Factors Impacting Damages in McKinney Wrongful Death Cases

Factors impacting damages in McKinney wrongful death cases may be nuanced. Calculating the value of a relationship that the decedent had with their family, the wages they could have earned over their lifetime, and pain of losing a loved one could be difficult to impossible to assign a monetary value.

Nonetheless, an experienced wrongful death attorney could work with a family to pursue adequate compensation, while being mindful of their grief. To learn more about wrongful death damages, call today.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are quantitative, calculable costs that a family will endure after the wrongful death of a loved one. For example, if a father of a child has been killed, the amount of monetary support that that father would have given the child up until adulthood would be considered. In addition, the lost potential of future inheritance for that child is an element of damages that a lawyer may consider.

In some cases, an economist will look at the earnings capacity of the deceased person and subtract from that whatever that deceased person would have spent in their own life. The beneficiaries of an estate could make claims for those remaining funds as economic damages.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages relate to the loss or the death of the relationship and the care and comfort that comes with that relationship. Non-economic damages may refer to the sense of safety that comes from knowing that one has a father, mother or child who can and will care for them as they are maturing.

The pain and suffering that the person suffered during the remaining part of their life from the time they were injured until the time they passed, and the impairment that they suffered, are also factors that could impact damages in McKinney wrongful death cases.

Calculating Loss of Companionship

Loss of companionship can be difficult to calculate. When one loses companionship, the case is valued based on the individual’s stories. It is important to understand exactly how that loss impacts in the moment, as well as how it may impact them five years, 10 years, or maybe even 30 or 40 years into the future.

Companionship is more about the quality of the relationship and the depth of the loss than it is the years. One of the primary jobs of a plaintiff’s lawyer in a wrongful death case may be to interview the claimant to hear their stories and understand the depth of those relationships so that the lawyer can express that depth to the jury.

There are occasions from time to time in which the wrongful death beneficiary did not have much of a relationship with the person who was killed, and those can be very difficult cases. There are situations in which a companionship claim or a loss of society claim was not based upon what the relationship actually was but based on the loss of chance of having that relationship in the future.

How an Attorney Could Help

It is essential for a lawyer to conduct a thoughtful calculation of the loss of companionship. An attorney could work to fully show the jury the value of the loss of the loved one.

If you have lost a loved one in a wrongful death accident, consider reaching out to attorney when you are ready. An experienced personal injury lawyer could better explain the factors impacting damages in a McKinney wrongful death case.