Lake Worth Wrongful Death Lawyer
If your loved one died in an accident that was someone else’s fault, you have the right to file a lawsuit. With the help of a Lake Worth wrongful death lawyer, you may attempt to seek a financial award for things like burial costs, pain and suffering, and loss of financial support for the family.
Warner & Fitzmartin, PLLC, has the experience and track record you can trust. We understand the importance of seeking a financial award in a wrongful death lawsuit and fight tirelessly for our clients.
How Wrongful Death Legal Representation Can Help You
Our fatal accident lawyers will do the following to bolster your wrongful death claim.
Investigate the Accident
We must produce facts that show the other party behaved in a negligent or reckless manner to cause the fatality. Without an at-fault party in the accident, we would have no defendant for the wrongful death claim.
Just because the insurance company conducts an investigation doesn’t mean you must accept its findings at face value. Any Lake Worth personal injury attorney worth their salt will want to conduct their own parallel investigation involving the following:
- Speaking to those who witnessed the accident
- Combing through the police report
- Accessing and reviewing any video of the scene
We will proceed with the claim if we can show that the other party caused the fatal accident. In a wrongful death claim for a fatal truck accident, for example, we may need to show that the driver was speeding.
Value Your Claim
We use our experience with similar cases to attach a fair financial value to your losses. Insurance companies will often do everything they can to increase their profit margins by attempting to reduce the amount they pay to families of decedents. If you don’t have an accurate value for your wrongful death claim, you could end up accepting a lower amount than your case is worth.
To determine an accurate value, we do the following:
- Calculate any medical costs your loved one incurred before passing away
- Calculate any wages your loved one likely would have earned in the future
- Estimate a financial value for any pain and suffering your loved one had before passing away
- Estimate a financial value for your family’s loss of companionship, care, and protection from your loved one
Negotiate With the Insurer
Our Lake Worth wrongful death lawyers take over the negotiations with the insurance company. We also correspond with the insurer for you. Once you choose to hire us, you do not have to speak with the insurance company without having us present.
We are intimately familiar with all the tactics insurers might use to take advantage of you during an emotionally vulnerable time. For example, they may trick you into changing your story or contradicting yourself by repeatedly asking you the same question. Let us put this tactic in its proper place by speaking with the insurance company on your behalf.
Represent You at Trial
The team at Warner & Fitzmartin, PLLC, has extensive trial experience representing families in wrongful death claims. Although the majority of these claims are settled during negotiations, if the insurance company refuses to negotiate fairly, we are ready and willing to tell your loved one’s story in court.
What Happens If the Insurer Tries To Blame My Loved One for Causing the Accident?
It is in the insurance company’s interest to avoid having to pay your family a financial claim by blaming the decedent for the fatal accident. Insurers may employ this strategy during negotiations as a bad-faith attempt to reduce the total payment amount.
The insurer might tell you that its investigation clearly shows fault for your loved one. The insurer hopes you’ll accept its investigation findings since the surviving family members may not have been present during the accident.
You have the right to perform your own investigation. As mentioned above, our Lake Worth wrongful death lawyers will investigate the accident on your behalf, looking for facts that show your loved one did nothing wrong. We can then present that information during the negotiations to give you a better chance of receiving a financial award that reflects what truly happened.
How Comparative Negligence Affects a Wrongful Death Claim
If the facts show that your loved one’s actions played a partial role in causing the fatal accident, your family may still be able to seek a claim. Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence law, you will see a reduction in the award amount equal to the percentage of fault your loved one had for the crash, as long as they are no more than 50% responsible.
Our wrongful death attorneys would look for facts during our investigation that reduce the percentage of fault your loved one shared for the crash.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim?
Each state has rules for determining who can file a wrongful death lawsuit. Our Lake Worth wrongful death lawyers can give you advice regarding eligibility.
It’s important to know that, in Florida, the decedent’s representative is the only person who can file the lawsuit. The decedent will have named this person as part of a will or trust in an estate plan. If the decedent had no personal representative named at the time of the fatal accident, the court can appoint one.
Even though the personal representative files the lawsuit, the surviving family members receive the financial award from a successful claim. The law specifies using a personal representative to simplify the lawsuit filing process.
How To Choose the Right Attorney for Your Claim
When filing a claim, you will want to avail yourself of any free consultation a Lake Worth wrongful death lawyer offers. Take time to learn about their qualifications, their past case history, and the steps involved in moving yours forward.
Make sure you feel comfortable with the attorney. You and your family will be discussing some challenging topics throughout the case. If you lack faith that your lawyer is giving you the highest level of representation, then you’ll have a hard time being honest about your emotions when seeking restitution for this tragic loss.
Ultimately, this will reduce your chances of a successful outcome. Transparency can only happen when you and your legal professional trust each other.
Be cautious of any attorney who shares expectations about the outcome that sound too good to be true. Our team at Warner & Fitzmartin, PLLC, will always be straightforward about the strength of your case and about how we believe we can help your family.
Contact Our Lake Worth Wrongful Death Lawyers Today for a Free Case Evaluation
Making a Florida wrongful death claim after the loss of a loved one can be a stressful situation for the family to tackle on its own. Trying to go through the grieving process at the same time as you are battling with an insurance company for compensation for wrongful death is difficult.
Trust the Lake Worth wrongful death lawyers at Warner & Fitzmartin, PLLC, to handle the day-to-day work of seeking your claim. We give you the time you need to grieve while trying to maximize your financial reward.
For a free case review, call us today at (561) 803-0167.