Auto Accident Attorneys in Olympia WA Help Family Members After a Fatality Has Occurred
Car accident fatalities are traumatic for the families who must deal with the sudden loss of a loved one. Although financial compensation obviously cannot bring their loved one back, it will help them by paying for various expenses that could otherwise be overwhelming. Auto Accident Attorneys in Olympia WA that handle wrongful death claims and lawsuits represent these families, and obtain reasonable settlements for them.
There are definitive tangible aspects that Auto Accident Attorneys in Olympia WA address when they write a demand for a settlement. They will expect the insurer to pay for lost wages for a certain time frame, for instance, if the deceased person was contributing financially to a household. The insurer should be responsible for any medical bills associated with the accident, as well as for funeral expenses.
Additional less tangible considerations also are typically included in the demand letter. Loss of companionship and intimate relations may be included for a spouse or domestic partner, although there may be more difficulty establishing this claim if the partners were not legally married. Loss of parental guidance is included for minor children. Emotional pain and suffering is a common inclusion. There may be a dollar amount assigned to the loss of household activity such as home and yard maintenance or domestic chores. Although this may seem cold and calculated, there is no reason for these factors not to be included in a settlement request. The family is dealing with major trauma, and all these losses are valid even if impossible to quantify. In general, in the legal and insurance realm, only close family members are expected to file wrongful death claims.
Sometimes a family wonders if pursuing this course of action will be too stressful and prevent them from moving on. However, they should understand that people generally find a sense of closure when they receive the deserved financial compensation after working with a firm such as Putnam-Lieb-Potvin. After losing a loved one in a vehicle accident, nothing is ever the same, but the settlement is a way of acknowledging the wrongness of what happened due to someone else’s negligence or recklessness. Click here to learn more about this organization.
