What Is a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

The heartache created by the loss of a loved one can reverberate for years. For many who are grieving, it is hard to let go of the feelings of denial and depression. If the circumstances around that death are attributed to someone else’s negligence, anger at the injustice of the situation can take over.

This is when the surviving family should consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit.

A wrongful death lawsuit is inherently complicated. You are essentially assigning the blame for someone’s death to a person or company. This is also the type of lawsuit that is rigorously defended by the insurance company of the named at-fault party.

These suits are not without challenges. This blog can provide a general understanding of what to expect when filing a wrongful death lawsuit.

What Is a Wrongful Death Claim?

As with any type of personal injury claim, your case needs to have merit to proceed. With a wrongful death claim, that merit begins with the legal definition created by the state. According to Nevada law, a wrongful death is defined as a death that is “caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another person or entity.”

In other words, had it not been for someone else’s action, the death wouldn’t have occurred.

Within the law, there are three basic categories:

Negligence-Based Incidents

These would refer to a death caused by direct negligence, such as a car accident. If a driver is speeding or driving under the influence, they are clearly negligent. Negligence-based incidents can also refer to deaths caused by a company willingly distributing defective products.

Medical Malpractice

There are risks associated with any type of surgical procedure or medication prescription. Most of those risks are assumed and consented to. However, there are some situations where a doctor’s negligence exceeds the assumed risk. When that causes a death, that doctor can be sued for medical malpractice and wrongful death.

Intentional Acts

Intentional acts refer to crimes such as an assault that leads to a death or a homicide. In addition to the assailant who can be sued, there could also be an issue of negligent security. For instance, if someone is allowed to bring a gun into a nightclub and commit murder, the owners of the nightclub could be held liable for not providing a reasonably safe place.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Suit?

There are specific people who can file a wrongful death suit. The first person the Nevada courts consider is the deceased’s personal representative. That would be an executor who is designated in the will and is charged with distributing the estate’s assets. If there was no will written at the time of death, the assets of the estate would default to the decedent’s spouse and children.

The surviving parents or siblings can become the representative if there is no spouse or children.

Only one person can file a wrongful death claim on behalf of the family. That means a wife and an adult child can’t file two lawsuits. Whatever the outcome of the single lawsuit, it will need to be evenly distributed from the estate.

A Wrongful Death Claim Versus Criminal Homicide

When an intentional act causes a wrongful death, it is considered a criminal homicide. That can lead to two trials using the same evidence for the same incident.

A wrongful death lawsuit is a case filed in a civil court. You have to establish the at-fault party’s liability by a preponderance of the evidence. In legal terms, that means that their actions were more likely than not to have caused the death. With a criminal case, the state prosecutors need to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a higher standard.

There doesn’t need to be a guilty verdict in the criminal case in order for you to prevail in a civil lawsuit.

This is not considered “double jeopardy.”  While your attorney might offer support to the criminal prosecutors, these will be two distinct trials held in different courts.

Damages for Survivors

When you bring a wrongful death lawsuit, you are entitled to seek specific damages. These damages are divided into two basic categories: Economic and non-economic.

The economic damages would cover all the expenses related to the death, such as funeral and burial costs. They can also reimburse any medical expenses that led up to the death. Additionally, the surviving family can seek compensation for lost wages and future earnings. This is especially relevant if the decedent was the family’s primary source of income.

Non-economic damages are compensation for emotional trauma, such as the loss of companionship, comfort, care, and affection.

In a wrongful death lawsuit, you can also ask for punitive damages. These are meant to punish the party at fault for an especially egregious act.

How a Wrongful Death Attorney Can Help

If you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, you don’t want to deal with filing paperwork or hunting down evidence.

That’s when the Law Office of Matthew L. Sharp can help. We’ll thoroughly investigate and gather all the supportive evidence if we agree that your claim has merit. If your case moves to the courtroom, we’ll be ready to present that evidence and your testimony to support how you’ve suffered because of this loss.

It’s essential to start the claim process as soon as possible. Nevada allows the claim to be filed two years from the date of death. We’ll make sure you won’t miss any vital filing deadlines.

You don’t have to go through this alone.