The Wonderful Blog Which You ve Never Seen

Do you know anyone who has been hit by a reckless driver or a careless motorist, shot dead due to mistaken identity, killed due to medical malpractice, etc.? These are examples of wrongful death cases. Generally, these cases are caused by another person’s negligence, carelessness, malpractice or inaction. Even though the death is unintentional, it is still the responsibility of the defendant to provide just compensation for the survivors or victims of wrongful death cases.

Prior to a wrongful death incident, you can file wrongful death lawsuits if you are a relative of the wrongful death victims. Winning these civil lawsuits can recover payment for damages to the victims’ lives. The compensation may cover medical and funeral costs, lost wages including future earnings, lost benefits, lost inheritance, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of support or companionship, general damages, and punitive damages. However, the last compensation may not be awarded without additional evidence of malicious intent.

Simply, the immediate family members such as the parents, spouses and children of the deceased can file the wrongful death lawsuits on their loved ones’ behalf because they are almost always eligible to file a claim. Minors may need an adult guardian to take a wrongful death lawsuit to court. Moreover, other family members including the stepparents, grandparents and dependents may also be permitted to file suit in some states.

If you realize you have a valid wrongful death claim, you must first consult one of the experienced wrongful death lawyers in your area. Doing so is very important because a wrongful death lawyer can help you gather evidence, understand the law, complete necessary paperwork, and build a convincing lawsuit against the defendant. In addition, to have an attorney can also help lessen the pain, stress and suffering you may be experiencing due to the incident.

The law states that there is a certain amount of time allotted that a person who has lost a loved one due to wrongful death has to initiate a lawsuit. Family members are usually allowed between one and three years from the time of death to file a claim. If they fail to do so, their claims may be shelved forever. Therefore, if you have lost a loved one because of wrongful death, speak to a personal injury attorney for details regarding the reliability of your case now. After all, your loved ones deserve justice for their untimely death and you too for your misery.

For comments and questions about the article, you may visit http://www.mesrianilaw.com

Share This

No Comments »

March 8-9, 2004

The case: Plaintiff sues Defendant for negligence in that her 11 year old son shot neighbor plaintiff’s 10 year old daughter with a BB gun. The BB lodged in the girl’s neck. This happened three years ago and the decision was made not to remove the BB, that leaving it there would be harmless.

The Jury: 8 people; three men five women.

Men:

Me-72 years old, former school teacher, liberal democrat.

Laughing fireman, age about 25-makes a joke about everything, always laughing.

Ex-military, reading a Christian bestseller for his church group, age 70’s-pompous and smirking, self-righteous, wants to bring back corporal punishment.

Women:

Artist, in her 20’s, bright, gender not clear, tattoos burned off arms. Conservative, punitive.

Foreperson by assumption- said she was 22 - very overweight math teacher-to-be, takes over, pushes others around, acts coy, talks incessantly.

Well-to-do, married, in her 70’s, very conservative, intelligent.

PE coach and nurse - in her 60’s, tough, coarse, conservative

Married woman, sensible, caring, in her 50’s, conservative.

The suit charged negligence. I felt that was not true. The mother had taught her son to be careful; the gun was kept in her room until she felt she could trust him, that he was not to use it without her being present. Someone else got the gun from the house, an older boy, and the son picked it up, called to the girl who was playing on the fence between the yards and said he was going to shoot, thinking it was empty. The girl turned, the boy shot, the BB hit.

Doctors agree that BB need not be removed and no future problems should arise.

The other 7 jurors were willing to listen to my argument, then ignored it, did not discuss, did not ponder. They had decided she was negligent, even though each one of them recounted a story or two about their own indiscretions as youngsters, and none was willing to say that their mothers were negligent; it’s just the sort of thing that can happen to kids.

The group felt that there was no reason to award a large amount. We (I had been marginalized since I was not a signer, but I was able to participate) calculated the medical bills and added on $10,000 for pain and suffering and possible future surgery; even though three doctors said there would never be any need for it.

We all thought that the attorneys for the plaintiff were obnoxious, ill-prepared and sarcastic. The judge seemed uncomfortable.

When the clerk read the verdict, she had to ask the judge to verify for her that the figure was correct, seemed to find it unbelievably low.

No emotion was registered by anyone in the court, no smile no frown.

Only one of the jurors who signed the verdict was willing to stay and answer questions. She was the caring married woman and she gave a good summary to the lawyers and litigants. I stayed also and told my point of view.

This was the second jury I served on. The first one was an armed robbery case. The verdict was guilty, and I concurred, but the process was hurried and careless. I had to get them to go over the evidence again so we could have a reasonable discussion. Some jurors expressed thanks that we spent more time on it.

It is not fair or reasonable for me to draw any vast conclusion from these two experiences, but it certainly makes me wonder about the jury system.

Post Script: The day after I prepared this article for eZineArticles I received a notice that I have been called up for jury duty, again.

Jack Wilson is a writer and artist from Los Angeles and Phoenix.

http://www.geocities.com/galimatio/jackwilson.html

Share This

No Comments »

In Dockerty v FM Fabrications, Dockerty claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed by his employers, FM Fabrications. The Employment Tribunal held in favour of Dockerty and ruled that the redundancy process by which Dockerty had been chosen for dismissal was unfair resulting in an unfair dismissal. The Employment Tribunal ordered FM Fabrications to pay Dockerty

Share This

No Comments »