A death in the family is always tragic, and it is worse when it happens in a sudden accident or avoidable incident. While times might seem dark, you may be able to find light in the fact that there are often legal avenues to declare the responsible parties liable and get your family compensation for what happened.
You can often sue for a loved one’s accidental death, including any situation where the death was caused by a mistake, a violation of the law, or other forms of negligence. Our lawyers can help you research your case, file it on the proper grounds, and calculate the damages you could be entitled to.
Contact Legal Care at (732) 838-9769 for a free case assessment with our wrongful death attorneys.
Grounds for a Wrongful Death Claim in New Brunswick, NJ
Non-lawyers usually understand what murder is under the law but might be fuzzy on other types of illegal killings. When someone is killed by intentional or reckless actions, that is often grounds for criminal charges like murder and manslaughter. When someone is killed in an accident, criminal charges are harder to apply because they did not mean for the victim to die. Instead, the victim’s family is often entitled to a civil lawsuit for wrongful death.
A wrongful death claim is essentially a personal injury claim where you sue for someone’s death instead of injuries. There are really two types of cases to file here: a survival action, which is the deceased victim’s injury lawsuit brought by their estate instead, and a wrongful death action, which is the family’s lawsuit for the harm they faced from the loss. Like with other personal injury cases, we usually do not have to claim anyone was injured or killed intentionally but rather through a so-called “wrongful act.”
This wrongful act for a wrongful death case usually involves a legal violation or unreasonable action that resulted in death. If the defendant violated a law, such as a traffic law, then they might be held liable for the resulting injuries or death. Similarly, if they committed negligence by acting unreasonably in a given situation, our wrongful death lawyers may be able to use that as grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit. This could involve something like a doctor providing unreasonable medical care or a product manufacturer failing to provide adequate safety warnings with their product.
Examples of Wrongful Death Cases in New Brunswick, NJ
We briefly mentioned a few areas of wrongful death cases above, but it often helps to see specific examples of a wrongful death case to help you understand whether you have a case for a loved one’s death.
Deadly Car Accidents
Many kinds of traffic violations can result in death. From a speeding driver who was unable to stop to a driver running a red light to a drunk driver who did not look out for a pedestrian on the side of the road, there are millions of examples of potential wrongful death car accident cases. In these cases, the violation of a traffic law that was in place to keep people safe is often sufficient grounds for a lawsuit.
Deadly Injuries on Dangerous Property
If someone falls because of a decaying handrail, gets electrocuted by exposed wiring, falls on an icy sidewalk and dies from head injuries, or dies in a fire because of missing smoke detectors, their family likely has grounds for a wrongful death suit. Slip and fall accidents and other “premises liability” accidents can be far deadlier than one might expect, especially when fire, electrocution, falls from heights, or head injuries are involved.
Deadly Product Injuries
Manufacturers of various products must ensure that their product is reasonably safe in its design, free of errors in the manufacturing process, and delivered to users with reasonable safety warnings. People can be killed by defective electrical systems in their cars, tainted pharmaceuticals, malfunctioning pacemakers, unsafe trampolines, and other dangerous and defective products.
Deadly Work Injuries
Many industries have dangerous work conditions that could lead to injuries and illnesses. Cancer from working with toxic chemicals, falls from heights on a construction site, severe injuries from a malfunctioning piece of machinery, and even auto accidents could all be avoidable causes of work-related death. While Workers’ Compensation laws might affect your ability to sue your loved one’s employer directly, there are often alternative parties to sue for deadly work accidents like these.
Murder
While most wrongful death cases deal with accidents, you can also file a civil case for murder, manslaughter, and other criminal homicide cases. While the criminal justice system focuses on punishing the defendant for what they did, the civil system focuses on reimbursing the family for their economic losses related to the death. Additionally, civil court uses a lower burden of proof, allowing family members to potentially get compensation and justice in civil court if the criminal case against their loved one’s killer fails to end in a conviction.
Deadly Medical Malpractice
When a loved one goes under for surgery and never wakes up, dies from a heart attack the emergency room ignored, or passes away from undisclosed side effects from a dangerous drug, the family could be entitled to a wrongful death lawsuit for medical malpractice. Proving what the doctor did wrong in your loved one’s treatment to cause their death often requires expert testimony from other medical experts and doctors, which our lawyers can help you find.
Call Our Wrongful Death Attorneys in New Brunswick
If a loved one died in an accident, call Legal Care New Jersey’s wrongful death lawyers today for a free case evaluation at (732) 838-9769.
