What Qualifies As A Wrongful Death?
Brian O Sutter
Wrongful Death
Nobody ever really wants to file a wrongful death suit. After all, if you’re suing someone for a wrongful death, that means that someone very close to you has died. Not only that, it means that a person may have been responsible for your loved one’s death. And while the money you stand to get from a successful suit may cover things like funeral costs and lost income, no amount of money will ever bring someone you love back from the dead.Still, if you do find yourself in a situation where you think you can file a wrongful death suit, it can help to know exactly what situations count as a wrongful death.
Malicious Act
If someone dies due to a deliberate, malicious action, that easily qualifies as a wrongful death. In such cases, the wrongful death suit usually waits for the criminal murder or manslaughter case to come to a verdict first, and if the jury finds the defendant guilty then the civil wrongful death case generally just goes through the motions. Still, sometimes the civil case will find the defendant at fault even if he or she isn’t guilty either because of non-criminal negligence or because of a mistake made during the criminal trial.
Negligence
Even if a person didn’t intentionally harm anyone else, he or she could still be at fault for a person’s death because of negligence, because he or she didn’t act at the time or earlier to prevent a dangerous situation from happening.
For instance, one of the most common causes of traffic accidents and deaths is distracted driving. Not only does this category include things like using a cell phone or texting while driving, it also includes eating while driving, fiddling with the audio system, shaving or applying makeup in traffic, and also dealing with kids in the backseat. If someone dies because a person wasn’t paying enough attention to the road, that person may or may not be criminally negligent, but he or she could easily be liable in a wrongful death suit.
Negligence and wrongful death also extend to things like making sure your property is safe (or at least properly fenced off). A backyard swimming pool without any of the required safety measures could lead to a wrongful death suit if someone drowns in it. If someone stacks a lot of stuff in front of a fire door in a high rise, that person could be liable for a wrongful death suit if someone dies during a fire.
A wrongful death suit is never easy and certainly isn’t fun, but it’s a part of the justice system so that people can receive some compensation for their loss and punish those responsible to at least some extent.
If you live in southwest Florida, particularly in Port Charlotte or Fort Myers, and if you’re considering filing a wrongful death suit for any reason, then you should consider contacting the All Injuries Law Firm today for a free case review. If you should then decide to bring us on as your personal injury lawyers, we’ll do our best to make sure you get the compensation you deserve.