Damages in Tampa Wrongful Death Cases

Damages in a Tampa wrongful death case are the pain and suffering that the victim went through prior to their death, any emotional damages or distress that they went through prior to their death. Additionally, the estate can receive damages for the loss of future income and loss of consortium. Loss of consortium is essentially compensation for the loss of comfort that person provided their family. While no money can make up for the loss of a loved one.

Damages to be recovered can also include the decedent’s past and future lost income as a result of the injury sustained. In these types of cases, the attorneys will generally use a mortality table that shows how many years the person was projected to live and what their income would have been based on their previous work experience and income. So, that is a loss of future income and a loss of consortium, which is the time spent with the loved ones, things that people love to do together, and things that a person does with his or her family, whether it be a parent or a child. All of that will be taken into account by a Tampa wrongful death lawyer when dealing with damages in this kind of case.

Who can file for or recover damages in Tampa wrongful death action?

The estate is the number one entity that can file for damages. The estate can be established, however, by a number of different people, either someone appointed by the relatives of the decedent, then a person can also have survivor actions with the spouse or the children of the decedent. Now, in certain cases with an adult child with no descendants and no spouse, then a parent may be able to collect on behalf of their adult child who is a decedent.

Because there are certain circumstances where parents of an adult child can, if they do not have any descendants and they do not have spouse, can collect for the grief and loss of their children.

What are the most common type of damages sought in wrongful death action?

Wrongful death actions can be only be raised by the executor of the estate that is appointed by the court. In most wrongful death cases, this will be a family member, but in cases where survivors cannot agree on the appropriate party or if there is no one to bring a claim, the courts can appoint an executor to seek damages.

Surviving loved ones of wrongful death victims may be able to recover pain and suffering of the deceased person up to the time of their death, as well as the loss of that person’s ability to earn, alienation of the deceased person’s affection, the loss of consortium, the costs of the estate, funeral expenses, and medical bills resulting from the accident.

Economic Damages

The loss of a loved one can result in economic damages, such as lost wages, lost ability to earn, and medical bills, which more easily determined than non-economic damages. Non-economic damages for wrongful death cases might include the loss of a person’s affection and the loss of the consortium of a party, such as the family’s ability to spend time with that person over the course of their life. In wrongful death actions, grief is an element encompassed within what attorneys and courts call alienation of affection, which is part of the consortium claims for the family of the deceased person seeking damages.

Loss of Future Income

In Tampa wrongful death cases, determining future income a very forensic decision. When preparing a wrongful death case, attorneys work with Tampa economists to determine how much economic life the deceased person had, including how long they would have been expected to work, and the income that they could have potentially generated. A knowledgeable lawyer will ensure that their client’s wrongful death claim for damages in Tampa includes a number of factors that many economists or forensic accountants may not initially add into the equation, such as the value of 401K contributions, raises, promotions, and bonuses.

Specifically how does each of the following losses result in recoverable damages in death cases, you kind of touch this already but like – so for example grief?

So, some of the losses that result in recoverable damages are recoverable. The first one is grief; many times the loss of benefits and relationships and emotional trauma and loss of relationship that a person has with the decedent, whether it be his or her child, whether it be his or her parent, whether it be his or her spouse, grief is something that a person can collect for. The grief that a person has to go through because of the wrongful acts of another person can be recovered. Additionally loss of companionship and loss of love and affection that a person has with his or her family members, those are also delineated as damages that a person can collect in a wrongful death case.

Loss of consortium is more of a loss of relationship that a person has with that person whether they work together with his or her spouse, whether a person spent every day together, or whether they go on trips together. Whatever it is that they do together and a person loses that because of the wrongful death, a person can recover damages for that loss.

How does an experienced wrongful death attorney help clients to calculate non-economic damages in a wrongful death case?

Calculating non-economic damages in a wrongful death case is more of an art than a science. There is nothing that says if a person loses this, then a person gets this amount of money. So, the way to create the number of damages is to really go through and do the research and do the background of checking into this family and into this decedent’s loved ones to see what it is exactly that they lost.

And then a person can prove those damages with an economist, proving what their lost income would be and what their lost value and benefits to the family was economically. And then a person can also prove the non-economic damages with the witness statements and any videos and pictures and things that a person could try to bring to life the decedent and the effect that he had on the loved ones around him, and it is more of an art than a science because really a person creates the damages by really putting into life everything that this family has gone through since losing their loved one.