Many people ask: what am I entitled to if my loved one suffers a wrongful death? If your loved one dies due to the negligence of another, you may be entitled to compensation under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act. However, there are many things you need to consider.
The Tallahassee wrongful death lawyer, Jimmy Fasig, provides valuable information to help people face this difficult moment with confidence. Remember, you are not alone. The team at Fasig | Brooks is ready to pick up the phone, no matter what day or time it is.
Main Elements of Damages in Wrongful Death Cases
There are three main elements of damages when dealing with a wrongful death case:
- Economic losses
- Loss of companionship
- Mental and emotional pain and suffering.
Compensation for Economic Losses
Economic losses are financial losses to the survivor or the estate as a result of the wrongful death. The purpose of awarding economic losses is to shift the burden of the wrongful death from the survivors of the estate to the wrongdoer. According to the Florida statute,
“Each survivor may recover the value of lost support and services from the date of the decedent’s injury to her or his death, with interest, and future lost support and services from the date of death and reduced to present value.”
Other Economic Losses to Consider
Other economic losses include medical and funeral expenses of the decedent, loss of money the decedent would have earned between the date of the injury and the date of death, and the loss of net accumulations of the estate.
Funerary and Medical Services
Medical and funeral expenses are relatively easy to calculate, as is the loss of money the decedent would have earned until the time of death. However, the loss of net accumulations can be more complicated. You have to calculate how much the decedent would have earned over their lifetime, then subtract how much he or she would have spent.
Loss of Net Accumulations
In a situation where the decedent would have spent money on the survivor, that amount would be calculated in the loss of support and services. The loss of net accumulations is basically an estimate of how much net worth the deceased person would most likely have accumulated before dying if they had lived a full life uninterrupted by the negligence of the wrongdoer. This calculation requires the work of an expert economist.
As a Tallahassee personal injury attorney, I like to hire my economist early on in the case and present it to the defendant because the earlier you can establish the damages, the more likely you are to settle the case without having to go to a jury trial.
Compensation for Loss of Services and Companionship
The Wrongful Death Act recognizes that when we are alive, we provide support and services to the people we love and that support and services have a financial value. For instance, if a deceased parent stayed at home and took care of the child day in and day out, an experienced personal injury lawyer can add the value of those services that must be included in the wrongful death case.
We hire experts to determine how much it would cost to have similar services provided by a professional. Of course, you can never replace the love of a parent with professional help. Still, the statute requires us to replace the value of those services to the greatest extent possible with monetary damages.
In this case, as a wrongful death lawyer, I ask my experts to identify how much it would cost to hire a professional to perform the duties of a parent to the greatest extent possible. I also argue to the insurance carrier and, ultimately, the jury that the cost of hiring a professional is only a fraction of the actual value of the support provided by the parent because the loving support of a mother can never be replaced.
Compensation for Mental Pain and Suffering
The law states that if a victim dies because of someone else’s mistake, their spouse and kids can get money for:
- Mental pain and suffering
- Loss of companionship and protection
- Lost parental companionship, instruction, and guidance
Parents of a deceased child can also get money for mental pain and suffering, but only for minor children (unless there’s no spouse) or for adult children if they’re the only survivors. The fact that the survivors are entitled to compensation for mental pain and suffering from “the date of injury” (such as anxiety or PTSD) can be important because, in some cases, the decedent doesn’t die right away, and the struggle of the family while the decedent is still alive can be very real.
In my very first wrongful death case, my client’s father was run over by a truck and suffered a degloving injury, basically skinning him alive. He survived in the hospital for almost two months while my client, his daughter, suffered.
My client was entitled to compensation for all of the suffering she endured, knowing her father was fighting for his life in such horrible conditions. We ended up getting full and fair compensation for my client, who remains a good friend of mine to this day.
Who Is Entitled to Compensation for Mental Pain and Suffering?
It’s interesting to note that parents are entitled to compensation for mental pain and suffering but are not entitled to compensation for lost companionship. Also, a medical malpractice lawyer in Tallahassee can explain this unjust wrinkle in the wrongful death statute: adult children and parents of an adult child are not entitled to compensation for mental pain and suffering or lost companionship in situations involving medical malpractice.
So, suppose a doctor negligently kills somebody who is unmarried and has no minor children. In that case, the adult children have no right to compensation for mental pain and suffering or lost companionship. They still have a claim for loss of support and services, and the estate has a claim for economic losses such as the loss of net accumulations. Still, those damages are often not large enough to justify the expense of bringing a wrongful death case.
In situations where the decedent was likely to earn more money than they spent if she had lived a full life, the damages can still be substantial. I highly recommend contacting an experienced wrongful death attorney early in the process to understand your rights fully.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Fasig
Wrongful Death Attorney
Senior Partner/Fasig Brooks Law Offices
