How To Prove Wrongful Death

Wrongful death is when someone dies due to another party’s negligence or intentional actions. The party responsible may be another person or company. Wrongful death claims are civil lawsuits, brought by the deceased person’s surviving family members or estate, against the party responsible for the death.

In a wrongful death lawsuit, the family members can recover compensation for losses caused by the untimely death. For legal advice after the death of your loved one caused by negligence, talk to an experienced wrongful death attorney.

What Are Wrongful Death Claims?

Wrongful death cases are separate from criminal cases. Criminal cases punish the person responsible for another’s death; civil lawsuits financially compensate surviving family members. You can pursue a claim with or without criminal charges.

“People often don’t realize that they can pursue a wrongful death claim following an accident, and often don’t know all of the circumstances surrounding what happened to their loved one,” says Matthew Bretz, a personal injury attorney at law firm Bretz Injury Law in Hutchinson, Kansas. “Also, many people don’t realize that most wrongful death claims can be settled without a lawsuit and without a trial.”

“There are a lot of nuances and regulations and rules to follow in wrongful death and survival actions, making it imperative to get a lawyer who’s familiar with personal injury law involved,” adds Jason M. Lichtenstein, a personal injury lawyer at Edgar Snyder & Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

What Causes Wrongful Death?

There are various causes of wrongful death accidents. Common causes include:

• Vehicle accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Birth injuries
• Nursing home abuse or neglect
• Defective products
• Workplace accidents and occupational hazards
• Intentional killing

Regardless of the underlying cause of death, plaintiffs in a wrongful death case must show the death resulted from the responsible party’s negligent actions.

What Are Wrongful Death Laws?

Every state has a wrongful death statute that sets the legal requirements of wrongful death, including:

• Who can sue on behalf of the deceased
• How long a personal representative has to sue (statute of limitations)
• What has to be proven in a wrongful death case
• The plaintiff’s burden of proof
• What damages are available for surviving spouses or others bringing a suit

Wrongful death statutes generally apply the same legal rules for negligence and liability that would apply in a personal injury case. The primary difference is that the victim is not alive to file a personal injury claim.

How Is Wrongful Death Proven?

Despite variations in state laws, the general elements of wrongful death are:

• A person died
• The death was caused by another party’s negligence or intentional actions
• The death resulted in damages or financial losses for the deceased person’s surviving family members

For example, if a person is killed in a car accident, you can show negligence when the at-fault party violated traffic laws like speeding or drunk driving. Alternatively, if a person was killed in a criminal attack at an apartment building, negligence could be the landlord’s failure to provide adequate security.

“Having litigated wrongful death claims for almost 30 years in multiple different states — and even internationally — we have learned that we have to get to the root cause of an accident or injury,” says Bretz, who notes that this will make the negligence claims far more compelling.

“When someone is hit by a drunk driver, the easy claim is against the drunk driver. But there may also be claims against the bar where the driver was over-served. When someone is hit by a semi driver who falls asleep at the wheel, the easy claim is against the driver. But there may be even better claims against the trucking company.”

The Elements of Negligence

As in any personal injury claim, to prove someone was negligent in wrongful death, four elements include:

• Duty of Care. The person responsible for the other person’s death had a duty to act with reasonable care. Expectations about what conduct is reasonable or expected vary from one context to another. For example, everyone must drive safely when operating their car. Medical providers must act according to medical guidelines in their role as physicians.
• Breach of duty. The person failed to exercise reasonable care in their actions. For example, someone drove recklessly or didn’t operate machinery in accordance with safety guidelines. In other cases, maybe a product was designed or manufactured in a shoddy way, and the faulty product caused injury or death.
• Causation. The person’s failure to exercise reasonable care is what caused the other person’s death.
• Damages. The person’s negligence resulted in actual injuries or losses for the victim (in this case, the loved one’s death).

What Is the Burden of Proof in a Wrongful Death Case?

In a civil case for wrongful death, the burden of proof is a “preponderance of the evidence.” It basically requires a judge or jury to be more than fifty percent sure based on the evidence presented. In other words, it’s more likely than not that the defendant’s negligence caused the decedent’s death.

Ultimately, every wrongful death claim relies on a foundation of supporting evidence. Evidence to support a wrongful death claim may include car accident reports, medical records, witness statements, and expert witness reports.

Wrongful Death Damages

Wrongful death damages are the compensation that survivors can get for the death of their loved one. Economic and non-economic damages can include various losses, including:

• Loss of income
• Medical bills
• Funeral expenses
• Burial costs
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of financial support
• Pain and suffering

Unfortunately for victims and their family members, some states place a cap on non-economic damages. Of the non-economic cap, Bretz says: “I had a sister who was killed when she was just 16. At that time, the cap for killing a young girl was just $100,000. It was outrageous and offensive. At that time, it was worse to kill a registered bull than to kill a 16-year-old girl. The public should realize that caps just protect people who cause injuries and their insurance companies, to the detriment of innocent victims.”

The damages you can get in a wrongful death action depend on various factors, including your state’s laws and the specific facts of your case.

Find a Wrongful Death Lawyer

If you are considering a wrongful death lawsuit for the death of a loved one, talk to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. Visit the Super Lawyers directory to find an experienced wrongful death lawyer.