It's hard to imagine what somebody goes through when somebody dearest to them dies as a result of the negligence of another.  

 

It's heartbreaking and you need somebody to get you through it. This emotional time can affect your judgment. 

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Insurance companies don't care about your compromised judgment in situations like this. They'll deny liability and evade policy limit payout. Don't take them on by yourself. Call the personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at The Law Offices of Matthew M. Vincent today to assist. We will investigate all avenues of recovery to ensure that you get all you're entitled to. 

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ABOUT WRONGFUL DEATH ACTIONS: Only those persons expressly set forth in CCP § 377.60 have standing to maintain a wrongful death action.

 

The victim decedent's surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and issue of deceased children; or, if there is no surviving issue, the persons, including the surviving spouse or domestic partner, who would be entitled to succeed to the estate if the victim had died intestate.

 

As a general rule, each wrongful death claimant is entitled to damages for all detriment he or she personally suffered and is likely to suffer in the future because of decedent's death.

 

The measure of damages is not limited to out-of-pocket losses; rather, it covers the total value of the benefits the claimants could reasonably expect to receive had decedent lived.

 

The following are among the compensable losses: 

 

1) Direct pecuniary loss: Each eligible claimant can recover damages for the support and other financial benefits he or she would have received from decedent. This includes not only “necessities of life” (food, clothing, shelter), but also any financial contributions decedent probably would have made to or for the claimant's benefit. It can also encompass the increased estate the claimant would likely have inherited from the additional wealth decedent would have accumulated but for his or her premature death.

 

2) Loss of services, advice or training: Quite apart from direct pecuniary losses, each claimant is entitled to compensation for the services he or she could reasonably have expected to receive from decedent. The most obvious example is the loss of household services that follows the death of a spouse or parent. But the children of a deceased parent can also recover the value of the parent's advice and services in their training and education.

 

3) Loss of love, companionship, comfort, affection, society, solace or moral support: In many cases, decedent did not contribute measurable income to the family unit (e.g., decedent was elderly or retired, not a wage earner, or a very young child). Even so, the death may cause substantial injury to the family, compensable regardless whether a technical pecuniary loss is also shown. Wrongful death claimants—particularly parents, spouses, registered domestic partners and children—are therefore entitled to damages for a proven loss of “love, comfort, companionship, society, affection, solace or moral support.”

 

4) Funeral expenses: Wrongful death claimants can likewise recover the reasonable expenses incurred for decedent's burial and funeral services. And, even where these costs have been paid by the estate, claimant is entitled to compensation to the extent his or her inheritance was reduced by such payment.

 

5) Reduction to present value: The portion of a wrongful death award representing damages for future economic loss must be discounted to present value. For this purpose, economic loss includes direct pecuniary loss, loss of services, and loss of love, comfort and society.

 

If a loved one has been killed by the negligence of another don't wait call the professionals at The Law Offices of Matthew M. Vincent in Temecula today.  

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