Children and Elderly Wrongful Death Cases

By: Kamille Pagibigan
Submitted: 2008-11-12 13:13:29
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Human life is priceless, and a life that was lost can never be brought back. But in legal situations where wrongful death occurs, one of the things juries and courts are required to do is to determine the damage award for the people left behind by a victim.

Wrongful Death

Wrongful death occurs when a person dies because of the negligence, malpractice, inaction, or recklessness of another person.

Measure of Damages

In wrongful death actions, the primary measure of damages is pecuniary or financial loss and because of this, arriving at a sufficient damage award for the death of an elderly or a child may raise some problems or difficulties.

Wrongful Death Cases

•    Children

The pecuniary loss to the family when an adult dies is easily quantifiable, unlike when a child dies, getting an adequate damage award may be a problem. For instance, when a parent dies a wrongful death, the child may ask for damages for loss of the parent's nurturing, care, guidance, and income. On the other hand, when a child dies, the recovery of the parents is limited to their pecuniary loss, which is usually rather small.

Pecuniary injuries when a child dies are determined by the following:

•    The earning potential of the child

•    The child's sex, age, life expectancy, state of health, work expectancy, and habits

•    The age, health, and situations of those claiming pecuniary losses

•    The relationship between the decedent and those that are claiming a pecuniary loss

The younger the child is when he/she died, the more difficult it is to determine the pecuniary loss to the parents and much of this query involves assumption. It is possible for a jury to consider what the deceased child would have given to the support of the parents, but of course, this cannot be determined purely on guesswork. Often, juries use life expectancy charts for their calculations' starting point. Generally, small awards are given to parents for the death of a child.

•    Unborn Children

A lot of people ask about wrongful death actions regarding unborn fetuses. When an unborn fetus dies, someone may bring a wrongful death action depending on the state. Most states require that a child should be born alive so that its death would comprise the very first element of a wrongful death action, meaning, a fetus' death is not actionable frequently. The emotional injury of the parents from losing their unborn child is also not actionable. An expert can tell you whether you can file a wrongful death claim in your state or not.

•    Elderly

The death of someone who is an elderly also has a rather limited recovery potential in the same way that the child's death may not produce large damages awards. There is a number of factors why awards for elderly people's deaths are modest:

•    Elderly people are usually considered by many as someone who no longer has significant earning potential

•    Elderly people's children are usually adults who does not need significant support, guidance, or nurturing from their parents any longer

Wrongful Death Attorneys

To help you determine whether or not you may be able to bring a wrongful death action on the basis of an elderly person or a child's death, the skills of experienced wrongful death attorneys are needed.

To help you with accident issues such as wrongful death claim, consult with our expert Los Angeles personal injury attorneys. Visit our website to avail of our free case analysis.

Article source: Expert Articles