Bronx Wrongful Death Lawyer
Surviving family members are often left to pick up the pieces when a loved one dies due to someone else’s carelessness or recklessness. While no amount of money can fully heal the loss, New York’s wrongful death laws allow surviving loved ones to seek compensation. This compensation can help mitigate the financial losses brought on by the loss, including paying for medical and funeral expenses and covering lost income.
If you are ready to pursue justice with a wrongful death case, you should consider reaching out to a Bronx wrongful death lawyer at Shulman & Hill. We have a strong track record of success and the knowledge you need to build a strong case. We provide free legal consultations for families who lost a loved one in the Bronx when you call (555) 555-5555.
Filing an Accidental Death Lawsuit: How Our Bronx Lawyers Can Help You
An experienced Bronx personal injury lawyer from our team can help you overcome the challenges the legal process often presents. Even if your loved one was partially responsible for their accident, you may still qualify for compensation.
A wrongful death law firm such as Shulman & Hill can help you specifically with the following:
- Investigating the cause of your loved one’s fatal injuries or illness
- Gathering evidence that shows how another party was potentially responsible, including witness statements, surveillance camera footage, and expert testimonies
- Building a strong case on your behalf
- Filing a lawsuit against the liable party or parties
- Corresponding with insurers, experts, other lawyers, and similar parties on your behalf
- Negotiating for a fair settlement offer and helping you spot and reject low offers
- Taking your case to trial if an insurer refuses to compensate you fairly
- Arguing your case before a judge and/or jury
- Representing your best interests throughout this process
We Can Protect You From Bad-Faith Insurance Tactics
Losing a loved one can be incredibly traumatic and throw one’s life into a state of complete disarray. When the loss is unexpected and occurs in a preventable way, that trauma and upheaval can be magnified. These events bring pain, grief, and often financial stress. Holding someone accountable and recovering compensation can help to ease this frustration and worry.
Recovering compensation based on wrongful death in the Bronx is not always easy, though. Insurers and defendants in most wrongful death cases may try to limit how much money a family receives—or avoid paying anything at all. Insurance companies may try to attempt to diminish your right to compensation by doing the following:
- Allege that the deceased was acting recklessly or carelessly, causing their own injuries
- Claim that the deceased deviated from protocol or safety measures, which resulted in their accident
- Deny that the defendant was at fault in the accident
- Deny their policy covered the incident or injuries involved for another reason
What Damages Can Be Sought Following a Bronx Accidental Death?
If you lost a loved one in the Bronx and you believe another party was responsible, you may be eligible to recover compensation for your family’s losses. When the personal representative files a claim or lawsuit and recovers compensation, they distribute the money according to the will. If the victim died without a will, New York intestate laws apply.
When you work with our team, we can identify the expenses and losses recoverable based on the case facts. Losses that may be compensable include:
- Funeral, memorial, burial, and/or cremation expenses
- Loss of a loved one’s income
- Costs for the deceased’s medical care prior to their passing
- Loss of parental nurturing and guidance
- Conscious pain and suffering your loved one endured before their death
If our Bronx wrongful death lawyer handles your case, we can gather documentation to show the damages you suffered and the value of these expenses and losses. This often requires us to work with experts such as economists to understand the long-term effects of losing your loved one’s income, benefits, and inheritance, for example.
Why Working With Shulman & Hill Can Benefit Your Wrongful Death Case
When you have a claim for wrongful death against another party, you want to make sure you are building the strongest case possible to ensure that you have a fair shot at securing compensation for your family’s financial security in the future.
Most individuals, thankfully, do not experience this type of tragedy or need to navigate this process more than once or twice in a lifetime. They simply do not have the experience, knowledge, and resources to handle these claims on their own. When they try, they face significant frustration, time-consuming red tape, and a steep learning curve. Our wrongful death lawyers manage these cases daily.
Shulman & Hill has helped numerous families throughout the greater New York metropolitan area secure justice and closure following the untimely and tragic death of their loved ones. Over the years, we have recovered more than $300 million for our clients throughout New York City, including families of wrongful death victims in the Bronx. We understand how sensitive and painful these cases are and we are prepared to walk you through each step of the legal process.
What Does Wrongful Death Mean?
By law, a wrongful death occurs when a person dies because of another party’s careless, reckless, or intentional act. New York law allows a wrongful death claim when the victim might file a personal injury claim for damages had they survived the incident.
Many states allow close relatives of the deceased—including their spouse, children, or parents—to file a wrongful death lawsuit. In the Bronx, who can file the action is governed by EPTL § 5-4.1, which limits who represents the family and estate in these cases. This may be a spouse, child or parents, but they must become the personal representative through the surrogate court process.
A wrongful death lawyer in our Bronx law office can advise you on your rights during a free case consultation with our team. This includes an assessment of your options based on the case facts you provide us and answering questions you have about our team. We can also explain the process necessary to seek compensation for surviving family members.
What Types of Accidents Support Bronx Wrongful Death Lawsuits?
There are a wide variety of scenarios where someone else’s carelessness, recklessness, or intentionally harmful act could result in a wrongful death. This could include:
- Workplace accidents
- Construction accidents
- Medical malpractice, including surgical errors, misdiagnosis, and failure to diagnose
- Slip and fall accidents
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Train accidents
- Assaults, murders, and other criminal actions
One way to learn if the circumstances that led to your loved one’s death might support a wrongful death case is to discuss it with our team. We evaluate cases and explain the next steps to victims’ families every day. We know what it takes to build a strong case, navigate the process, and recover compensation for our clients.
What Is the Difference Between a Wrongful Death Civil Case and a Criminal Case?
While both civil and criminal charges could stem from the same tragic death, there are key differences between the two. Civil cases involve surviving loved ones seeking compensation and accountability, while criminal charges brought by prosecutors seek criminal justice.
Criminal cases could end with a guilty plea or verdict and a sentence, including:
- Time behind bars
- Fines and other fees
A civil case could end with a payout, often from the at-fault party’s insurance company, that compensates surviving family members for their losses.
While they could both occur based on the same incident, criminal and civil cases are very different. Another difference between the two is intent. In many wrongful death cases, the responsible party did not intend for someone to suffer injuries or lose their life. Their carelessness caused the accident and fatal injuries.
When there is a criminal case and a civil case based on the same facts, the two have no bearing on one another. Winning a criminal case could provide evidence that supports a civil recovery, but it is possible to recover damages in a civil case while there were no charges, or the defendant was found not guilty in a criminal case.
Contact Our Bronx Wrongful Death Team for Your Free Initial Consultation
If you are ready to pursue a wrongful death case, reach out to a lawyer at Shulman & Hill as soon as possible to discuss your case. We offer free legal consultations. You can speak with a team member, get a complimentary assessment of your options, and ask questions to learn more about your rights and our services. If your loved one died because of someone else’s bad behavior, our wrongful death lawyers are here for you.
Contact us today by calling (555) 555-5555.
WE WORK WITH YOU
TO GET YOU COMPENSATED
Everyday working people often struggle to afford top-tier legal representation. To ensure equal access to justice, we work on a contingency-fee basis. You pay no attorneys’ fees unless we achieve a settlement or verdict in your case.