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What Is a Wrongful Death Case?
The most tragic outcome of an accident is the loss of a loved one. When a loved one dies in an accident caused by someone else, their surviving family members are full of grief and hurt, and it may be difficult to think about anything other than the loss. The idea of pursuing compensation for the death of a loved one may sound too overwhelming in this difficult time.
However, wrongful death cases can provide compensation to families during the most difficult time in their lives. With an experienced personal injury lawyer, you can focus on taking care of yourself and your loved ones while your lawyer pursues compensation. If you have lost a family member in an accident caused by someone else in Durango, CO, contact Zinda Law Group today for a free case consultation with our wrongful death lawyers at our Durango office.
Common Causes and Examples
Unfortunately, people are killed every day in accidental situations. A wrongful death case occurs when the death of an individual was the fault of someone else, either by doing something that could be done safely (like driving) carelessly, or by doing something that is never safe regardless of the level of care involved (like keeping a dangerous animal). Some common examples of accidents leading to a wrongful death suit are:
Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Accidents
There are millions of cars and drivers on American roads every day, and car accidents and fatalities are unfortunately common. Not every car or motorcycle accident gives rise to liability for wrongful death, but a driver who failed to drive responsibly and caused an accident could be liable for the death of another person involved—not just another driver or motorcyclist in a collision, but also a fellow passenger or a pedestrian.
Premises Liability Accidents
Premise liability refers to the concept that people are obligated to keep their property up to a certain standard of safety and could be liable for some injury or death that occurs as a result of the conditions of their property. Slip and fall cases are a common type of premises liability case.
Animal Attacks
Many Americans have pets, but when privately owned animals attack and injure or kill others it could give rise to liability for the owners. With common animals such as dogs, liability may depend on whether or not the dog was known to be dangerous or had a history of aggression, and what measures were taken to secure the dog, such as a muzzle. With any animal that is exotic, and especially any animal that is illegal to keep as a pet, liability could be demonstrated simply by ownership of the animal, regardless of the history of aggression or measures taken to secure it.
Ski Accidents
Skiing is a popular pastime that allows people to enjoy the beauty of wintery outdoor conditions, but it isn’t without its risks. Faulty equipment, poorly kept facilities and grounds, unmarked obstacles, or the actions of other skiers could lead to injury or death.
Medical Malpractice
We depend on doctors to keep us healthy and give us good care. But doctors do not always live up to the standard that is required of them. If a doctor’s mistake results in death, it could give rise to a wrongful death claim.
Product Liability
Sometimes products malfunction and cause injuries and death. In some cases, the individual product that caused the accident was assembled incorrectly. In other cases, the design of the product was what caused the accident. In other cases, the product was mislabeled and did not adequately warn of the dangers of using it. In all of these scenarios, it could be possible to bring a wrongful death suit.
Workplace Accidents
Employers should keep their employees safe at work, but unfortunately not all of them do. If someone is killed in a workplace accident because their employer was not using adequate safety measures or engaging in dangerous practices, it could be cause for a wrongful death suit.
CASE RESULTS
What to Do After a Wrongful Death Accident?
No one ever wants to have to deal with a wrongful death suit. However, because of the statute of limitations on wrongful death cases, it is important to see a lawyer as soon as possible. In addition to the statute of limitations, wrongful death claims will benefit from quick action so that the evidence is as recent as possible.
In order to pursue a wrongful death claim, it may be necessary to speak with an estate lawyer. This may involve reading the will of the deceased person, if there is one, and determining the assets, liabilities, and dependents of the deceased person before meeting with an estate lawyer. Then the lawyer will draft documents to be signed by any executor, beneficiaries, and heirs in order to open the estate, and those documents will be signed by a judge. Your lawyer can walk you through this process.
How Does a Wrongful Death Case Work?
In most personal injury cases, the plaintiff is the individual who has been injured and is seeking compensation for the harm they have suffered. In cases in which the victim of the accident has died, the case is pursued by the family of the individual who has died, and they are seeking compensation for the loss of their loved one.
Not all the loved ones of an individual can pursue a wrongful death claim on their behalf. In the state of Colorado, the only individuals who can file a wrongful death claim on behalf of a loved one is that person’s spouse, heirs (children), or parents. Parents can only file a wrongful death claim in the event that the deceased person is unmarried and without descendants.
Wrongful death is a type of negligence claim. Negligence is when an individual fails to act with “due care” resulting in an accident that harms or kills someone else. Due care is the consideration and caution we owe to someone when we act. There are some relationships in which the level of due care is particularly high, such as that between a doctor and a patient, but for the most part, everyone owes everyone else the duty to act reasonably.
When people fail to act reasonably careful, they may be found to have been negligent in their actions. If they injured someone with their negligent actions, they will have to pay damages. One example is driving a car. Driving with due care means obeying the speed limit, paying attention to the road and the traffic signals, maintaining the automobile, and otherwise being a reasonably safe driver. We generally have an obligation to try to prevent harming others at all times.
What Are the Elements?
The elements of a wrongful death claim are:
1. Death: If you are injured in an accident caused by someone else, it is still possible to bring a personal injury claim, but wrongful death claims can only be utilized when someone has passed away. They also cannot be used before someone has passed away, even if that person has received a diagnosis of a terminal condition.
2. Negligence: The deceased individual must have killed in an accident caused by someone acting negligently. Negligence is when someone does not act with reasonable care in their actions—in other words, does not act as carefully as a reasonable person would in a given situation to prevent harm from coming to others.
