How are you and your family supposed to recover from the sudden death of a loved one? If you’re contending with life-changing grief, you may not be thinking about your right to name a negligent party responsible for your family’s losses. Fortunately, our Norwalk wrongful death lawyers do take your rights into account.
The team with Skiber Law believes in helping grieving families get justice for shocking losses. Our Norwalk personal injury lawyers have recovered over $100 million in damages for our clients.
You and your family may feel helpless in the face of someone else’s unchecked negligence. In reality, there are legal options available to you. You can rely on our competent and compassionate team to walk you through those options, fend off insurance companies, and prioritize your right to a comprehensive financial recovery.
Should You Contact a Norwalk Wrongful Death Lawyer After a Loved One’s Accident?
It’s not easy to contend with the aftermath of a loved one’s sudden and tragic death, even before you consider the legal aspects of your family’s recovery.
If you want to hold the right people responsible for your family’s emotional and financial losses, you need to work with a law firm that will give you the space you need to grieve while preserving your right to action.
Fortunately, our wrongful death attorneys in Norwalk, CT, make wrongful death services accessible to everyone in need. Our representation does not lock families into civil trials.
Instead, our early support can prevent insurance companies and other parties from trying to sweep your right to legal action under the rug with underwhelming settlements.
More specifically, our team can investigate the accidental or intentional actions that led to your loved one’s passing, preserving your right to legal action while you and your family grieve your loss of companionship. The sooner you get in touch, the sooner our personal injury attorneys can fight for your financial future.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Norwalk?
Your family has every right to reach out to a legal professional with an understanding of wrongful death law in Connecticut. However, if you want to file a lawsuit against a negligent party, you must prove that you are the deceased’s executor or estate administrator.
The state of Connecticut will only allow parties in these roles to take legal action on behalf of a deceased person. Connecticut General Statute §52-555 goes into these restrictions in more detail.
Normally, Connecticut residents name their personal executors in their wills, meaning you can refer to that documentation when determining whether or not you have the right to take wrongful death action on behalf of the deceased. If the deceased didn’t name a representative, that responsibility falls to the state.
What to Expect When You Work With a Norwalk Wrongful Death Lawyer
Our team of attorneys offers personalized legal representation to families struggling with the aftermath of a loved one’s fatal accident. When you meet with our team for an initial consultation, you can expect us to ask about your long-term goals for financial recovery and the justice you want from a liable party.
Once we understand your goals, we can:
- Begin gathering evidence of the negligence that led to your loved one’s passing
- Compile that evidence into a narrative of negligence
- Communicate with insurance claims adjusters and emphasize your right to support based on a loved one’s losses
- Prevent insurance companies from minimizing your losses or inappropriately denying you financial support
- Compose a personal injury claim on behalf of your family and a deceased loved one
- File that claim before Connecticut’s statute of limitations expires
- Oversee settlement negotiations between you and a liable party’s representatives, should you wish to pursue negotiations
- Reach out to witnesses and request their involvement in a trial as necessary
- Prepare you to go to trial
Civil Cases Versus Criminal Cases
Oftentimes, the negligence that leads to a loved one’s wrongful death breaks Connecticut state law. The party responsible for your loved one’s death may face arrest and a criminal trial. However, our wrongful death lawyers in Norwalk do not pursue criminal cases. That duty falls to skilled attorneys in the prosecutor’s office.
Instead, our team can take your fight for justice to civil court. There, we can ask for compensation based on your family’s financial losses. That support can relieve your economic stress and let you focus on your need to grieve.
However, there are some areas in which your criminal and civil cases may overlap. If Connecticut’s criminal courts convict the person responsible for your loved one’s death of a misdemeanor or felony, that conviction can serve as proof of negligence in your civil case.
We’ll stay up to date on criminal proceedings to determine if we can use the findings to benefit you.
Our Norwalk Wrongful Death Lawyers Work on Contingency
Many families are worried that the cost of working with an experienced lawyer to recover from a loved one’s loss might put their financial future at risk. This isn’t the case when you turn to Skiber Law for support.
The fatal injuries attorneys with Skiber Law don’t require clients to pay a deposit or retainer before starting their case. Additionally, the team will not send clients bills while their wrongful death cases are in progress.
Skiber Law’s contingency fee agreement ensures that our attorneys only receive pay for the legal representation they offer if they secure damages on behalf of their clients.
In other words, Skiber Law’s attorneys only get paid if we win your case. There’s no financial risk to worry about when working with our team.
How to Prove Your Right to a Wrongful Death Claim
If you serve as a deceased individual’s personal executor and decide that you want to help your family financially recover from a loved one’s death, there are different tools you can use to kickstart the process.
