Personal Injury - Wrongful Death

Practice Areas

Criminal Defense | Personal Injury | Family Law | Miscellaneous

Wrongful Death

When someone is killed by the wrongful conduct (negligence) of another it is called a wrongful death. This is the most tragic of cases. Our lawyers understand your suffering and grief having experienced this tragedy first hand. Some of our lawyers have lost family members and loved ones in serious personal injuries. We have been on both sides, as clients, and attorneys, and seek to help you through the legal aspects of life’s greatest loss. When someone dies as a result of negligence, such as a car accident or motorcycle accident, the law provides that their next of kin and their estate may act as plaintiffs to bring a civil action to recover economic and non-economic damages. This is true even if the deceased was partially at fault (comparatively at fault) in the events leading to the fatality.

The people who are considered next of kin include family members such as a husband, wife, domestic partner, children, parents, or siblings, in that order. If a parent dies, the surviving spouse/partner and children may all be plaintiffs as well as any one else who was receiving financial assistance from the decedent at or prior to his/her death who was likely to receive support if the decedent had lived. A wrongful death plaintiff may recover funeral and burial expenses, loss of income from the decedent, medical expenses prior to death, loss of household support, loss of child rearing support, loss of medical and retirement benefits and other economic losses sustained by the death of a loved one as well as non-economic dames such as mental anguish and suffering.

A surviving spouse or partner, having lost their life companion, also has a separate right to recover damages for the terrible injury to the couple’s relationship. This is called a loss of consortium . The surviving spouse/partner’s loss is recognized as a separate legal injury and provides separate damages.

You must act promptly after someone dies if you believe that they have died because of someone’s negligence. There are time limits for you to act called statutes of limitations which require you to bring a lawsuit within a limited period or you may loose the right to seek a recovery. These statutes of limitations balance the competing interests of plaintiffs and defendants so as to provide the plaintiff time to investigate and find an attorney while giving a defendant some assurance that after a period of time, if no action has been brought, they will not be sued. These statutes of limitations can be as short as six months (if a governmental agency caused the harm.) The time you have to act depends on who caused the death, how it occurred, and where this death took place (different states have different statutes of limitations). You should contact us immediately after an injury or death so as to protect your rights.

We at Shwarz & Associates seek to help you pick up the pieces and to minimize the impact that such a tragedy has on a family. We care for your legal needs so you can begin the healing process and take care of those left behind. Contact us today for knowledgeable representation.