No amount of money can remove the grief that fills any human that has lost a loved one. When the death of the deceased has resulted from a wrongful action, the grief can become even more overpowering. No court can place a value on such grief.
Yet a court can place a value on the amount of support that family members had received from the loved one that has left them. That fact underscores the purpose of a wrongful death action. It seeks to obtain reimbursement for the financial losses that have been experienced by those that were closest to the deceased.
Pecuniary losses represent one factor that works to determine the size of the family’s claim
The pecuniary losses refer to the sudden absence of some form of financial support. It indicates that the victim of the wrongful death had offered monetary support to certain family members. The court can ascertain the value of the loved ones’ financial loss. Awareness of that value helps to determine the size of the claim in any planned lawsuit, with the help of Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill.
Another factor that can be assigned a clear monetary value
That is the cost associated with the task of visiting and caring for the person that has been wronged, and is about to die. If a loved one has been attacked in a vicious manner, he or she might struggle to survive. Loved ones want to be near that struggling survivor, in case he or she suddenly takes a turn for the worse.
Sometimes those same loved ones must travel from a distance. They might need to spend money on lodging. Those costs get added to the figures that will be used to determine the size of the claim in the wrongful death action.
A factor that calls for the judge to make a judgement
There are 3 elements to this factor; guidance, care and companionship. The loss of a loved one can mean the loss of one or more of those elements. A child could lose someone that taught the difference between right and wrong. Such a person would have offered guidance in the form of moral direction.
A child, an aging adult or an adult with a handicap might lose someone that helped by performing household tasks. That could involve cooking, cleaning or otherwise caring for the person that now lacks the giver of such care. Finally, a loved one of any age might have lost a source of companionship.
A judge must study the earlier extent of any care, guidance or companionship. To what extent will the loss of such elements affect the person that now lacks the same guidance, care or companionship? The answer hints at the size of the family’s claim.