When a person dies because of negligence or wrongful conduct, the surviving family may suffer both measurable financial losses and deeply personal losses that cannot be calculated from bills or paychecks. Wrongful death law generally addresses these different harms through economic and non-economic damages.
The damages available in a wrongful death lawsuit depend on the law governing the case, the relationship between the deceased person and surviving family members, and the evidence establishing each loss. Two families experiencing similar fatal accidents can therefore have substantially different claims.
Understanding these two categories helps explain why determining the value of a wrongful death case requires much more than adding funeral expenses and lost wages.
Economic Damages After a Wrongful Death
Economic damages generally involve financial losses that can be established through records, testimony, calculations, and expert analysis. Lost financial support can be particularly important after the death of a working spouse or parent.
Calculating future support may require consideration of the deceased person’s age, occupation, earnings history, education, career path, employment benefits, expected work life, and financial contributions to the household.
Economic value is not limited to salary. A family member may have provided childcare, transportation, home maintenance, cooking, caregiving, and other household services that would cost money to replace.
Depending on applicable law, medical expenses incurred before death, funeral expenses, burial costs, and other financial losses may also be recoverable.
Non-Economic Damages Recognize Personal Losses
Some of the greatest consequences of a death never appear on a financial statement. Non-economic damages can address legally recognized personal losses resulting from the destruction of a family relationship.
A child who loses a parent can lose decades of guidance, encouragement, care, advice, and companionship. A surviving spouse may lose the daily companionship, affection, support, and shared life of a husband or wife. Parents who lose a child experience a different but profound loss.
There is no invoice showing the monetary value of those relationships. Evidence about the family itself can therefore become important.
One particular category of relational loss is addressed in our discussion of loss of consortium, which concerns the effects that serious injury or death can have on the marital relationship.
Non-economic damages are different from punitive damages. Compensatory damages address legally recognized losses. Punitive or exemplary damages, when permitted, focus instead on particularly serious misconduct by a defendant.
How Are These Damages Evaluated?
There is no universal formula that accurately calculates wrongful death damages. Economic losses can sometimes be projected using employment records, tax returns, benefit information, and expert economic analysis. Personal losses require a different evaluation.
The ages and circumstances of the deceased person and surviving family members can matter. A young child losing a parent may face many years without parental guidance and support. A surviving spouse may have expected decades of shared life.
The strength of the liability case can also affect the practical evaluation. Questions involving disputed responsibility, causation, insurance coverage, corporate defendants, and collectible assets may become important.
Families should be cautious about relying on a simple online number. Our wrongful death settlement calculator discussion explains why a case cannot reliably be valued from a few pieces of information entered into a formula.
Evidence Can Show the Full Family Loss
Establishing damages requires evidence just as establishing responsibility does. Tax returns, payroll information, employment records, benefit statements, business records, and educational history can help establish economic losses.
Family photographs, correspondence, testimony, and evidence of shared activities may help explain personal relationships and the deceased person’s role within the family.
A person who was retired, temporarily unemployed, or working inside the home can still have provided tremendous economic and personal value. Earnings are only one part of a wrongful death damages analysis.
An experienced lawyer can investigate the accident, identify eligible claimants, determine which state’s law applies, and develop evidence concerning both financial and non-economic losses.
No monetary recovery can replace a spouse, parent, or child. Wrongful death damages are the civil justice system’s means of providing compensation when wrongful conduct has caused legally recognized and permanent losses to a family.
