Damages in Thornton Wrongful Death Cases

Losing a beloved family member is never easy. Learning that someone’s carelessness or wrongful actions caused your loved one’s death only magnifies the grief of this situation. If your loved one was fatally harmed by another party’s actions, you have every right to pursue legal action.

Our dedicated legal team has experience helping families obtain damages in Thornton wrongful death cases. A skilled attorney could help you get a settlement amount that allows your family a chance to rebuild.

How Wrongful Death Claims Work in Thornton

Whenever a person’s reckless, negligent, or criminal behavior causes an injury to someone, that injured person generally has the right to pursue justice in a personal injury lawsuit against the wrongdoer. In the unfortunate event that the injured person dies from their injuries, their surviving family members might have cause to sue the wrongdoer in a wrongful death action.

Like all personal injury suits, wrongful death claims are civil suits. To prevail, surviving family members need to prove that the defendant caused the injury that led to their loved one’s death. Unlike criminal cases where prosecutors need to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, in wrongful death cases, family members only need to prove that it is more likely than not that the defendant was at fault. An experienced attorney in the area could help surviving family members through this process.

Potential Recoverable Wrongful Death Damages

A wrongful death suit compensates a deceased person’s family members for the losses that they incur as a result of their loved one’s death. The person at fault for causing the decedent’s death would pay damages to the decedent’s surviving family members. Under Colorado law, eligible family members can pursue both economic and non-economic damages.

Economic Damages

Economic damages represent the actual monetary cost that the decedent’s death has on their surviving family members. These can include the decedent’s medical and funeral expenses. They also include the loss of the decedent’s future salary and expected earnings. An experienced attorney could calculate future lost earnings by examining previous pay stubs, studying the decedent’s level of education and years of work experience, and consulting with experts in the decedent’s field of work. If the family depended upon the decedent’s insurance benefits, an attorney could also help them pursue recovery for their loss of insurance benefits.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are less tangible than economic damages, and it is harder to put an exact dollar value on these losses. The survivors’ pain, suffering, and mental anguish from losing their loved one are all examples of non-economic damages. Loss of companionship and consortium are also non-economic losses. A skilled Thornton attorney could help a family quantify their non-economic damages after the loss of a loved one. Colorado courts enforce a statutory cap on most non-economic losses, so it is important for surviving family members to work with experienced legal counsel that understands these limitations and could pursue a claim accordingly.

Discuss Potential Damages in a Wrongful Death Case with a Thornton Attorney

The sudden death of your family member can cause financial challenges, as well as emotional anguish. You deserve compensation for these losses, but you do not have to take on this legal process alone, A dedicated lawyer could review the circumstances of your case, work with you to calculate your losses, and pursue legal action against the at-fault party. To learn more about your options for damages in Thornton wrongful death cases, give us a call today.