Just How Common Are Wrongful Death Settlements?

A Riverside personal injury lawyer who has a proven track record in dealing with wrongful death settlements explains that there are over 400,000 recorded instances of wrongful death in the US each and every year. If you break this figure down, it's a little over 1095 fatalities every single day. There are in fact many different circumstances in which a wrongful death can occur, and because of this there are also many different reasons why a family of a victim can sue the negligent party for compensation and damages. As a result wrongful death settlements are indeed commonplace.

The facts and figures

The most common causes of wrongful death due to the negligence of others are (rather alarmingly) medical malpractice with an average of over 225,000 (according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). These include negative medications, contracted infections whilst in hospital, surgical malpractice and incorrect diagnosis. Vehicle related accidents accounted for just under 34,000 deaths including SUV roll over incidents, and workplace fatalities accounted for a little over 4,500 with the highest number coming in the construction industry.

Wrongful death claim versus a standard personal injury claim

Although it is fair to say that wrongful death claims are reasonably commonplace they are handled differently from any other type of injury claim and for this reason you need to seek out the services of a personal injury lawyer Riverside who is adept at handling wrongful death settlements. Firstly and rather obviously the claim cannot be made by the injured party because they are no longer with us. This means that claims for medical expenses, loss of wages, and ongoing rehabilitation don't apply in this case. Instead compensation is aimed towards the family of the victim and can include coverage of funeral expenses and burial costs, loss of companionship, loss of family unit, loss of any future income that the victim may have brought into the household, loss of inheritance entitlement, stress, anguish and indeed grievance caused by the death of the family member, and finally any punitive damages sought from the negligent party.

Even though compensation can be understandably plentiful and can easily run into the tens of millions of dollars, there is still an onus of proof that is placed upon the lawyer of the surviving family members to find out exactly where the negligence lies. Not only this, they must also prove that the negligent party's actions (or lack of) were the cause of the victim's death Without being able to pinpoint what happened and ultimately who or what was responsible, then the family has no case. In order to do this a skilled team of Riverside County personal injury attorneys will have the financial backing to be able to call upon the services of an army of independent experts who can help. People such as accident investigators, safety and health advisers, specialist machinery engineers, medical experts and even forensic scientists can all be asked to investigate the claim. From their specialist findings an attorney can the build a case.

So who can file a claim?

Although it does differ slightly from state to state claims are generally sought in this order...

• Surviving family members including spouse and children of the deceased
• Adopted children of the victim

If there are no immediate family members then the following apply in this order:

• Victim's parents
• Siblings of the deceased (brothers and sisters)
• Nephews and nieces
• Grand parents
• Grand children/great children
• Any other family descendant who is not covered above

These laws have to be adhered to closely and a wrongful death claim could be jeopardized if in the wrong order. On top of this most states apply a statute of limitations. This is a time frame limit in which a wrongful death claim is allowed to be filed. It can be anything from 2-5 years depending upon where you reside, or indeed which county you are making the claim in.

As you can see a wrongful death claim can be quite a complex process but one in which a skilled Riverside personal injury attorney is very used to dealing with. The right firm of attorneys will be able to maximize damages in order to deliver the full and fair compensation that you deserve.