New York Wrongful Death Lawyers

NY Wrongful Death claim is designed to compensate a decedent’s survivors for economic losses. The essential elements of a Wrongful Death claim are:

• Death caused by the wrongful conduct of defendant. The burden of proving the defendant’s wrongful conduct is not as high as in cases where an injured plaintiff can himself describe the event. See Noseworthy v. City of New York, 298 N.Y. 76, 80, 80 N.E.2d 744.
• Survival by distributees who have suffered pecuniary loss by reason of the death. Unlike  a Survivorship claim, only distributees as defined by EPTL 4-1.1 can share in the proceeds of a wrongful death action. Wrongful death damages are designed to compensate distributees solely for their pecuniary injuries resulting from the death of the decedent and, therefore, are not considered part of the decedent’s estate.
• Appointment of an executor or administrator of the decedent’s estate.

The statute of limitations for a Wrongful Death claim is two years, measured from the date of death, subject to certain exceptions. See Estates, Powers, and Trusts Law (EPTL) § 5-4.1.

When you go through a case like this, obviously you have to be able to identify who you are bringing your claim against. It is your New York wrongful death lawyer’s job to identify the liable party in the incident. They need to be able to prove that this person was responsible for the death of your loved one and how they acted differently your loved one might’ve been alive today. They also need to then, in a timely manner, bring the claim against this liable party.

With wrongful death, if someone is acting negligently and your lawyers are able to prove this, then that person is likely going to be the liable party in your loved one’s passing. You deserve this kind of closure. We understand that no amount of compensation brings back your loved one or tempers the grief that you and your family are experiencing but when people are guilty of negligence you deserve that justice. You deserve to tell them what they did was wrong and they won’t get away with it.

Understand that this is not a criminal case and you are not going to be putting anyone in jail unless there was an intent to kill. But a wrongful death claim is a civil case and the deaths are accidental. Therefore, justice is going to be compensatory instead of criminal.

When you consider how lawsuits like this happen, there is typically one person who represents the family and brings the claim. They are called the plaintiff. This person is going to work closely with the New York wrongful death lawyers to settle the claim fairly. Please understand that they are not going to be the only ones who get compensation. They just represent themselves, the family, and the loved one who has passed.

Most of the time with wrongful death, the plaintiff is going to be the spouse of the victim. If that victim wasn’t married, the adult children would be the plaintiff. If the children are minors and/or they were unmarried, then the parents of the victim would be the plaintiff.

Please understand that every wrongful death claim is different just like every person’s life is different. Not every person is going to have the nuclear family to be the plaintiff. Having New York wrongful death lawyers look over your case is going to be the surest way to identify the plaintiff in your loved one’s wrongful death claim. We will be able to discuss this in detail during your free initial consultation.

Most injury and wrongful death lawyers will tell you that damages for a wrongful death claim are difficult to put a value on because most of the damages you are suffering are what we consider non-economic damages. Non-economic damages can include your loved one’s pain and suffering they went through before they passed. It can also include the mental anguish that you have to endure because of the loss of a loved one. Money does not replace a relationship that you have lost with someone you love, but this is the justice that is available for you to seek. We will fight to get full justice; in some cases, bringing a claim like this can prevent someone else from having to go through this at the hands of the liable party.

NY Wrongful Death claim damages are limited to “fair and just” compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting from decedent’s death, including:

• Your love one’s pain and suffering before passing
• Loss of support, voluntary assistance, and possible inheritance
• The cost of treatment and care they incurred before passing
• Costs of funeral and burial
• The potential earnings your loved one would have received had they lived a full life not cut short by this incident
• Loss of services such as cooking, cleaning, and driving

No, Loss of consortium claims are not recoverable under the statute. A surviving spouse can recover for loss of consortium for the period prior to the decedent’s death, but this is a derivative action of the decedent’s claim for conscious pain and suffering. See Liff v. Schildkrout, 427 N.Y.S.2d 746, (1980). No damages are awardable for the grief or suffering of the distributee or the lost companionship, comfort or assistance the decedent would have provided. See Bumpurs v. New York City Housing Authority, 527 N.Y.S.2d 217 (1st Dept. 1988).

The pecuniary value of parental guidance and support has been recognized by the  Courts. See Tilley v. Hudson Railroad Co., 24 N.Y. 471 (1862). These losses are highly fact-specific, =and each individual scenario will be subject to scrutiny. For example, in Gardner v. State, 24 N.Y.S.3d 805 (4th Dept. 2015), the court declined to disturb an award of $875,000 for the decedent’s children for past and future loss of parental guidance, despite the fact that both children were teenagers at the time of death.

By contrast, in Estevez v. Tam, 49 N.Y.S.3d 167 (2d Dept. 2017), the Second Department upheld a jury verdict awarding zero damages for the loss of parental guidance where the decedent was 65, divorced, retired, living by himself, and provided no financial support to his three adult sons.

In order to establish a right to a wrongful death recovery, the plaintiff need only show that he had a reasonable expectation of support from the decedent. The calculation of the precise amount of damages is then a question for the jury.

In determining what is “fair and just” compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting from wrongful death, the jury may consider a number of factors: the age, health and life expectancy of decedent at the time of injury; decedent’s work habits and present position; decedent’s future earning capacity and potential for career advancement; and the number, age and life expectancy of decedent’s distributees.

In Vargas v. Crown Container Co., Inc., awards of $650,000 for past pecuniary loss and $350,000 for future pecuniary loss were considered reasonable compensation for the one-year-old son of a 22-year-old garbage collector who worked two jobs at the time of his death.

A distributee must provide evidence of the value of the lost services. In Merola v. Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens, 808 N.Y.S.2d 395 (2d Dept. 2005) the Court reduced an award for the value of household chores performed by a decedent wife from $250,000 to $50,000 because the plaintiff husband failed to provide expert testimony as to the value of the lost services. However, in Vasquez v. County of Nassau, 938 N.Y.S.2d 109 (2d Dept. 2012), the Second Department upheld an award of $1.8 million for future loss of household services in an action where the distributee was a disabled, minor child and the plaintiff presented expert testimony that established the decedent’s financial support and her child’s special, lifetime needs.