If you lost a loved one to a fatal accident, you may be going through any number of personal and financial losses as a result of their untimely passing. Fortunately, you could seek recovery for your and your family’s losses through wrongful death litigation—but what about the losses your family member suffered personally just before their death?
How is a Survival Action Different from a Wrongful Death Claim?
Although both types of cases revolve around someone losing their life due to another party’s negligence, there are a few key differences between wrongful death cases and survival actions, all of which a seasoned local attorney could explain in further detail as needed. First and foremost, only a decedent’s spouse, children, and/or parent(s) can generally file a wrongful death claim under state law, whereas an estate representatives could pursue a survival action. Furthermore, each type of case is meant to pursue different types of damages for different individuals. For instance, wrongful death cases seek restitution for losses that a decedent’s surviving family members experienced or will experience directly due to their loved one’s death, while a survival action seeks restitutions for losses the decedent experienced between when their accident occurred and when they ultimately passed away. Finally, in the event of a successful case result, damages acquired through wrongful death claims and survival actions are paid out in different ways to different parties. The former type of case pays damages directly to the claimants, who by state law are also beneficiaries of the decedent’s estate. In the latter type of case, any damages recovered are paid to the decedent’s estate directly, which ultimately benefits the beneficiary in the descendant’s will or his statutory beneficiaries. These can be totally different people than the wrongful death beneficiaries.
