If someone’s negligence caused the death of your family member, you have the right to pursue compensation. Damages you receive in an insurance settlement or court award could at least relieve the financial burden you are facing.
Let a Savannah wrongful death accident lawyer at Kaine Law represent you in your pursuit of compensation. We will handle your case with compassion and professionalism as we fight to preserve your right to recover damages.
We Will Work to Bring You Justice and Compensation After a Wrongful Death
Under Georgia law, you have the right to collect certain types of compensation when someone’s negligence causes the death of a family member. It is difficult to say how much compensation you could receive in your case, as the circumstances of your case are unique.
However, Georgia law stipulates the types of damages to which you could be entitled to. Wrongful death damages include:
- Funeral costs, burial/cremation costs, and other expenses stemming from your deceased family member’s injury or death
- Medical expenses your deceased family member incurred from the time of their injury until their death, as well as pain and suffering, and other damages
- The full value of your deceased family member’s life
Our attorneys will explore your current and possible future losses. We will hold any negligent parties accountable for damages.
For a free legal consultation with a wrongful death lawyer serving Savannah, call 404-214-2001
Understanding Full Value of Life in Georgia’s Wrongful Death Law
O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2states that as a family member of someone who was killed as the result of another person or entity’s negligence, you can make a claim for “the full value of the life of the decedent.”
Georgia quantifies this value from the deceased person’s point of view, accounting for both of the following:
- Non-economic: The intangible qualities of the deceased individual, such as their family and relationships
- Economic: The tangible aspects of the deceased person, such as their financial contributions and their contributions to the family’s household
Savannah Wrongful Death Lawyer Near Me 404-214-2001
What Our Lawyers Do in a Wrongful Death Case
Our law firm is very sorry for the grief you and your family are experiencing. It is our mission to relieve you of some of your emotional burden by handling your case from start to finish: investigating the accident that caused your family member’s death, establishing liability, negotiating a settlement, and, if necessary, filing a lawsuit and representing you at trial.
Types of Wrongful Death Accidents
Wrongful deaths can occur from a broad range of causes, including:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Premises accidents (slip and fall)
- Defective products
- Workplace accidents
How We Investigate Wrongful Death Accidents
When our lawyers represent you in your wrongful death claim, we will need to support your deceased family member’s full value of life with evidence.
This means we will begin building your case with evidence from a thorough investigation of the circumstances that brought about your loved one’s death.
Our investigation efforts could involve:
- Gathering evidence at the accident scene
- Interviewing witnesses
- Studying traffic signal or surveillance camera footage
- Reviewing the Savannah Police Department’s accident report
- Collecting medical records
- Working with accident reconstruction specialists
- Reviewing a motorist’s driving record
How Our Lawyers Establish Liability in a Wrongful Death Accident
Georgia law establishes four elements that must be present in a case for it to constitute a wrongful death:
- Duty of care: Drivers, for example, have a legal duty to drive safely to keep others from suffering injuries.
- Breach of duty: When someone neglects the safety of others, perhaps by running a red light, they breach their duty of care.
- Causation: A breach of duty causes an accident—in the car accident example, running the red light caused the driver to crash into another vehicle, causing its passenger to sustain fatal injuries.
- Damages: The deceased suffered tangible losses, such as medical bills, and the surviving family suffered financial losses from loss of income, funeral costs, and other unexpected expenses.
Our lawyers will apply the evidence from our investigation to prove negligence so we can hold the responsible parties liable for this wrongful death.
Negotiating a Settlement
To resolve your wrongful death case, our attorneys will negotiate with the liable parties’ insurance companies to arrive at a fair settlement agreement. If the insurance adjusters refuse to offer compensation that we feel accurately reflects your losses, we will prepare to take your case to trial.
Filing a Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Although wrongful death claims typically resolve with a settlement, from day one, our law firm will build your case as though it were going to trial. It is important to note that Georgia’s statute of limitations for wrongful death (O.C.G.A § 9-3-33) generally gives you two years from the date of your loved one’s death to file a lawsuit against liable parties.
By hiring our firm earlier rather than later, you give our lawyers more time to build your case and try to resolve compensation through a settlement – and to file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations expires.
Click to contact our Wrongful Death lawyers today
We Handle Your Wrongful Death Case on Contingency
The last thing you need to worry about right now is whether you can afford to hire an attorney for your wrongful death claim. Let us put your mind at ease.
We will review your case free of charge and inform you of your legal options. If you decide to hire our law firm, we will represent you and charge you no legal fees unless we win compensation for you. Our fees will come out of your settlement or court award, not your pocket.
Complete a Free Case Evaluation form now
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Savannah?
Although wrongful death is considered a type of personal injury case, the matter of who can bring a lawsuit differs in a wrongful death because the injured party is deceased.
Georgia law stipulates that the following people may file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the deceased individual:
- A surviving spouse
- In the absence of a surviving spouse, any surviving child
- In the absence of children or surviving children, the parents of the deceased individual
- In the absence of surviving parents, the executor or administrator of the estate of the deceased person
Grandparents, siblings, and other family members cannot file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of a deceased individual. Should an executor of the estate file a claim, damages go to the estate to benefit any next of kin of the deceased person.
Our Savannah Wrongful Death Accident Lawyers are Here for You
The attorneys and staff at Kaine Law are deeply sorry for the loss of your family member. We hope this information about wrongful death claims and lawsuits in Savannah has brought you some peace of mind. We are dedicated to our clients and securing justice and fair compensation for them.
Please know that we stand ready to assist you in this difficult time. We will work hard to get you the recovery you deserve. Call Kaine Law today for a free case review: (404) 214-2001.
Call or text 404-214-2001 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
