Any time that some member of a family has money that can become the property of deserving relatives, all sorts of family members seek to prove their right to have a “piece of the pie.” The court seldom recognizes anyone that is not a close relative. For that reason, damage awards, following a wrongful death lawsuit, usually get paid to the spouse, the children, the grandchildren, any parents and any grandparents, and to other brothers and sisters.
What damages have been covered by the awarded compensation?
Some of the damages have caused members of the deceased’s family to suffer a true financial loss. Those would be things like the cost of the funeral and the cost of travel, during the time when the deceased was trying to recover from his or her medical problem. Children or a spouse might suffer the loss of the income that had been furnished by the deceased.
Not all of the damages have created a loss with a clear value. For instance, the loss of a mother, grandmother or older sister might mean the disappearance of someone that can perform household tasks. It can be difficult to ascertain the value linked to each such task. Still, no family member can be asked to live in a messy environment, just because someone has wrongfully killed a most helpful loved one.
By the same token, those family members that were closest to the deceased will certainly suffer a loss of companionship. Obviously, it is hard to put a dollar figure on the worth of a caring and loving companion. Yet again, the court cannot ask family members to use their own financial resources, if the lack of a supportive companion causes them unending grief. Perhaps a trained psychologist can help them to deal with their loss and to struggle through their companion-lacking life.
After someone has died violently and suddenly, not all of the money that goes to family members has to come from what has been awarded in a wrongful death lawsuit. It could be that the deceased had purchased a life insurance policy. In fact, a wise breadwinner normally purchases such a document. The money from that same policy then gets added to any money that a relative might have been received from other sources, according to the terms of the life insurance policy.
Courts do not normally handle a case that concerns disbursement of money from a life insurance policy. Ideally, any obvious mistakes made by the creator of that same document can get handled quietly among the loved ones of the deceased. For instance, if an elderly and unmarried aunt overlooks one of her sister’s many children, when specifying who should get paid what from the money in her policy, the other brothers and sisters will create a pool of cash that can be given the person that was overlooked. It is best to work closely with a personal injury lawyer in Richmond Hill to claim the compensation for wrongful death case.