Have you lost a loved one who was still a baby? Maybe you lost an elderly parent to mistreatment at a local nursing facility in Florida. Whatever happened, you have rights as a family member of those people.
Wrongful death cases can be very difficult for family members, especially when they involve children, elderly mothers and fathers or caregivers. After a person passes away, the value of that person’s life has to be valued in order to receive payment, which can be a trying and difficult process for families to deal with.
When a child is lost due to medical malpractice or an accident, the financial loss is fairly difficult to assess. There are no earnings to base the value of the individual on. The age, life expectancy and health of the child may be used to determine value. Of course, many of these factors are simply speculative, which means that the court is only guessing at the value of the child’s life. Juries may use work-life expectancy tables to start calculations and to determine the value of the life, but that doesn’t limit juries to a certain amount.
The loss of an elderly person is also of limited financial potential in some senses. For instance, it’s assumed that someone of an elderly age will no longer have significant earning potential. On top of that, the children of the elderly are typically adults who don’t need financial support or additional nurturing from their parents.
If you want to know more about this topic, speak with someone who is familiar with wrongful deaths and the law. Your case may be one that you can seek compensation for, and you don’t want to be slighted.
Source: FindLaw, “Wrongful Death Cases: Children and the Elderly” Oct. 23, 2014
