If you get injured as the result of an accident, you have the right to file a personal injury claim. If one of your closest relatives suffers a fatal injury, owning to someone else’s act of negligence, you may be able to file a wrongful death claim. Understand, though, that not all family members can file such a claim.
What family members can file a wrongful death claim?
The court will always honor a claim made by the deceased’s spouse. It will not honor a claim that has come from a former spouse. On the other hand, courts now honor as well a claim from an adult partner.
A parent of the deceased can file a claim; so can the deceased’s son or daughter. If the deceased had any siblings, that brother or sister could ask to be compensated for a loved one’s wrongful death.
What form should the claim take?
The courts decided against awarding a larger compensation to any family that chose to file multiple lawsuits. All of the eligible family members must make their claim in a single lawsuit. Understand that the courts have not put any limit on the number of people that can work together to file such a lawsuit.
Does the deceased have to make a certain request?
Does the deceased have to leave a will, in order for family members to file a wrongful death claim? No, the courts do not insist on presentation of a will, if a family elects to seek compensation for the accidental death of a loved one. If the deceased did leave a will, who should file the elected claim?
In that case, the executor of the will normally files such a document. Sometimes, though, an executor will refuse to carry out that specific act. If that happens, then the family members can bring a lawsuit against the allegedly negligent party, with the help of personal injury lawyer in Huntsville.
What are the rules in Alberta, regarding compensation for bereavement?
Only those family members that retained a closeness to the deceased can make a bereavement claim. Each claim’s value gets determined by a combination of occupational therapists and economists. A living child received a smaller bereavement compensation than a grieving parent.
Parents can get awarded up to $82,000. If both parents remain alive after their child dies, the two of them must split the awarded compensation. A single parent gets to keep the entire sum. What is the size of a child’ award for bereavement? It can be no more than $49,000. The money would get shared by those children named in the lawsuit. Those same children decide if an unnamed brother or sister should receive a share of the awarded money, as well.