Harlow County
Wrongful Death Lawyer.
A death brings two separate claims: a wrongful death action for the benefit of the spouse, children or parents, and a survival action belonging to the estate. Both are normally brought by the personal representative, which is why these files start with paperwork before they start with anything else.
Who Is Allowed To Bring The Claim?
Four things families are told by people who mean well, and what the statute and the rule actually say. Nothing here is advice on your own situation.
What families are often told
- Any close relative can start the case
- It is one claim, brought once
- Whoever paid for the funeral is the person who claims
- Nothing can happen until the whole estate is settled
What the statute and the rule say
- An action for wrongful death shall be brought only by the personal representative of the decedent
- There are two: a death action, and a separate survival action for the estate
- The death action exists only for the benefit of the spouse, children or parents of the deceased
- If no action has been brought within six months of the death, any person entitled by law to recover may bring it as trustee ad litem
What Is The Difference Between Wrongful Death And A Survival Action?
They arise from the same death and they are not the same claim. One looks at what the family lost. The other looks at what the person lost.
The wrongful death action is a claim for the death itself, brought for the benefit of the spouse, children or parents, with the damages distributed in the proportions in which they would take the estate of the deceased on intestacy. The statute also allows the plaintiffs to recover damages for reasonable hospital, nursing, medical and funeral expenses and the expenses of administration made necessary by the injury causing death.
The survival action is different in kind. Most states provide that all causes of action survive the death of the plaintiff, which means the claim the person would have had if they had lived does not die with them. It belongs to the estate rather than to the family, and it looks at what happened to that person between the injury and the death.
Both actions can arise from the same crash, the same fall, the same missed diagnosis. They are usually pleaded together, and how a recovery is shared between them is a real question with real consequences for a family, which is one of the reasons these files are slower to start than an ordinary injury claim.
What Kind Of Death Does This Page Cover?
The office's own list, shortened: motor vehicle collisions, medical negligence, unsafe properties, defective products, workplace incidents. Two of those have pages of their own on this site.
A death in hospital or under treatment
Diagnosis, surgery, medication, monitoringWhere a death is said to be caused by medical negligence, the action generally has to be commenced within two years after the death, and the certificate of merit rule still applies.
A death involving a commercial vehicle
A driver, a carrier, a loader, a brokerA fatal truck crash usually has several companies behind it, and the records that explain it sit inside the carrier's own systems on federal retention clocks.
A death on someone else's property, or from a product
Falls, fires, structural failures, defective goodsThe premises or the product itself carries most of the answer, and both tend to be repaired, cleared or discarded within days.
How Long Does The Family Have?
The dates are not the first thing anybody wants to think about, and they are the reason this page exists.
Two years
Two years from the death
Six months notice
Six months
What Happens When A Family Calls?
Not a pitch, and not a set of promises. This is what the first conversation is for, and most of it is listening.
- What happened, in your own order, with nobody hurrying you through it
- Whether a personal representative has been appointed, or whether that still has to happen
- Who the statute makes the beneficiaries here: the spouse, the children, the parents
- Which records exist already: the police report, the hospital chart, an autopsy, a coroner's finding
- What the insurer has already asked the family to sign, and what to do with anything still unsigned
- What the deadlines are in this particular case, written down, so nobody is relying on memory
- Wrongful death claimsA wrongful death claim is usually brought for the family members the state names, for the losses they carry after the death.
- Who brings the claimThe claim is usually brought by the personal representative of the estate, on behalf of the family members entitled to share in it.
- Survival claimsA survival claim carries on the claim the injured person would have had, for the estate, beside the family's own wrongful death claim.
- Who files a death claimCourt rules usually say who may start a wrongful death lawsuit and what happens if the personal representative does not.
- Statute of limitationsSets the time to start a lawsuit for an injury or a death caused by someone else's negligence, often two years, usually counted from the injury.
- Medical claim deadlinesMedical harm claims often carry their own deadline rules, including an outside limit that can apply even when the harm is discovered late.
When You Are Ready, Not Before.
Free case evaluationThere is nothing to sign and nothing to decide on a first call. If it helps, someone will come to the house rather than asking a family to come to an office, in Harlow County, the neighboring counties, North Ridley or just over the county line. The number is (555) 018-4420 and a person answers it at any hour.
What Families Ask.
Answered plainly. None of this is advice on your own case, and asking costs nothing.
The rule says the action shall be brought by the personal representative of the decedent, so in the ordinary course somebody has to be appointed. The rule also provides that if no action has been brought within six months of the death, a person entitled by law to recover may bring it as trustee ad litem.
Not by itself. The statute is about a death caused by the wrongful act, neglect or negligence of another, not about how quickly it followed. Where the connection between the original injury and the death is disputed, the medical record and the findings made after the death are what answer it.
Possibly. Many states reduce a recovery in proportion to the share of negligence attributed to the injured person, and bars it only where that share was greater than the causal negligence of the defendants.
Not before somebody reads them for you. A recorded statement, a medical authorization and a release are three different documents with three different consequences, and the third one is usually final.
The case evaluation is free. Nothing on this page is advice on your own case, and speaking to the office does not make anyone your lawyer.