Guide to a New York Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Brooklyn personal injury attorneys provide insight on fatal accident cases
The most tragic accidents are those that result in fatalities. When a person dies due to someone else’s wrongful act or omission, families are left to grieve and deal with all the ways that their loss has affected them. In cases where negligence, recklessness or deliberate misconduct caused the fatal event, New York families can obtain a measure of relief by filing a wrongful death lawsuit. If you have lost a loved one due to an auto accident, surgical error, slip and fall incident or violent assault, the determined trial lawyers at Goldberg Sager & Associates are here for you.
Types of wrongful death cases
Wrongful death cases arise from a variety of circumstances, such as:
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Surgical errors and other forms of medical malpractice
- Slip and fall accidents
- Construction accidents
- Transit accidents
- Criminal assault
- Poisoning, as in a drug overdose
For a fatal event to qualify as a wrongful death, there must be evidence that the defendant, either by acting or failing to act, directly caused the fatal harm. A defendant can be held civilly liable for a wrongful death if their acts or omissions were intentional, negligent or reckless.
Differences between wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits
There are similarities between a lawsuit involving catastrophic injuries and a wrongful death claim, but there are also important differences. In a personal injury claim, the victim seeks damages as compensation for the economic and noneconomic losses they sustained due to the incident. These include:
- Lost earnings
- Medical bills
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Compensation for loss of quality of life, enjoyment of life and a spouse’s loss of consortium.
In a wrongful death claim, a personal representative of the decedent’s estate may sue for the first three types of losses, in somewhat modified form:
- Lost income from the date of the injury until death
- Medical bills from the date of the injury until death
- Compensation for conscious pain and suffering the victim suffered from the injury until death
A wrongful death claim also allows family members to recover their own losses, such as:
- Funeral and burial expenses
- The value of support and services the victim would have provided
- The value of parental nurturing and guidance the victim would have given to their children
- Lost inheritance the surviving children would have received
A significant difference is that an injured party can sue for loss of consortium in a personal injury case, but a widowed spouse may not seek those damages in a wrongful death case. Wrongful death claims can take considerable time to resolve. However, plaintiffs can also receive interest on their damage award calculated from the date of death.
Eligibility to file a wrongful death claim in New York
Random family members, even those most closely related to the decedent, cannot simply file their own wrongful death claim. Only the personal representative (typically the executor named in a will) of a decedent’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit for the benefit of all relatives who have suffered compensable losses. That personal representative can be a family member.
Initiating a wrongful death lawsuit in NY
Before initiating a wrongful death case, you should meet with a Brooklyn wrongful death attorney who can explain your rights and how your case might proceed. We can help you understand your options in a consultation. Should you decide to go forward, you can rely on insight and aggressive advocacy from a lawyer who has secured multimillion verdicts and settlements for plaintiffs in wrongful death actions.
Statute of limitations for wrongful death claims in NY
Plaintiffs must file a wrongful death case within two years of the decedent’s death. Although certain circumstances might extend that time, in most cases, plaintiffs who miss that deadline lose their right to sue forever.
