If someone close to you recently passed away in an accident, we want to extend our deepest condolences to your family. We understand what it is like to lose a loved one. If you believe someone else had the power to prevent your loved one’s death, your family can seek justice with a wrongful death claim. Discuss how our Athens wrongful death attorney can help you and your family today during a free consultation.
Why Is it Important to Hire an Athens Wrongful Death Lawyer?
An Atlanta wrongful death lawyer can provide the help you need during an extremely difficult time in your life. Rather than taking on the legal process in addition to mourning your loved one and planning a funeral, you can hire an attorney to take care of the legal side of things on your behalf.
Your attorney will know exactly what to do to hold someone accountable and maximize your financial recovery. This can be important for your family’s ability to pay the bills and pick up the pieces. More important than the financial outcome, however, is the peace of mind you can achieve by hiring an attorney to deal with legal issues for you.
What Is Wrongful Death?
Wrongful death is a civil tort, or wrongdoing. In Georgia, the definition of wrongful death is the negligent, reckless, intentional or criminal acts of one person causing the death of another. Wrongful death claims are similar to personal injury lawsuits in that they seek to make victims whole again by holding a defendant responsible for his or her negligence.
In civil law, negligence is the failure to uphold the correct level of care. An individual or entity does not have to have an intent to harm or kill to be liable in a wrongful death case. Instead, proving a wrongful death case only requires evidence that the defendant breached a duty of care that he or she owed another person and that this caused or substantially contributed to the victim’s fatal injury.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Georgia?
Even if you have evidence that someone died in a preventable accident, you may not have grounds to file a wrongful death claim in Georgia based on your relationship to the decedent. State law restricts the right to file this type of lawsuit to a deceased person’s surviving spouse, child, parent or a personal representative of the estate. Unless you are one of these parties, you generally cannot file a claim to recover financial compensation under state law. Contact an Athens wrongful death lawyer to determine if you can file a claim for the loss of a close one.
What Compensation Is Available?
At BMW Law, we realize that money is often the furthest thing from our clients’ minds during wrongful death lawsuits. No amount of money can ever make up for the preventable loss of life. However, we also recognize the importance of financial assistance for surviving loved ones after an unexpected death in the family, especially if the victim was a family’s main earner.
A successful wrongful death lawsuit in Georgia could reimburse your family for several losses connected to the passing of your loved one. A settlement or judgment award could pay your family for what it has spent on funeral and burial costs, medical expenses, property repairs, and legal fees. It could also include an amount to cover non-economic damages, such as the loss of your loved one’s company and his or her pain and suffering before death.
Contact a Wrongful Death Lawyer in Athens, GA Today
You may be feeling mentally and emotionally overwhelmed after losing someone you love in a traumatic accident. Filing a wrongful death lawsuit can offer closure by holding a wrongdoer accountable and giving your deceased loved one a voice in the civil justice system.
Discuss how the Athens wrongful death attorneys at BMW Law Group can help your family in more detail today. Request a free consultation using our online contact form or by calling (770) 225-4710 anytime.
