In every wrongful death situation, compensation should be granted. The value of a life goes beyond monetary value, but if you rely on the loved one you lost you will need immediate help to cope with financial challenges. The negligent individual’s insurance company will usually be responsible to cover any costs you need, but with the help of a wrongful death lawyer, you will be assured to receive the right amount for your situation.
The Boundaries of Compensation Coverage
While everyone sympathizes with someone who has lost a loved one in an accident, insurance companies are not likely to treat you as if they have all the money in the world. Even if you understand that it was an accident, when someone in your family loses their life wrongfully, you need monetary compensation to cover the cost of any economic expenses such as medical expenses, funeral services, lost wages, and also physical pain the decedent feels before they pass away.
Beyond these physical expenses lies action for “loss of consortium,” or the action to take for the effects you feel from deprivation of the family member you loved and emotionally relied on. According to Utah’s Code of Law in Section 30-2-11 subsection 7, loss of consortium damages “may not exceed any applicable statutory limit on noneconomic damages”. This means that, as of May 15, 2010, an individual or family of survivors may receive compensation for noneconomic damages up to $450,000*. Noneconomic damages entail any suffering you experience from pain, inconvenience and other non-pecuniary harm.
We are not implying that you should take advantage of the situation in any way, but to truly seek after the coverage for what you need physically and emotionally. As difficult and unique as it is to find out what the cost is for your situation, a wrongful death lawyer has experience in these kinds of cases and knows how to calculate matters for you. Finding the value of your case is difficult enough and receiving the actual money from the insurance company or individual can be even more challenging. Insurance companies may have limitations to their coverage for the at-fault individual, but a wrongful death lawyer will help you keep the third-party company and individual lawfully liable for all of your damages.
Finding the Value of Your Compensation
When a wrongful death lawyer analyzes your situation, there are a variety of factors that come to play when they are trying to find the total cost of damages. Loss of consortium is really something an individual, well-educated or not, will struggle to correctly calculate without the help of a wrongful death lawyer. However, the economic costs for lost wages, lost benefits, medical costs and more comes down to the following factors:
Decedent’s health and age – Whether the deceased family member was nearly finished with their work career, a 12-year-old child, or was in their 30s, the potential earnings for each situation alters significantly. Therefore age plays a large role in finding value; not to mention the state of health the individual is in.
Decedent’s yearly income and retirement – Supposing the individual brought in a certain amount of income each year, the surviving family members that relied on that individual’s earnings will also determine a portion of their compensation. Similar to age, The years left the individual had before reaching retirement will factor in the amount the remaining family members will be able to receive.
Lost benefits – Along with the estimated amount of the deceased individual’s yearly income comes the cost of benefits for things such as health insurance, pensions, etc.
Other expenses – The cost for things like medical charges and funeral services are also factored into the wrongful death lawyers calculations in order to fully cover the existing family member’s financial struggle.
These are just some of the most common factors that wrongful death lawyers must consider in order to find the true value of a wrongful death case.
Taking Your Case to Trial
As challenging as it already is trying to cope with your loss and financial recovery, you might need to take your case to trial if you can not agree on the settlement. If the negligent individual is fighting their guilt or the insurance company is not offering enough, a court case might be the best way to right all that is wrong with the situation. A wrongful death lawyer can most definitely help you make negotiations before the case is actually taken to court, but if the case does go on to trial and you are yet to hire a wrongful death lawyer, you will benefit most by using one.
This section has mostly explained the finding the value of compensation of how that is calculated, but nothing has been said yet about the actual negotiations. A wrongful death lawyer will literally take your place and represent you entirely as they speak with the negligent individual and any involved third-party entities. Wrongful Death Lawyers are not therapists but they hear about and see the results of a wrongful death all the time. With that experience, there is a good chance they will be able to guide you as you mentally recover.
There are some time restrictions with making a case and to ensure yourself the most efficient coverage in your case, do not wait to take up your free consultation with a wrongful death lawyer at Robert J. DeBry and Associates.
*The subsection 7 in 30-2-11 refers to another law, 78B-3-410, that provides this number but also comes with other calculations for inflation and etc.
