Settlement for wrongful death can be available to you for the damages you suffered. You might not immediately understand the full extent of how the accidental death of a family member may affect your life when you are grieving for that individual.
it is difficult to deal with loss when someone’s negligence was the cause of your loved one’s death. When a person loses their life in an accident, on the job, via a faulty product, or in some other way, it leaves a gap in unforeseen ways. You will lose your loved one’s assistance, advisement, and support.
The Distribution of Wrongful Death Settlement
These situations are incredibly difficult to resolve, both in terms of securing a recovery and figuring out how to allocate compensation among remaining family members.
However, you’ll need a competent, skilled wrongful death attorney to pursue your legal options.
Who Are the Parties Eligible for Compensation?
Not everyone with a close or family relationship is eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit. The parties who may pursue monetary damages are specifically listed in California law and include:
- In regards to specific damages, the personal representative of the decedent’s estate or his or her successor in interest
- The surviving spouse or domestic partner of the deceased
- Children of the deceased
- In such situations, additional family members who depended on the victim for money
How Are Damages Divided Between Parties?
People who are eligible to bring a wrongful death claim have access to several different types of compensation.
One loss for which the decedent’s estate may be eligible to receive compensation is pre-death medical costs. In addition to receiving compensation for financial losses like loss of assistance, surviving family members may also receive assistance to pay for non-financial losses like loss of care, comfort, and society.
In California, if eligible family members cannot agree on how to divide the proceeds, the court has the jurisdiction to do so in a fair and just manner.
For those entitled to compensation, family members must reach an agreement. If there are disagreements, a court will decide.
Therefore, fighting for the compensation you deserve after losing a loved one and dealing with opposition and disputes from other family members over the amounts obtained in compensation for the decedent’s death may be two challenging issues facing a claimant under California’s wrongful death statute.
Speak to a Wrongful Death Attorney in California About Your Settlement
Due to the extreme complexity of wrongful death claims, mourning family members shouldn’t manage them by themselves. By hiring a capable California lawyer, you may put your attention on your family while a lawyer handles the rest.
Family members do not have an endless window of opportunity to bring a wrongful death claim in California. Instead, the California statute of limitations gives family members two years from the decedent’s passing to submit a claim. For litigation brought against governmental bodies and in other special cases, the time limits are substantially shorter. Waiting too long will prevent our clients from holding the perpetrator accountable for the catastrophe and recovering damages.
For further information on how compensation is split among family members, contact KAASS Law at 310.943.1171. We specialize in a variety of cases, visit this link to see more.