful Death

Serious injuries deserve experienced attorneys

Dealing with the death of a loved one is always hard, but it is even harder when the death shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Wrongful deaths happen far more frequently than we may want to realize. In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of people die each year from wrongful deaths and many do not even make it to court. Although nobody ever wants to be in the situation of dealing with a wrongful death, it is important to know what to do in trying times like these. If you or someone you know believes they have suffered from a wrongful death in their family, you may benefit from reaching out to a professional law firm, such as Cohen & Cohen, who have served Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, and the surrounding areas successfully for years.

What is a wrongful death?

A lot of people get confused in regards to what qualifies as a wrongful death. In an overwhelmingly sad time, it is hard to distinguish whether or not your loved one passed because of somebody else. While every single case is different, there are a few common threads throughout all wrongful death cases. Legally speaking, in order to have grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit, your loved one must have died as a direct result of somebody else’s negligence, misconduct or — less commonly — somebody else’s deliberate intention to cause harm. This, by itself, can still be a little confusing. Some of the most common examples of a wrongful death case include (but are not limited to):

• Car, motorcycle, and aviation accidents
• Accidents at the workplace (such as construction accidents)
• Medical malpractice
• Surgical injuries
• Faulty products (such as poisoned food)
• Criminal activity

No matter what the type of wrongful death case, the outcome is always the same: the loss of a loved one.

What are wrongful death damages?

In any wrongful death case, you may be eligible for wrongful death damages, which is usually a monetary compensation for your loss. These damages can include covering the loss of an income support, any medical expenses from the time of the accident to the death of a loved one, and even funeral expenses. Damages also cover the potential damage the death will have on the next of kin, or other family members. Wrongful death damages can wrack up upwards of hundreds of millions, depending on the case, so it’s important not to wait until it’s too late.

How can a lawyer help?

As you mourn the life of a lost loved one, you shouldn’t have to be thinking about mounting financial burdens their death may cause you and you shouldn’t be dealing with complicated legal paperwork. By hiring professional legal counsel, you are hiring an expert to help the process go smoothly and as quickly as possible. A skilled wrongful death death attorney will fight for your compensation for the damages you suffered as well.

If you any of the above conditions apply to you, do not hesitate to contact Cohen & Cohen, and we will happily set you up with a skilled attorney on our team who can help you.

If you lost a family member and believe it was the result of a wrongful death, you should seek the legal advice of the Washington DC wrongful death law firm right away. The loss of a loved one is difficult for anyone to handle, but that loss can become more difficult when a loved one is taken away unexpectedly as the result of another person’s negligent act. Wrongful death is the term associate with the taking of an individual’s life as the result of the willful or negligent act of another person or persons.

Wrongful death can be the result of various negligent acts. Some of the most common causes of wrongful death are the result of unintentional injuries and include motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall accidents, workplace accidents, unintentional poisoning, faulty products and drowning. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control in 2010 found that approximately 120,000 people died as the result of an unintentional accident or injury, making it the 5th leading cause of death in the United States. Motor vehicle accidents, including car, truck and motorcycle accidents, result in the highest number of wrongful deaths by unintentional injuries, followed by unintentional poisoning and unintentional falls. If you know someone who has recently been the victim of one of these accidents, turn to the Washington DC injury lawyers locals trust.

Medical malpractice is another common cause of wrongful death. In fact, medical malpractice follows unintentional injury as the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, attributing to approximately 98,000 deaths each year. Other causes of wrongful death claims are considered intentional, or criminal, and include violent acts such as homicide.

The statute of limitations, as well as the individual(s) entitled to sue and receive compensation for wrongful death varies from state to state. To see if you are eligible to sue and/or receive compensation for the wrongful death of a family member, you should contact a wrongful death attorney right away.

No amount of money can heal the grief of losing someone you care about, nor can it replace a person. To even ask how much the life of a parent, a sibling, or a child is “worth” seems sordid and disrespectful, but in the vast majority of cases, money is the only tool the law has for compensating people for the wrongful death of a family member. The attorneys at Cohen & Cohen understand that. We have decades of experience representing the families of victims who have been killed through the negligence or recklessness of others, and take pride in bringing our skill, our passion, and our compassion to these difficult cases to maximize the recovery for families. If you live in Washington, D.C., Maryland or Northern Virginia, and have lost someone you love due to the wrongful acts of another, call us today for a free consultation on your case.

Wrongful Death Claim

Different jurisdictions have different rules, but, in general, a wrongful death claim can be brought by a surviving spouse, children, and parents of a deceased person. A wrongful death claim compensates family members for the losses they experienced because of the death of their loved one. It does not matter whether the “wrongful” act was done on purpose or by accident, as long as it is the kind of act that would have allowed the deceased person to sue for his or her personal injuries if the person had lived. The wrongful death claim belongs to the family members.

If a wrongful death claim is successful, the family members may be able to recover monetary damages. The amount and type of damages vary but may include things like loss of companionship, grief, and loss of financial support. The funds are distributed in accordance with the deceased person’s will. If the deceased person died without a will, the funds are distributed according to the applicable state law.

Survival Claim

If the victim of the wrongdoing had survived, he or she would have had a claim for personal injuries. The victim’s claim for personal injuries is not extinguished by his or her death. Instead, the claim survives in favor of the estate, heirs, and legal representatives of the deceased. Survival actions usually accompany wrongful death claims.

A wrongful death claim compensates the family of the deceased for the injuries the family has suffered. On the other hand, a survival action compensates representatives of the victim for the suffering of the victim him or herself. When a person dies because of someone else’s mistake, the claim that he or she would have had is called a survival claim because the claim survives the death of the claimant. The thinking is that the wrongdoer would have been liable to the injured person. If he or she had survived, the injured person would have had a negligence claim against the wrongdoer. After his or her death, the claim can be brought on his or her behalf by surviving family members.

Usually, a spouse, parent, or child is named the personal representative for the estate of the deceased person. The representative then sues on behalf of the deceased person. If the suit is successful, the representative of the deceased person will be entitled to monetary damages to compensate him or her for the defendant’s wrongful act. The amount to which he or she is entitled depends on the circumstances of the person’s death and the extent of the wrongdoing. Those damages often include items like past medical bills, pain, suffering, and lost wages.

Remember, wrongful death claims and survival claims vary from state to state, so make sure to contact a lawyer to fully understand your rights.