Wrongful Death Claim
A Wrongful death claim is legal action that is filed as a civil action against a person who is being held accountable for a death. The claim is usually filed by close family, since a dead person cannot file suit, and asserts a certain amount of negligence or wrongdoing by the person being accused (also known as the defendant). The surviving family members are considered to be beneficiaries, and are entitled to monetary damages.
Originally, there was no legal recourse for surviving family members to take wrongful death cases to common law courtrooms across the United States. Over the course of time, that began to change as more and more states began passing laws to protect survivors. Today, every state in the U.S. has laws that allow family members to file a lawsuit for monetary damages when they have lost a loved one wrongfully. The statues for filing a wrongful death suit vary a bit from state to state, however they are all very similar in nature and cover a variety of types of wrongful death categories that stem from a death occurring from personal injury.
Since the matter is usually brought before a civil court, as opposed to a criminal court, the burden of proof is a simply a predominance of the evidence, as opposed to proving the case beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt as is mandatory in the criminal court system. It is because of this difference that it is much easier for a family to seek justice for the death of their loved one in this manner than it would be to push for criminal prosecution. That being said, it is not impossible to prosecute a person criminally as well as seek civil damages. It is not uncommon for someone to seek a murder, manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide conviction, while still suing civilly for wrongful death.
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