Mistakes to Avoid in a Wrongful Death Case

Answer:

We often have people seek our help to pursue a wrongful death claim and, unknowingly, they’ve already harmed their case before it’s even gotten started. We want to make sure that you don’t fall into this trap and do the same. One thing that we frequently see that can be very detrimental to a wrongful death claim is having the client delay too long and not pursue the case quickly enough. When a wrongful death claim is involved, generally the person who would bring the claim is grieving. That person has lost a significant loved one, and that person is having a lot of other things to deal with and just doesn’t feel the mental energy is there to bring forward a wrongful death claim. They also may have concerns about going through the process because they know that nothing that can be done in the court system that will bring their loved one back.

It’s important to remember that there’s more to a wrongful death case than trying to seek compensation for what has been taken. There is a factor of accountability in making sure this doesn’t happen to other people. When people who have suffered the death of a loved one refuse to pursue these claims, then the responsible party doesn’t get held accountable. It’s up to us to make sure our community is as safe as possible, and when we have these instances we need to make sure that there are consequences to the people involved. If there are no consequences, then actions don’t change. Another thing we see people frequently do is hire the wrong attorney or not hiring an attorney soon enough, and that will create a very big problem in their case because things are not being done right. It’s an important part of the case to preserve evidence and make sure things are being done in the right order. If you hire an attorney who’s not experienced handling this type of case, it’s your case that’s going to suffer. Immediately hire an experienced wrongful death attorney, an attorney who can take your case all the way through trial, if necessary. Don’t delay and don’t hire the wrong attorney, or you might see this case vanish. Finally, we often have clients who are not willing to do what’s required to preserve or present their case in the most effective fashion. This is extremely important in wrongful death cases because the way you assign value in a death case is to be able to paint the picture of what the deceased person’s life was like and what they are missing out on in not being able to live out the rest of it. That can only be developed through people who knew the person, not just through the attorney. It’s important to make sure that you interact, to the extent your attorney needs, to be able to paint this picture.