If the person responsible for your loved one’s death has applicable insurance coverage, you can work with an experienced attorney to file an insurance claim demanding maximum compensation for a loved one’s lost future earnings, medical expenses, funeral expenses, and other losses.
If an insurer won’t recognize your right to a comprehensive settlement, or if a liable party doesn’t have coverage, you can file a personal injury claim against a negligent party.
Filing a personal injury claim doesn‘t require you to take a liable party to trial. However, these claims allow you and a Norwalk wrongful death attorney to go to trial if the need to do so arises.
What’s the Statute of Limitations for Wrongful Death Cases in Connecticut?
Should you decide to move forward with your fight for financial compensation in civil court, you need to stay on top of the deadlines the court puts on your right to file a claim. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-584 allows personal executors to take no more than two years to complete their wrongful death claims.
Our team recognizes that your family is going through a challenging time. Your grief will likely stay with you for years following a loved one’s passing. That’s why we offer to bear the responsibility of filing your claim.
Our wrongful death lawyers in Norwalk, CT, can put our extensive experience to work finding the evidence necessary to prove your right to a claim while you prioritize time with your family.
With our help, you can finish your paperwork before your statute of limitations expires, ensuring that you have the chance to get justice for a loved one’s death.
Types of Wrongful Death Accidents
Various accidents attributable to the negligence of others can lead to someone’s untimely death. Common types of accidents that result in wrongful death claims include:
- Medical malpractice
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Dangerous drugs
- Fatal premises liability accidents
- Defective products
- Workplace accidents
Depending on the nature of the accident and resulting injuries, some victims may pass away instantaneously, or they may live for some time before succumbing to their injuries.
In either situation, surviving family members of the deceased could bring a wrongful death claim for damages if the negligence of others caused their loved one’s death. A Norwalk, CT, wrongful death attorney could review a representative’s claim and determine if the cause of their family member’s death may result in a valid lawsuit.
What Compensation to Ask for When Filing a Norwalk Wrongful Death Claim
During wrongful death settlement negotiations, you and your family have the right to request compensation that accounts for the economic and non-economic losses you’ve wrongfully endured in the face of someone else’s negligence.
Our team has a record of success securing optimal settlements on behalf of the families of wrongful death victims. We use evidence to prove families’ rights to compensation for losses like:
- Loss of life
- Funeral expenses
- A victim’s pre-death pain and suffering
- Last medical expenses and other bills
- Funeral services and burial costs
- Lost income, lost benefits, and lost opportunities to secure income
- Emotional distress
- The family’s pain and suffering
- Reduced quality of life
If you take a wrongful death claim to civil court, a judge may also deem it appropriate to award you and your family punitive damages. Punitive damages punish a negligent party for their egregious behavior and work as a deterrent against future misconduct. However, you may not request punitive damages in your initial claim.
What’s the Average Settlement for a Wrongful Death Claim?
There is no such thing as an “average” wrongful death settlement in Connecticut. The circumstances that led to fatal accidents throughout the state will differ from family to family. The settlement you receive in the wake of a loved one’s passing should subsequently account for your family’s unique losses.
That said, our wrongful death lawyers in Norwalk, CT, would never claim that the compensation you receive from a liable party might replace a loved one’s influence on your life. The compensation you receive when pursuing a wrongful death claim is meant to relieve your financial stress during these challenging times.
Skiber Law and its legal team will always approach families’ wrongful death cases with compassion and care. You can trust our team to establish an estimate of your case’s value that takes your family’s future needs into account while respecting your grief.
What Can You Do to Fight for Wrongful Death Compensation?
Our team believes that you and your family are entitled to as much time as you need to grieve a loved one’s preventable death. However, if you want to take steps to make it easier to file a claim against a liable party, you can:
- Keep and organize documents relevant to a loved one’s pre- and post-death expenses
- Document the negligence that you believe led to a loved one’s death
- Contact a Norwalk, CT, wrongful death lawyer shortly after a loved one’s passing
- Have candid conversations about the extent of your family’s loss of income and additional financial strain, as well as your emotional losses
You can work with our team to determine how involved you want to be in the logistics of building a claim against a liable party. You can always trust our team to limit your family’s trauma and oversee the logistics of your case, all while keeping you up to date on applicable legal proceedings.
Contact a Norwalk Wrongful Death Attorney Today
Skiber Law is proud to take a client-centric approach to its personal injury cases. Our reputation for excellence is hard-won and allows us to achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients.
What does this mean for you? In the wake of an accident caused by someone else’s reckless actions, our law firm can step in, step up, and hold responsible parties accountable for your family’s recovery.
We demystify the legal process and make wrongful death lawsuits accessible to families who’ve never interacted with Connecticut’s civil circuit before.
Those efforts make it easier for grieving families to cover a loved one’s medical expenses and other economic losses while still taking the time to grieve. Call today and book your free initial consultation.