When a loved one dies of old age, it is sad, but expected. When a loved one dies because of a serious accident, it is shocking and can upend your entire life. Our lawyers help victims get damages for the economic and non-economic effects of these wrongful deaths from the responsible parties.
When you work with our lawyers, we seek to get your case compensated in full. If this means settling through insurance, we can advise you to do so; if it means taking the case to court, then we will not hesitate to stand up for you in court to get justice for your loved one’s death.
Contact Rice Law’s wrongful death attorneys at (410) 694-7291 for a free case review.
What Constitutes a “Wrongful Death”?
A wrongful death lawsuit is filed for any death caused by a “wrongful act.” This can mean any tort or crime, but usually comes down to deadly injuries caused through negligence.
Elements of Negligence
To win a claim for negligence, you have to show that
- The defendant owed the victim a legal duty, typically stemming from some law or rule, like a traffic law.
- The defendant breached that legal duty by violating the rule or acting unreasonably.
- The breach of duty caused the victim’s accident.
- The victim died from the accident.
Examples
This allows wrongful death lawsuits for all kinds of accidental and untimely deaths, including, but not limited to, these:
- Deadly car crashes, DUI accidents, hit and runs, pedestrian accidents, and more.
- Slip and falls or other property injuries involving a long fall or serious head trauma that kills the victim.
- Defective and dangerous product injuries.
- Medical malpractice and birth injuries.
- Medical device defects and pharmaceutical injuries.
Can You Sue for Wrongful Death for Murder and Manslaughter?
Yes. While most wrongful death cases are based on accidents and negligence, you can also sue the person who murdered your loved one or killed them through manslaughter.
The criminal and civil cases are separate. This potentially allows you to win a wrongful death claim, even if the government fails to convict them for murder in the criminal case. We have a lower burden of proof in a civil wrongful death case, so talk to our wrongful death attorneys about filing a lawsuit even in cases of murder or manslaughter.
Wrongful Death Claim (for Family and Heirs)
A wrongful death lawsuit pays the victim’s family for their loved one’s death.
Purpose
The family is left with damages – both economic and non-economic – through the untimely death of a loved one. When someone causes that death, they owe the family monetary damages for those harms. These damages are paid in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Who Files?
The victim’s family can benefit from and file these claims. Typically, this looks to the immediate family:
- The wife
- The husband
- A parent
- A Child.
If none of these people are around or able to file, then any family member related by blood or marriage can file. However, they must actually be dependent on the victim at their time of death. This could include, for example, a sibling or cousin that lived in the victim’s household, but it cannot include an unmarried partner.
Damages Recovered
You can claim both economic and non-economic damages. Typically, these damages are from the date of death onward, meaning you would not recover end-of-life medical care from this claim.
Instead, you get things like
- Lost income and support
- Lost household services
- Lost companionship and support
- Grief
- Loss of society
- Mental anguish
- And more.
Who Gets Damages?
The same people who can file are the ones to get the benefits. This means, typically, giving the money to the parents, children, or spouse of the victim.
Each victim typically recovers the benefits they faced, specifically. For example, this may give more economic support to a spouse, who actively relies on their deceased spouse’s income, than an adult child who no longer does.
Survival Action (Estate Claim)
When someone gets hurt because of someone else’s mistakes, they get the right to sue them. If they pass away before they sue, the victim’s estate can file in their place.
Purpose
A “survival action” is simply the victim’s own personal injury lawsuit, but it “survives” them. This lets the estate recover for the damages the victim faced before dying.
Who Files?
The estate files, through the victim’s “personal representative” or “executor.” This is the person their will appoints to assemble their assets, take care of their affairs, and distribute the estate to their heirs.
If the victim had no will, a court appoints the personal representative instead.
Damages Recovered
This recovers the victim’s own pre-death damages, such as
- Pre-death pain and suffering
- Medical expenses for stabilizing care and end-of-life care
- Lost wages the victim faced between the time of injury and time of death.
If the victim lingered for a long time after the injury, these damages are often higher.
Who Gets Damages?
The victim’s estate gets the damages. This money would have gone to the victim, but they are no longer there to take the damages. Instead, it goes into their estate, and the estate distributes the money according to the victim’s will or Maryland’s intestacy statute, if they died without a will.
This could potentially get some damages to people who could not recover in a wrongful death claim, such as unmarried partners.
How Long Do You Have to File a Wrongful Death Claim?
Maryland’s statute of limitations lets victims file a wrongful death case within 3 years of the victim’s date of death. Note that this is measured from their death, not the date of the accident.
A survival action, on the other hand, gets 3 years from the date of injury. This is because this is the victim’s own injury lawsuit, and the right to file starts before they pass away from the injuries. This means these claims might have different deadlines, depending on how long the victim lingered after their fatal injury.
Does the Victim’s Will Change How the Case Gets Filed?
Potentially. The family files a wrongful death lawsuit, and who can recover and in what order is all set by law, not by their will. However, the survival statute depends heavily on the will.
Since the personal representative files the survival action, and the victim’s will picks their personal representative, that will change who can file. The damages from a survival action are also paid into the will, and so they are distributed to whoever the will chooses, even if they would not normally get damages through a wrongful death suit.
Call Our Wrongful Death Lawyers in Montgomery Village for Help
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 to discuss your potential case in a free case evaluation.