Nothing can compare to the grief that a parent experiences when one of their children encounters death at an early age. There is a saying that goes: A Parent Should Not Outlive Their Child. And like many other sayings, this one holds true.
A child’s wrongful death can be considered as life’s greatest tragedy, a whole future is lost and a parent’s dream is shattered, though there will still be chances to rebuild that future, one cannot deny that grief coming from this kind of loss is irreparable, deep and almost unhealing.
In Los Angeles County, studies show that in 2004, the child death rate is at 20.6 per 100,000 deaths. This figure does not include infant mortality and only focuses on children between 1 to 17 years of age.
Before the turn of the 20th century, child mortality may be blamed with infectious diseases and plagues that were rampant at that time. Today, with new discoveries and treatments with medicine, diseases can scarcely contribute to the number of child deaths.
The leading causes for wrongful child death include:
• vehicular accidents
• shaken baby syndrome
• animal bites and/or attacks
• household accidents (e.g. suffocation with plastic bags, ingestion of poisonous substance, etc)
• toys that have not been screened for their chemical content
• playground or sports related accidents
Most of the time, these accidents would involve an adult that could’ve done something to prevent the accident from happening.
What can you do?
Wrongful death laws do exist and there are several wrongful death attorneys who can help grieving relatives with their loss.
These laws would help families somewhat recover by granting them the right to charge the party at fault with the medical expenses incurred prior to the child’s death as well as burial and funeral expenses.
A claim for pecuniary loss can also be filed but the computation for a child’s future economic value is much more complicated than that of an adult’s. The age of the child at the time of death often determines the complexity of the pecuniary loss computation.
A child’s pecuniary loss is computed by taking into consideration their habits, their scholastic and life achievements, their state of health and life expectancy, their gender and age as well as their earning potential. Sometimes, a jury would use life expectancy charts to help with their calculations.
Statutes
Wrongful death statutes differ from state to state; the State of California maintains a two-year statute, which means a parent has two years from the date of the accident to file for a wrongful death claim.
Though, there are different statutes, they all follow the same definition, refined by four elements; first, it is determined whether the death was, as a whole or partly, the result of a misconduct committed by the defendant; second, that the defendant has showed negligence and aware of the consequences of the said negligence; third, the victim is survived by a living close relation; and fourth, there is a considerable economic loss as a result of the death.
A child’s loss is simply tragic; parents become loss in the sea of grief and pain; so it is important to consult an attorney that has specialized with this type of cases at the soonest possible time.
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wrongful death claim and other related cases, consult with our expert
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