Wrongful Death Lawyer
When somebody dies as a result of somebody’s accidental or intentional actions, usually negligence is involved, the estate of the decedent is able to file a wrongful death claim. However, unless you will file this type of claim before then you are not going to know the key aspects to wrongful death claims being filed. You need to understand how Arizona defines wrongful death because federal law does not define wrongful death that is up to each state to do. You need to know who can file the wrongful death claim in the state’s court and this can differ from state to state. And you should understand the potential damages that could be available if you are filing a wrongful death claim and of course you need to know this time limit on filing this lawsuit in the state you were in.
So under Arizona law the wrongful death is a death that is caused by acts of neglect or default, this law can be found in Arizona Revised Statutes 12 – 611. So basically a wrongful death is going to happen when somebody dies because of somebody else’s fault and negligence.
This could look like a negligence based accident like a car accident, a slip and fall accident, perhaps it is medical malpractice which is technically negligence based but medical malpractice does have its own series of laws, or an intentional act such as a crime.
Just like with personal injury lawsuits the liability in a successful wrongful death case is going to be told and expressly financial terms. What damages can the court give you from the defendant, what damages should the defendant pay to the decedent’s family or the estate of the decedent. However there is one major difference between wrongful death lawsuits and a homicide case.
A homicide case has a conviction rate where you can wind up in jail or in prison, be required to pay fines, receive probation and many other penalties depending upon the state and the crime. In a wrongful death case you are usually not going to be able to send someone to prison or prosecute them as a criminal.
In Arizona when you are filing a wrongful death case, you can file if you’re the sees person’s surviving spouse, the child, the parent or guardian, or the executor of the estate. And if the decedent is a child in either of the child’s parents or legal guardians can file a claim in their honor.
Damages that you may receive in a wrongful death case or funeral and burial expenses, medical bills, the value of lost wages, benefits the decedent would have earned if they had lived, the repair of any property that was damaged in the event, the loss of the decedent’s love, affection, comfort, companionship the loss of household services, and emotional pain and suffering.
Your wrongful death lawyer is going to know how to prove negligence in a wrongful death case, and sometimes negligence is very obvious such as with medical malpractice cases but other times it may not be obvious.