How Do You Prove Wrongful Death?

Something happened. You received a call you never thought you would, and now your world is in a spin. When you’ve lost a loved one, it’s challenging and heartbreaking, but when someone else is responsible for that loss, the pain is even more raw and hard to comprehend. In some cases, proving wrongful death occurred could help you to seek out financial compensation for your losses.

There is no dollar amount that equates to the loss of a loved one. Yet, those who caused this should be punished, and even more importantly, you may need the financial compensation of your lost loved one to help you and your family to continue to maintain your standard of life. Proving wrongful death requires a careful understanding of the law and your rights.

Attorney Blake Kremer recognizes just how devastating this type of incident can be. Without a doubt, we want to be here for you, providing compassionate support as you learn of your legal rights.

How Do You Prove Wrongful Death?

Proving wrongful death means seeking out a civil suit to cover your financial losses. To do this, you must show that another person or business’s negligence caused the loss of life to someone. You may be able to prove this wrong in multiple ways, such as by showing that their actions or inactions directly resulted in the loss of life.

To do this, you must prove the following elements that occurred in the incident.

• Duty of Care Established: First, you must show that a duty of care to the person was present. In a car accident, that means the defendant had an obligation to follow the laws of the road. In a workplace accident, you must show the employer had the legal requirement to provide a safe work environment. 
• Breach of the Duty of Care Occurred: In this step, you must then show that there was some way in which the defendant breached the required duty of care. For example, in a car accident, you need to show the person broke the law. In a workplace accident, the employer knew of unsafe conditions and failed to remedy them, for example. 
• Causation of the Death. Finally, you must then prove that the actions of the defendant led to the death of the individual. In this situation, you may prove that the accident was a direct cause of the person’s failure to obey the traffic laws and nothing more or that the unsafe conditions directly caused the death.

This is a simplistic breakdown of the steps required in proving wrongful death, but it provides some insight into what you can expect.

Is it Difficult to Prove Wrongful Death?

To be frank, it can be very difficult to prove wrongful death in some situations. There are many obstacles to this, including often a lack of information or evidence to prove the case. Yet, if you believe that your loved one lost their life due to someone else’s mistakes and negligence, then you certainly should pursue legal action.

How an Attorney Can Help with Building the Case for Wrongful Death After an Accident

While it can be difficult to work through this process, having the help of a wrongful death attorney in Tacoma can help you significantly. The first step is to have a consultation with an attorney to discuss your case and gather the details involved. Be mindful that under Washington laws, you have three years from the incident to file a claim, and that generally is the incident that caused the injury. Don’t wait to get legal support because cases like this can often take months to process.

The first steps typically involve learning about what occurred, gathering information about the events of the day, determining if there was clear evidence that someone failed in their responsibility, and then documenting the details of the incident as the day moved forward. There may be a need to speak to witnesses to gather more insight. Expert statements may be necessary. It may be necessary to work through medical records too.

What’s most important to remember here is that anyone party being charged with a wrongful death is going to have a powerful attorney and insurance agency that wants to do everything they can to prove there was no duty of care or causation. Working with an attorney may help to protect your rights through this process.

Your attorney may be able to help you with:

• Proving duty of care existed.
• Demonstrating a breach of that care.
• Showing a causation of death.
• Determining what losses you, as the immediate family, suffered.
• Gathering evidence to prove your case.
• Negotiating with insurance companies to reach a fair settlement.
• Going to court to prove you deserve compensation. 

Contact Blake Kremer to Learn Your Next Step

Proving wrongful death is something you can do if you are an immediate family member that was dependent, financially, on the individual who died. To learn more about your legal rights, contact attorney Blake Kremer now. Call (253) 676-9467 today to speak with attorney Blake Kremer or (253) 368-4382 to speak with Kate, Blake’s paralegal. Don’t wait to get the legal support you need in this very difficult case; contact us today!

We work with people facing all types of wrongful death losses. That includes throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia, Everett, and the surrounding area of Washington.