Families who lose a loved one to a tragic accident can hold those who contributed to the accident financially liable. Close relatives can seek help with funeral bills and in replacing the income the victim may have always supported the family.
Maison Law represents Humboldt County families who have experienced a loss due to someone’s negligence. Please contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with a real McKinleyville lawyer and find out about every benefit available to your family.
Should My Family Have a Lawyer When Filing a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
If your loved one is killed in an accident caused by someone else’s mistake, your family has the legal right to seek justice and financial restitution. These cases can be complex. And if they involve a business, there may be corporate lawyers involved, hoping to limit what your family receives.
These are just a few of the protections and benefits a McKinleyville wrongful death lawyer can provide to your family:
- Investigating the fatal accident and collecting evidence so the fault in the accident can’t be changed
- Filing a claim on behalf of all family members
- Handling the frustrating negotiations with insurers while family members are allowed to grieve in peace
- Making sure every hardship the family faces and will face in the future is represented in a settlement check
- Filing a lawsuit and taking an at-fault party and insurers to court if they refuse to accept full blame for what happened
- Often, earning families much more than they could hope to secure by filing a case themselves
A Wrongful Death Attorney protects your family’s rights and makes sure the facts of the accident can’t be changed by unfair insurance adjusters.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim After a Fatal Accident?
California allows close family members, usually a spouse or children of the victim, to file a wrongful death claim on behalf of all survivors (remaining family members).
Those who would be eligible to receive a share of a wrongful death settlement check would be:
- A spouse or partner
- Children and adopted children of the victim
- The grandchildren of the victim, if their parents are no longer living
- In some cases, parents and siblings of the deceased
A California wrongful death lawyer can file this claim on behalf of the entire family. The lawyer would demand fair treatment for all family members and seek the most possible for those left behind.
An attorney could also represent just one member of the family in a wrongful death case. The lawyer would see that the client received a fair share of any support provided by those at fault.
The Types of Wrongful Death Claims We Help Families Litigate
There are many accident threats in and around McKinleyville. One of the most potentially dangerous hazards can be found on local roads each day. A distracted driver speeding along Central Avenue might ram an SUV from behind. A careless truck driver could lose control of a semi-truck on Highway 101 and strike a much smaller vehicle head-on.
These collisions carry deadly force, but there are other ways local residents can be put at risk of life-threatening injury. Businesses might accidentally create scary risks for customers on their properties. A landlord might become negligent in keeping stairs and decks maintained, allowing for a deadly collapse.
These are just a few of the different types of deadly accidents we commonly represent families for:
- Deadly Car accidents
- Deadly Truck accidents
- Fatal Motorcycle accidents
- Fatal Pedestrian accidents
- Deadly Bicycle accidents
- Drownings
- Deadly Slip-and-fall accidents
- Nursing Home Abuse
- Criminal acts that claim lives
- Fatal construction accidents
- Fatal farmworker accidents
- Fatal accidents in any workplace
In the case of a work accident, California’s Workers’ Compensation would provide death benefits for families left behind, but not every family receives the same level of support. A skilled wrongful death attorney can make sure administrators provide everything the family needs to rebuild their lives and protect themselves in the future.
What Can I Receive Support for in a Humboldt County Wrongful Death Claim?
Nothing can bring back a loved one, but grieving families are often forced to take action when the financial toll of a sudden death comes due. This can include things like burial costs and emergency response fees. These costs become even harder to cover when the deceased’s weekly income is lost as well.
There are several types of damages that could be available to a family after suffering from these fatal losses. These include some of the following:
Medical Bills: Your loved one may have incurred various medical bills before their passing, which you can be reimbursed for in a wrongful death claim.
Loss of Financial Support: When a loved one is no longer able to support a spouse and children with a weekly income. This has an effect on the family’s safety and stability in the short term and in the long run.
Funeral and Burial Expenses: The costs of funerals and burials can easily reach into the thousands of dollars.
Loss of Emotional Support: When a loved one is no longer able to give emotional support to spouses, children, or other loved ones.
Loss of Cherished Life Moments: A loved one won’t be around to take part in major life events such as graduations, birthdays, weddings, and the birth of children.
What Kind of Documents Should I Bring to a Consultation With A Wrongful Death Attorney?
Families handling their own cases will want to secure some important documents before filing a wrongful death claim.
Families who turn their cases over to a wrongful death attorney will also want to bring any documents they’ve obtained to a meeting with their lawyer.
These are some of the pieces of evidence that can help build a strong case against at-fault parties:
- Accident Reports and Incident Reports. After a truck accident, families may need to request a copy of an accident report from the California Highway Patrol. If a loved one died on someone’s property or at a business, the owners and operators may have written up an incident report that will serve as evidence for your case.
- Coroner’s Report and Death Certificate. A Death Certificate will be important to help with the settling of affairs for a loved one that’s passed on. A coroner’s report may be necessary to prove how the victim died. You can find information on obtaining these documents here.
- Receipts. When relatives meet with an attorney for a free consultation, it’s helpful to bring any receipts from medical treatment and ambulance fees. Bills for emergency response fees should also be included. Close relatives should keep invoices for anything pertaining to the accident and death. That can include funeral and burial costs.
- Paystubs. You’ll need to prove how much income and support have been lost since the death of a beloved family member. Bring the victim’s old pay stubs and W-2s to prove what they have provided to a spouse and children in the past.
- Photos and Surveillance Video. If you have any photos from the scene of the accident or from the hospital (if the victim didn’t die immediately), include them in your claim. Request any surveillance video that may have captured what exactly happened in an accident. If you hire a Maison Law attorney for the wrongful death case, you can rest assured that video will be requested and collected.
- Witness Statements. Turn over any contact information for witnesses to your attorney. Keep any written statements you receive from witnesses.
Contact a McKinleyville Wrongful Death Lawyer
Families should be allowed the time they need to grieve after a tragic accident, but bills and hardships stemming from a tragedy can make a wrongful death lawsuit necessary. A wrongful death attorney can handle your case privately with as little disruption to close family members as possible.
Contact Maison Law for a free and confidential case evaluation for any family in the McKinleyville area. Our lawyers offer compassionate care to those in mourning to ensure they don’t suffer the financial consequences of someone else’s mistake.
And families who need help securing support don’t need to have any money to hire a wrongful death lawyer. Maison Law doesn’t charge anything unless we win your case for your family. Then our fee is paid out of the settlement money that an insurance company is forced to provide.
