WGK Personal Injury Lawyers | October 4, 2024 | Wrongful Death
If you suffer an injury due to someone else’s misconduct, you can sue them for personal injury. But what happens if the victim dies from their injuries? Maryland’s wrongful death statute allows certain parties to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the responsible party.
Standing to Sue
If a famous politician dies, you cannot use that to file a wrongful death lawsuit, at least not unless you are related to them in some way. In legal terms, we would say that you have no standing to sue, which is another way of saying you have no legal interest in the case. So, what kind of relationship with the deceased victim do you need to establish standing?
Primary Beneficiaries
In Maryland, the victim’s spouse, parent, or child can file a wrongful death lawsuit as primary beneficiaries.
Secondary Beneficiaries
If the victim has no surviving spouse, parent, or child, you can file a wrongful lawsuit if you were a financial dependent of the victim and were related to the victim by blood or marriage.
Default Plaintiffs
If no primary or secondary beneficiary survives the victim, the personal representative (executor) of the victim’s estate can file the lawsuit. The personal representative is the person who the victim named as such in their will. If the victim left no will, the personal representative is the person appointed by the probate court. In unusual cases, a third party, such as the legal guardian of a deceased minor child, may file the lawsuit.
Elements of a Wrongful Death Claim
Proving a wrongful death claim works a lot like proving a personal injury claim, except that it is the survivor, not the victim, who files the lawsuit. Like a personal injury lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit can be based on negligence, intentional misconduct, strict liability, or vicarious liability.
Negligence is the most common basis of a wrongful death claim. To establish a wrongful death claim based on negligence, you must prove the following facts:
- The perpetrator owed the victim a duty of care—the duty to drive safely, for example, or to competently perform surgery.
- The perpetrator must have breached their duty of care. They drove unsafely, for example, or they performed surgery in an incompetent manner.
- The victim must have died.
- The defendant’s breach of duty must have been the foreseeable cause of the victim’s death.
Different elements apply to intentional misconduct, for example, for strict product liability. These elements resemble the elements of a personal injury case of the same nature.
The Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations sets the deadline by which you must have either filed a lawsuit or secured the defendant’s signature on a settlement agreement. If the statute of limitations deadline passes and you have not done either, then you cannot maintain a lawsuit, and you will have no bargaining power in settlement negotiations.
In most cases, Maryland allows you three years after the victim’s date of death (rather than the date of their injury) to file a wrongful death lawsuit or finalize a settlement. Exceptions sometimes apply.
Damages
As a survivor, you might qualify for the following damages in a Maryland wrongful death claim:
- Loss of financial support,
- Compensation for your own emotional pain and suffering,
- Loss of society, companionship, comfort, and protection,
- Loss of care, and
- Loss of attention, advice, counsel, training, guidance, or education.
If more than one person qualifies to file the lawsuit, the court will distribute the damages among all eligible plaintiffs in the manner that it considers just and reasonable. The court will apply judicial precedent to determine the exact distribution of damages.
Survival Actions
The estate executor can bring a separate survival action on behalf of the victim’s estate. Possible damages include medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering before death.
Wrongful Death and Criminal Charges
Many wrongful death scenarios also constitute crimes–a DUI crash that causes the victim to die, for example. Only the prosecutor can make the decision to seek criminal charges. Since the burden of proof is much higher for a criminal charge than for a civil lawsuit, you can still win a civil lawsuit even if the defendant wins an acquittal in criminal court.
Contact the Baltimore Wrongful Death Lawyers at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers Today For Help
A human life is nothing to take lightly, and that is why successful wrongful death claims typically bring in a lot of money. Although there can be no guarantee, an experienced Maryland wrongful death lawyer might triple or even quadruple the value of your claim. Under the contingency fee arrangement that almost all personal injury lawyers use, you only pay attorney’s fees if you win.
For more information contact the Baltimore personal injury law firm of WGK Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free initial consultation.
WGK Personal Injury Lawyers
14 W Madison St, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States
(410) 837-2144
WGK Personal Injury Lawyers – Dundalk Office
7329 Holabird Ave Suite 3, Dundalk, MD 21222
By appointment only
(410) 970-3080