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Our Prac­tice Areas : Injury Law : Wrongful Death

We are sorry if the death of a loved one has brought you to this page.….

We devel­oped this page to assist those who face the life-altering emo­tional and finan­cial con­se­quences of losing a loved one because of another’s neg­li­gence or mis­con­duct. Although we remain sen­si­tive to our client’s emo­tional needs during this dif­fi­cult time, our pri­ority is taking care of their future finan­cial requirements.

If you feel that your loved one has died because of someone else’s neg­li­gent, reck­less or care­less behavior, con­tact the Ziff Law Firm as soon as pos­sible because prompt inves­ti­ga­tion of your case is crit­ical to our suc­cess. We have a proven track record of achieving great results on behalf of our clients.

Our attor­neys, Carl Hayden, Jim Reed and Adam Gee are familiar with the phys­ical, emo­tional and finan­cial damage that wrongful death can cause. We are a team of legal pro­fes­sionals that has pro­vided skilled, aggres­sive and eth­ical legal ser­vices to res­i­dents of New York and Penn­syl­vania for more than 50 years.

Wrongful Death and Dam­ages
In legal terms, wrongful death refers to a fatality that occurs because of the neg­li­gence or mis­deeds of another person, cor­po­ra­tion or entity. Part of the “per­sonal injury”? tort family, wrongful death holds an indi­vidual, group or cor­po­ra­tion (defen­dant) account­able for causing injury to another person (plain­tiff). The pri­mary goal of a per­sonal injury tort is to pro­vide relief (dam­ages) to the plain­tiff and to deter the defen­dant from inflicting fur­ther harm to others. In a wrongful death action, con­sid­er­a­tion is given to the earn­ings the deceased would have pro­vided to their family had they lived, and dam­ages are awarded to sur­vivors based on this mon­e­tary loss.

State laws vary as to who may pursue a wrongful death claim. Gen­er­ally, it is the imme­diate family mem­bers (spouses, chil­dren and par­ents); how­ever, some states allow grand­par­ents, legal depen­dents or mem­bers of the extended family to file suit. The amount of dam­ages awarded will depend on the plaintiff’s rela­tion­ship to the deceased, while the com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages may include com­pen­sa­tion for the following:

• Reim­burse­ment for all med­ical expenses incurred as a result of the negligence.
• Reim­burse­ment for the loss of any future income.
• Reim­burse­ment for prop­erty damage, if applicable.
• Reim­burse­ment for any future ser­vices nor­mally pro­vided to you by the person who has died.
• Reim­burse­ment for loss of con­sor­tium, meaning a spouse’s right to the com­pan­ion­ship, help and affec­tion from the person who has died.
• Reim­burse­ment for any puni­tive dam­ages if the neg­li­gence was found to be criminal.

Proving Neg­li­gence
Typ­i­cally, wrongful death suits involve vehic­ular acci­dents (avi­a­tion, auto­mo­bile, ATV, motor­cycle, or rail­road), defec­tive prod­ucts, med­ical mal­prac­tice, phar­ma­ceu­tical lia­bility, and a number of other sit­u­a­tions. The common ele­ment in most tort actions is neg­li­gence, which is char­ac­ter­ized by inat­ten­tion, thought­less­ness, inad­ver­tence, and mis­takes. Neg­li­gence must be proven in wrongful death cases and the Ziff Law Firm is skilled in helping clients prove that the four crit­ical com­po­nents of neg­li­gence exist in their claim:

1. The defen­dant had a duty to the deceased;
2. The defen­dant failed in that duty (breach of duty);
3. That the fatality was caused by the defendant’s breach of duty; and
4. That the sur­vivors are enti­tled to dam­ages as a result of the loss of their loved one.

In addi­tion to estab­lishing neg­li­gence, the joint life expectancy of the deceased and the sur­vivor or ben­e­fi­ciary must be pre­sented (to estab­lish the loss of future earn­ings), and the rela­tion­ship of the sur­vivor and deceased must also be shown. Finally, effec­tive pre­sen­ta­tion of the non-economical or emo­tional loss suf­fered by the sur­vivor is crit­ical to a fair award of damages.

Expe­ri­enced and Under­standing Rep­re­sen­ta­tion
If you feel that you have the basis for a wrongful death suit, it is impor­tant to con­tact an attorney imme­di­ately. We will out­line the doc­u­men­ta­tion required, the deci­sions that must be made, and will con­tinue to guide you through the legal process.

At the Ziff Law Firm, we rec­og­nize the deep trust placed in us by our clients, and we strive to uphold that trust by working hard and fighting hard for our clients. We do the best we pos­sibly can for every client on every case. So, please call Ziff Law Firm at 1−800−806−2852, or save time with our online Con­tact Form.

Please see our Wrongful Death Fre­quently Asked Ques­tions for more infor­ma­tion on Wrongful Death.

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