Damages in Columbus Wrongful Death Cases

Damages are the specific losses and injuries for which someone can seek compensation in Columbus, Ohio. In personal injury law, damages are to compensate someone for what they lost. Monetary damages are awarded in the event of an injury or loss when the responsible party had a duty of care to the victim, they breached that duty, and that the damage was the proximate cause of the breach.

If you and your attorney can prove negligence, you may be able to collect damages in a Columbus wrongful death case. While compensation cannot bring your loved one back, it could help cover funeral expenses and the suffering your family has endured. A wrongful death attorney will help you find justice for your loss. However, it is important to note that in a Columbus wrongful death claims, only the decedent’s spouse, children, parents, and next of kin can recover damages for a wrongful death claim.

Economic and Non-Economic Damages in Wrongful Death Cases

An experienced Columbus wrongful death attorney can help your family understand economic versus non-economic damages. Economic damages are the result of monetary losses that are directly suffered due to a loved one’s death. It helps to think of economic damages as losses with a dedicated price tag such as medical bills, specific lost wages, funeral bills, burial expenses. Non-economic damages include pain, suffering, emotional anguish, and in the case of a wrongful death, one of the things the statute provides is loss of society.

Calculating Damages After a Loved One Passes

Many things can be considered to itemize damages. The first matter in a wrongful death case is the funeral and burial expenses. Our experienced Columbus wrongful death attorneys will look at future lost wages to itemize and calculate damages. The family members can recover for the loss of support and the expected earning capacity of their loved one. This includes wages and other benefits the deceased obtained like health insurance, life insurance, fringe benefits, retirement benefits, and other things they would have obtained through work, had they not died.

The last type of damages in Columbus wrongful death cases is compensation for the loss of society and relationships. This is a non-economic damage that includes the loss of counsel, the loss of companionship, training, education, protection, advice, attention, care, and guidance. Your lawyer can evaluate each of these losses to determine the appropriate amount to submit to a jury or an insurance adjuster.

Most of the time, an economic expert is needed to evaluate lost wages. One of the elements used to determine lost wages is the age of the decedent when they died. Education is another factor that plays into future lost income, even for a young person working at a starting job. In cases where the decedent is a minor, the family could pursue financial compensation for loss of consortium.

How a Lawyer Could Help Secure Damages

An experienced Columbus wrongful death attorney knows what evidence is needed to prove damages. Evidence for economic damages includes pay stubs, employment files, personnel files, work history, tax returns, and all of the documents that might prove lost wages. The lawyer knows how to collect the medical bills in any particular case when those items are needed to support the economic damage.

Our attorneys can help your family identify the damages you deserve during a difficult time. Something that might be allowed under the law as a damage, may not be what a family member thinks of as a typical damage. Having concrete examples along with a checklist for economic and non-economic damages is very important to demonstrate the damages to the adjuster in a claim or the jury if the case goes to trial.

Settlement in Columbus Wrongful Death Cases

Settlement negotiations affect the amount a family receives, particularly when some of the information is not available to the adjuster or the opposing attorney. To have an effective negotiation, you must have all of their evidence together and organized in a way that shows the true losses in their claim and demonstrates that the other party is responsible for the wrongful death. To learn more about damages in Columbus wrongful death cases by calling our dedicated legal team today.