Los Angeles Wrongful Death Litigation: A Perishable Right

By: Joan Guevarra
Submitted: 2009-10-20 17:49:31
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They say dead men tell no tales but in some instances, such as wrongful death litigation, it can tell a tale of negligence, fault and intentional acts such as murder.

A wrongful death claim or litigation can arise when a person dies because of an act or omission of another or if someone was injured in an accident and then subsequently dies as a result of their injuries.

Under California Statute of Limitations, Los Angeles wrongful death litigation should be filed within two years from the date of the accident or incident causing the wrongful death. The law allows relatives, domestic partners, and persons who depend upon the wrongful death victim for support to sue for wrongful death.

Generally and not just limited to Los Angeles wrongful death litigations, it consists of four elements:

(1) The death was caused, in whole or part, by the conduct of the defendant. An example would be a drunk driver, whose intoxication impaired his reflexes, thus causing him to run over a child crossing the street.

(2) The defendant was negligent or strictly liable for the victim’s death. The doctor can be held responsible for wrongful death in case of a grave mistake in diagnosis, leading to his patient’s death.

(3) There is a surviving spouse, children, beneficiaries or dependents. The victim is survived by a wife, children or family members who depend on him for support.

(4) There are monetary damages that have resulted from the victim’s death. There is an economic impact of the deceased’s death such as loss of future earnings and burial expenses.

While human life does not have a price tag, a wrongful death can be compensated. 

Most states allow surviving family members to be compensated for both economic and non-economic losses such as loss of financial support, love, care, comfort, supervision, guidance, household assistance, mental anguish and suffering of the deceased prior to death. Some states also allow surviving family members to be compensated for their personal grief and suffering.

Punitive damages can also be awarded in cases of recklessness and willful neglect in order to punish the killer and deter others from making the same mistake.

However, Los Angeles wrongful death litigation or claim is a “perishable right”. Having previously mentioned the Statute of Limitations, the deceased surviving family or dependents may lose their right to sue if they go beyond the two-year limit.

A wrongful death litigation is a civil action that may help punish and recover from the loss of a loved one’s life. As much as it may seem callous to be engaged in a lawsuit in the middle of a grieving process, the family’s future needs and well-being must be considered especially if the deceased was the family’s breadwinner.

A Los Angeles wrongful death litigation is a perishable right, so surviving family members and legal dependents should make sure that their rights should not die along with the deceased.

Dead men can’t tell tales surely, but their family would definitely live on to tell their stories.

Article source: Expert Articles