Wrongful Death Case Value

Answer:

People come in and are still very sad and grieving over the loss of their loved, yet they still want to know what the value of their loved one’s claim is in a wrongful death. The first thing we tell them is that we have to look at the whole case. There are two types of claims in a wrongful death case; one is for wrongful death, which goes to the loved ones of the person that died. Also, as part of a wrongful death claim, you have to see whether or not the person lived for a period of time, whether it be for a matter of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks or months after the accident. That’s a separate claim for conscious pain and suffering, and that goes to the dead person’s estate. You have to look at the two claims, the wrongful death claim and the pain and suffering component of the claim, in order to make that type of determination.

It’s often a little bit more difficult to give people a clear understanding of exactly how much their claim is worth because there are other factors that come into play, such as the level of support that the people who are still surviving were receiving, and what types of monetary support they were receiving. Was the person working and contributing to the household? Was this person supporting the children? Was this person providing spiritual and moral guidance to the people that they left behind? Those are all factors that have to be taken into consideration in order to make that determination of what the value of the claim is.