If the death of a person is caused due to the negligence of someone else, the surviving family members of the victim would be allowed to file a wrongful death claim with the help of their personal injury attorney in Springfield MA. This lawsuit is known as wrongful death claim and every state has its own set of guidelines and rules that govern wrongful death claims. However, you would get to know from your lawyer that the basic principles that rule these guidelines remain the same across and therefore, it is not really difficult to find symbiosis and similarities in such cases.
Unlike criminal cases, a wrongful death claim is a civil suit and your personal injury lawyer in Springfield MA would tell you that this lawsuit is filed with the aim to get compensated for the losses that the survivors of such a case have suffered due to the death of the victim. While criminal cases are filed with an intention to ensure that the culprit gets punished for the offence, the civil suit is filed to get money so that the lives of the survivors can become normal once again. Criminal lawsuit does not give any compensation to the survivors and only gets the defendant punished. Therefore, when the death has been caused by the negligence of the defendant, a civil suit is filed only.
The people or the person who brings about the lawsuit in civil cases is known as the plaintiff and the person or party that is responsible for the action are called as the defendant in the case. Your personal injury lawyer in Springfield MA would tell you that in case the dead person has died with a will in place, the court would appoint someone as the executioner of the will who would then file the civil lawsuit for wrongful death of the victim.
When it comes to wrongful death cases, your personal injury lawyer in Springfield MA would tell you that there are certain things that need to be proved in order to win the claim. The plaintiff is supposed to prove to the court that the defendant had a duty of care towards the person who died due to the negligence of the defendant. The plaintiff would be required to prove that the defendant breached that duty of care by being negligent towards the plaintiff and also that a particular action of a defendant caused the wrongful death of the victim.
One thing which is different in these civil lawsuits is that in these the duty of providing the proof lies with the plaintiff and not the defendant. This means that the plaintiff would be required to prove that the actions of the defendant caused the death with the help of required proofs and evidences that would help establish the same. For more information visit here: Raipher, P.C.
