Whenever a family member dies, there is a lot of pain and emotional heartache. People feel as though the death was wrong because the person was so young, went so soon, was taken too quickly, did not leave anyone a chance for a proper goodbye, etc. So, when it comes to distinguishing an actual wrongful death case from a death that left a lot of nerves raw, people should know that courts only hear what is defined clearly by the law as wrongful death. If you feel that your family member is a wrongful death case, see if it matches up to the descriptors below.
Another Person Actually Caused the Death of Your Relative
Wrongful death does not include homicide. That is a very different sort of "wrongful" death and is tried as a homicide. When someone caused the death of your relative, it is considered a wrongful death when the actions of the other person were completely accidental, or they were negligent. For example, a wrongful death via an accident is someone riding in the passenger seat of a car driven by someone who is intoxicated. As a result, the driver gets into a terrible accident, and your relative (who was the passenger) died in that accident. That would be a wrongful death via accident.
Wrongful Death via Negligence
Wrongful death via negligence would be an anesthetist who "feeds" too much anesthesia to a patient during surgery and causes the person on the operating table to die. The anesthetist knew how much to give the person, but instead gave them more than should have been given and did not think to stop it or attempt to reverse the situation. Worse still, the anesthetist tried to cover it up or refused to take responsibility for it. This example should not be confused with medical malpractice, which is an entirely different kind of legal case involving doctors and, to a lesser extent, nurses.
Another example of wrongful death via negligence is an employer asking an employee to drive or operate machinery that has not been functioning properly, and the employee dies because of it. The employer knew that the vehicle or the machinery was too dangerous to operate, but insisted that the employee operate it anyway. It is negligent of the employer not to fix this equipment/vehicle and then insist that someone operate it, knowing just how dangerous that would be.
To learn more about what qualifies as wrongful death, talk to a wrongful death lawyer today.
Share13 July 2019
Hello everyone, my name is Nina Zoulon. On this site, I am going to share information about hiring a personal injury attorney. I will also talk about my journey to procuring those services for myself. When I was a beginning driver, I was on the road constantly. During one of those excursions, a driver going the opposite direction crossed the centerline and plowed straight into my vehicle. I was trapped by the dashboard for hours while firefighters helped me escape. After the accident, the other driver tried to blame my inexperience on the accident. I hired a lawyer to help me fight the case and I won. I would like to discuss personal injury attorney services in more detail to help other people win their cases in court. Thanks.
