Death is a hard subject to broach for many people. It is no doubt true that death is hard, but it is even harder when the death is premature. Sometimes premature deaths can occur due to illnesses and diseases and sometimes they can occur due to the fault of a person or entity. When such an action takes place the surviving family members can initiate a lawsuit seeking compensation for the loss. However, such manners can be extremely confusing and this in combination with your current emotional state is only going to make matters worse. This is why it is important to completely understand everything you can about these types of lawsuits.
Understand The Wrongful Death Claim
When an individual or a group of individuals die due to the faults of a person or a company the surviving family members have the legal right to file a wrongful death claim. For instance, if your family member dies in a vehicle accident due to faulty brakes that were recalled by the vehicle’s manufacturer, you have the right to file one of these suits. If your family member dies because a doctor overlooked a critical diagnosis or administered the wrong medication, you also have the legal right to file one of these claims. This is a fairly new concept, as “Common Law” did not allow this kind of suit in the past.
Proving Your Case
Once you have decided that you are going to file a wrongful death lawsuit it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are automatically going to win the case. In fact, most of the time the accused parties dispute these cases. When these types of cases go to litigation they can become extremely emotional, long, and drawn out. Most of the time in order for the surviving family members to successfully win the claim they are going to need to prove two things. First, they are going to need to prove that the death of their loved one was not caused by their own actions. The death must be proven to be at the hands of the accused party or parties. Secondly, the surviving family will have to prove that they have suffered enormous amounts of damage due to this death. Providing such proof can be hard for the regular individual and will probably require the assistance of a personal injury lawyer in Burlingame, CA.
How To File The Claim
Not just anyone can file a wrongful death claim. For instance, if your friend dies at the hands of a vehicle manufacturer or doctor, you cannot legally make the claim. In order to legally make the claim, it will have to come from a representative of the estate of the deceased victim. For instance, the claim will have to come for a spouse or family member. Parents can also make claims if their child is involved in wrongful death. Keep in mind that there are some irregularities when it comes to different states and this is something that your lawyer can help you out with, but in some states, it might not be justifiable for an adult child to make a wrongful death claim for one of his or her parents. Sometimes even distant relatives like aunts, uncles, or cousins are not legally granted the right to file such a claim.
