There are many different ways you or a loved one can be harmed or even killed due to someone else’s negligence. Although you may not be able to go back in time and prevent these incidents from happening, you can pursue the compensation you deserve with the help of Elstein Legal.
Wrongful Death & Catastrophic Injury Attorney in Miami
The loss of a loved one is always a painful experience. However, this experience can be even more challenging when you have reason to believe the loss could have been avoided were it not for the actions or negligence of others. Additionally, even if death was avoided, if someone’s negligence resulted in a life-changing injury, whether to yourself or a loved one, you’ll still feel understandably angry and frustrated.
Nothing can change what happened in the past. That said, you can take action to ensure the liable parties are held accountable. If you’ve lost a loved one because someone else was negligent, or if negligence caused a major injury, you may be entitled to compensation.
Miami wrongful death attorney Brian L. Elstein of leading personal injury law firm Elstein Legal will provide you with aggressive representation, taking all necessary steps to build a strong case. If you’re looking for a wrongful death law firm in Miami that delivers results, you need Elstein Legal.
What You Need to Know About Miami Wrongful Death Cases
Emotional pain is by no means the only difficulty family members may struggle with after the death of a loved one. For instance, if the deceased was a family’s primary money-earner, they may also have to contend with financial troubles after their passing.
Florida Wrongful Death Act
That’s the primary reason the Florida Wrongful Death Act exists. According to Florida statutes, its purpose is to “shift the losses resulting when wrongful death occurs from the survivors of the decedent to the wrongdoer.” Those who qualify as “survivors” may include “the decedent’s spouse, children, parents, and, when partly or wholly dependent on the decedent for support or services, any blood relatives and adoptive brothers and sisters. It includes the child born out of wedlock of a mother, but not the child born out of wedlock of the father unless the father has recognized a responsibility for the child’s support.”
Statutes also clarify that survivors have the right to take legal action “[w]hen the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act, negligence, default, or breach of contract or warranty of any person, including those occurring on navigable waters, and the event would have entitled the person injured to maintain an action and recover damages if death had not ensued, the person or watercraft that would have been liable in damages if death had not ensued shall be liable for damages as specified in this act notwithstanding the death of the person injured, although death was caused under circumstances constituting a felony.”
In other words, if a person had survived the incident which resulted in their death, but would still have been able to sue the responsible parties for any damages associated with the incident, then the survivors of the deceased can pursue legal action.
Wrongful Death Accidents in Miami, Florida: Who Files a Claim?
If you think you have reason to pursue compensation following a loved one’s passing, you may understandably have some confusion about the process. While already trying to find the right wrongful death lawyer in the Miami area, you might also have some questions, such as “Who exactly files a claim in a wrongful death case?”
It makes sense to ask that type of question. After all, in the above section, you learned that the survivors of a decedent may include a range of different people, from spouses to adoptive siblings. Who is responsible for taking legal action and opening a wrongful death lawsuit in Miami?
The Role of the Representatives
In Miami, the deceased’s personal representative must file a wrongful death claim. In most cases this individual is whoever handles the estate of the deceased. If your loved one did not name that individual in their will, the court will appoint one.
A personal representative can file a Miami wrongful death claim either on behalf of the deceased’s surviving family, or on behalf of their estate. This means qualifying survivors of a wrongful death victim may all theoretically be beneficiaries of a lawsuit if they depended on the victim financially.
Hopefully, that clarified this topic to some degree, but you might still wonder precisely how to determine who does and does not have a right to compensation after a loved one’s death. This is a key reason it’s important to work with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Miami, Florida. Attorney Elstein will gladly explain these sometimes confusing topics in greater detail.
Common Causes of Wrongful Deaths in Miami, FL
The potential causes of wrongful death in Miami are numerous because so many different types of incidents can potentially result in an otherwise avoidable death. This is yet one more reason to review your case with a Miami, Florida wrongful death law firm. They’ll let you know whether your case qualifies as wrongful death.
In general, however, the following are among the more common causes of wrongful death in and around Miami:
- Accidents involving vehicles, which may includes cars, motorcycles, trucks, bicycles, water vessels, and more
- Slip and fall accidents
- Encounters with violent pets
- Pedestrian accidents
- Defective products
- Workplace accidents
- Medical malpractice
Miami Wrongful Death Damages
Again, a wrongful death lawsuit in Miami, Florida can result in financial compensation for the victim’s estate and/or family, covering such costs as those associated with lost wages, lost profits, medical expenses, and funeral expenses.
However, these aren’t necessarily the only types of damages available in wrongful death cases. Family members of the deceased can also seek damages for more personal struggles, such as loss of support and companionship, general emotional pain, loss of parental guidance, etc.
Calculating the total value of these losses isn’t always simple. How do you put a price on the companionship of a loved one? Luckily, lawyers use special processes to ensure the amount of compensation their clients pursue reasonably aligns with what they deserve. A wrongful death attorney in Miami can apply these processes to do the same for you.
Catastrophic Injury: Justice for Major Life Changes
Once more, not all incidents that could lead to wrongful death necessarily do. That said, these incidents can often still result in substantial injuries that may dramatically impact the quality of a victim’s life. Sometimes, the effects can be permanent.
Examples of such injuries include (but are not limited to):
- Injuries which deprive a victim of some or all of their mobility
- Injuries that have severe negative impacts on cognitive abilities and/or emotional health
- Injuries that prevent a person from working, particularly if they are their family’s primary caretaker
Defining a Catastrophic Injury
In general, a catastrophic injury is one that drastically alters future life prospects for not only the victim, but in many cases, their family and any other dependents. Although they may have survived the accident, their life will almost certainly never be precisely the same as it once was.
Working With Catastrophic Injury Lawyers in Miami, FL
That said, regardless of whether you believe you have a wrongful death case or a catastrophic injury case, you need to hire the right personal injury law firm in Miami, Florida. Doing so maximizes your odds of getting the proper compensation.
Along with the reasons already mentioned, hiring a skilled Miami catastrophic injury attorney is crucial because it can be very difficult to establish liability in certain cases. For instance, if a loved one died due to a defective medical device, you have to determine if the party at fault is the device’s manufacturer, its designers, the doctor who prescribed it, the marketers who may not have sufficiently warned your loved one about the risks involved, or another relevant party. This can require some in-depth research and investigation.
Additionally, even if you do believe you know who the liable party may be, you also need to prove they were negligent in some capacity. On top of that, you have to prove their negligence directly resulted in your loved one’s death. Because liable parties in these cases will also naturally employ a range of tactics to defend themselves, you’ll need someone on your side who can prove your loved one isn’t to blame. For example, in a case such as this one, a liable party may try to argue that the death actually occurred because your loved one knowingly misused the product, despite understanding that doing so was potentially dangerous.
Building a strong case takes effort and thorough legal knowledge. Fortunately, at Elstein Legal, you’ll find a catastrophic injury attorney in Miami, Florida whose combination of experience and dedication to client representation will help you secure an ideal outcome.
Why Choose Elstein Legal After a Miami Catastrophic Injury or Wrongful Death?
Brian L. Elstein doesn’t merely claim to be the kind of Miami, Florida personal injury lawyer who knows how to deliver results. He has the track record to prove he can help you pursue compensation, having secured millions of dollars for former clients. His past experience litigating wrongful death and catastrophic injury claims in the Miami area also gave him a behind-the-scenes look into the various ways liable parties try to defend themselves in these cases. That’s the kind of expert knowledge and skill you need from your Miami wrongful death or catastrophic injury attorney. At Elstein Legal, we will help you build the strongest possible case, all while considering how the defense is building theirs.