February 14, 2011
The family members of a person who dies need to grieve their loss. This is a difficult time under the best of circumstances. When the death of a loved one is caused by the wrong doing of another person, survivors usually have a legal right to be compensated for their loss. An insurance company for the responsible party will frequently have an insurance adjuster contact the grieving family members and try to settle with them before they have time to even think about what their rights are. Insurance adjusters often tell grieving family members they don’t need to hire an attorney to settle the matter; that hiring an attorney will just cost them money; and, hiring an attorney will just delay the settlement.
There are many reasons this is usually bad advice. The most obvious reason not to settle without at least consulting with a wrongful death attorney is few survivors really know what their legal rights are and trying to figure out their legal rights while they are still grieving is a monumental task. Frequently, efforts to save money in legal fees ends up costing more in the long run.
So, what is it that a wrongful death attorney can do to help survivors? Each case is different, but some of the benefits of hiring an experince wrongful death lawyer are:
- An experienced wrongful death attorney will explain to grieving family members how the process of settling a wrongful death case works so the claim can be resolved as fast as possible.
- An experinced wrongful death attorney will determine which members of the “family” have legally viable claims and how the “process” will apply to the facts of this particular case. In other words, the attorney will “tailor” the process to the surviving family members.
- The attorney will investigate and analyse the facts of the accident to determine who is responsible and identify all the potentially liable parties so the maximum damage recovery can be achieved.
- Where multipule parties have responsibility, the attorney will locate and make a claim with all the insurance companies, not just the one which wants to settle and close it’s file.
- There are often multipul “coverages” available under the different insurance policies. Only if each policy is reviewed can the extent of coverage be verified. A wrongful death attorney will know what kind of coverage should be availalbe and will be able to knowledgable examine each policy to verify the coverage.
- A wrongful death lawyer will know what legal claims can be made and by whom. This is a confusing and often illogical area of the law. For example, if the accident victim in a child under the age of 18, the surviving parents have different rights to recover damages than if the the victim is an adult who is married or has children.
- An estate must be opened because the insurance company will want a “release” before it pays money to settle a claim. Only a court appointed personal representative of an estate can execute the release. A wrongul death attorney can get the estate set up or help in hiring an estate attorney.
- When there is a dispute over the cause of the accident or the extent of damages, a wrongful death lawyer can file a law suit in court and take the case to trial in order to recover damages from the parties responsible for the death.
The settlement of a wrongful death case is seldom as simple as an insurance adjuster may make it sound. If you find yourself in need of legal advice related to a wrongful death claim, call Elliott T. Dennis at (907) 929-4890 for a free consultation or send an email to Elliott@attorneydennis.com. We are here to help!