Wrongful Death Claim Value

Answer:

In Wyoming, wrongful death cases are somewhat limited in that you’re not able to collect from that actual pain and suffering of the individual as they die, which sometimes is significant in these cases. I had a burn case. The suffering of the person who died was very significnat, but you’re not able to collect that anymore. All you’re able to collect is the loss of care, comfort, and society to the family members, what they lost from that person. If you have a family member that hasn’t seen the decedent for many years and not had any communication for many years, that’s less of a loss than a spouse who sees the person every day has that loss of the care, comfort, and society of that person. Also, you need to take into consideration the economic loss of that person’s income to every particular member of the family. The whole family may have a claim, but it’s limited by the fact that it’s only loss of the care, comfort, and society or the actual financial contribution of the decedent. Those are the kinds of things that come into the equation of what is a loss in a wrongful death.

The most recent wrongful death case I tried was a wrongful death case from a truck running into the back of someone and killing the passenger in which I represented the family. The family was not even living in the same state as the decedent. Though the family lived in another state and didn’t have contact all the time, about once a year they had real contact. We were still able to regain because the contact was significant at those once-a-year events. We were able to get a pretty good recovery from the jury in that case, plus we also had another factor of punitive damages against the driver who had driven off and left the people to die. That was a significant factor in case. All those things are taken into account when we evaluate a wrongful death case. We have to look at your case, so certainly feel free to call us at our office in Cheyenne, Wyoming.