Not every accident is caused by someone breaching their duty of care by acting unreasonably—for example, a driver whose breaks malfunction through no fault of their own and was unable to avoid hitting another car did not act unreasonably. On the other hand, texting and driving or drinking and driving would be considered instances of negligence.
3. Surviving Family: The deceased individual leaves behind family members who will suffer monetarily as a result of the death.
4. Estate Representative: An individual has been appointed to represent the deceased person’s estate in the case.
Who Can Be Sued?
Both individuals and companies can be sued for a wrongful death claim. Sometimes it is clear that a company will be the entity sued for compensation, such as in a products liability case when the maker of the product is at fault. However, some cases where the accident was perpetrated by one identifiable individual will still become a lawsuit against the company they work for because of “vicarious liability”, or the concept that if someone causes an accident while working for a company and while acting within the scope of their duties of employment, the company is liable for their actions.
It is common for wrongful death litigation, like other personal injury litigation, to involve an insurance company instead of the party that caused the accident. It is also possible to be able to sue multiple different parties in the same case. For example, in a wrongful death case from a drunk driving accident, it is obviously possible to bring action against the drunk driver, but it could also be possible to bring an action for wrongful death against the drinking establishment where the drunk driver received alcohol. AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA BY THE NATIONAL TRIAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (2016-2020) AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA (2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2021), & NEIL SOLOMON (2020-2021) AWARDED TO JACK ZINDA (2016-2020) LIFETIME MEMBERS JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA
Our Awards
What Damages Can Be Recovered?
In personal injury cases, there are multiple types of damages that an injured party can seek. In a wrongful death case, damages are sought for the harm the deceased person has experienced, and/or for the harm the loved ones of the deceased have experienced due to their loved one’s death. Claims on behalf of the sufferings of the deceased brought on his or her behalf are called survival actions, whereas wrongful death refers to the harm experienced by the person’s family, but these actions can be combined in one lawsuit.
One common type of damages are economic damages. These damages generally involve monetary costs incurred by the injured party, and the compensation is to make up for the loss of money because of the accident. Economic damages in a wrongful death case could include funeral and burial expenses, medical costs for the injury or illness that caused the deceased person’s death, and future support of family members that is now lost because of the deceased person’s death.
Non-economic damages do not have a straightforward dollar amount in the same way economic damages do, but they are still harms that have been suffered and can be compensated for. The pain and suffering of the deceased and the pain and suffering of bereaved family members can both receive damages in Colorado, but these are two different harms that have been inflicted, and the circumstances dictate whether or not a plaintiff can receive one or the other—if an individual in a wrongful death claim died instantly, for example, their family cannot recover for that person’s pain and suffering because they did not suffer before their death.
Other non-economic damages include loss of consortium, which is brought by the spouse of a deceased person for the harm of being deprived of their spouse’s companionship. Loss of emotional support is a similar damage, but it is brought by other immediate family members over the harm of not having their loved one’s presence anymore.
It is more difficult to recover non-economic damages than it is to recover economic damages, because it is easier to put a price on a medical treatment which already had a cost than it is to put a price on the grief someone feels at the loss of their loved one. This does not mean non-economic damages are impossible to get, however. Colorado law caps the amount of non-economic damages possible in a wrongful death claim at $250,000 absent extreme circumstances that warrant more, in which case the court will not award more than $500,000, but this amount is adjusted for inflation regularly and is now $642,380 for all claims that occur on or after January 2022.
Another type of damages awarded in wrongful death cases are punitive damages. Punitive damages re awarded to the plaintiff not to compensate them for a specific harm they have suffered, but as punishment for the party that caused the accident when compensatory damages are not serious enough a burden. This typically only happens in the most extreme of cases, and when the opposing party is a large corporation for which even a large compensatory settlement would be a negligible amount.
What Is the Statute of Limitations?
The statute of limitations is the time limit on someone’s ability to bring a claim; after a certain amount of time, the claim will be dismissed from court on the grounds that too much time has passed since the incident that started the lawsuit.
The reason for this is because it becomes difficult to litigate a claim productively and fairly if the actions in question happened years ago. Evidence can be harder to find, witnesses harder to track down and their memories less reliable, and the scene of an accident can even have been demolished or rebuilt to be unrecognizable. In all of these situations, the court wants to encourage people to bring their claims as promptly as possible.
In Colorado, the statue of limitations for a wrongful injury claim is two years after the individual’s death. A wrongful death claim must be brought within that time. In the first year after the deceased individual’s death, if they are married, only their spouse can bring a claim, and if they are unmarried or the spouse consents, the deceased’s children or beneficiaries of the deceased may bring a claim. If that does not happen within a year, the children or the parents of the deceased may bring a claim without the consent of the surviving spouse.
Why Hire Zinda Law Group?
Losing a loved one is one of the hardest things anyone can go through. When your loved one has died due to an accident caused by someone else, things can become even more difficult. You deserve to process your loss and your grief instead of worrying about compensation and navigating the difficult and confusing legal process of filing a wrongful death claim.
It may seem overwhelming to seek out legal help when you are already dealing with so much, but the lawyers at Zinda Law Group have the experience and the drive to tirelessly pursue compensation for wrongful death claims so that you don’t have to go through this process alone. At Zinda Law Group, we believe that quality legal representation shouldn’t be reserved only for those with extensive legal resources, which is why Zinda Law Group utilizes a contingency fee arrangement. You will only pay anything if you receive a favorable outcome in your case—otherwise, you won’t pay anything.
If your loved one died in an accident that was caused by someone else, you can take your first step to pursuing compensation by contacting Zinda Law Group for a free case consultation.
