If you have had a wrongful death occur in your family, which would be someone passing before their time due to the fault of another person or company, you will probably want to file a wrongful death lawsuit. This will ensure that you are compensated for things such as funeral costs, medical costs if the person was medically treated before their death, and for any loss of income that otherwise would have been made had the person lived out their life as normal. Here's what you should know about these types of lawsuits:
Amount of Time:
One thing you may be concerned about when you file a wrongful death lawsuit is how long it will take. The length of time that it takes really depends on how much investigating needs to be done. If you had police on the scene at the time of the incident with a thorough police report and eye witnesses, establishing your case won't take much time at all because you will already have significant evidence on your hands. However, if your attorney needs to hire professionals for investigating your case because there is controversy surrounding the true cause of the accident, then it will take longer to develop the case.
Insurance Settlement:
In the end, you are going to want a settlement offer from the insurance company. Insurance companies will quickly settle if the evidence is obvious, which means that it's clear that there was a wrongful death and there is no controversy as to whether or not the person who died had any fault in the incident. However, insurance companies may delay the settlement offer if there is not a whole lot of evidence presented. This often leads to going through the court process before a settlement is reached.
Wrongful Death Attorney:
You will definitely need a wrongful death attorney by your side when you are going through the process of filing a wrongful death lawsuit. This is because if you don't have an attorney, the insurance company will know and will likely offer extremely low settlements in hopes that you won't know that the offer is too low. A wrongful death attorney (such as one from Fonvielle, Lewis, Foote & Messer) will know exactly what your case is worth and can negotiate with the insurance company for you to ensure that you receive a settlement that is fair.
By knowing these things about wrongful death lawsuits, you can be sure that you know what you are getting yourself into and what to prepare yourself for.
