What types of damages can be pursued in a wrongful death claim?
Stephen D. Phillips: He explains the two categories of damages, economic loss and loss of society, and the kinds of evidence used to prove each.
Attorney Stephen D. Phillips · Wrongful Death · 2-minute 5-second answer
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the video’s audio and lightly edited.
The damages in a wrongful death claim are pecuniary injuries, and they’re divided into as follows. The economic loss, which is money, goods, and services, as well as the loss of society, which is companionship, comfort, advice, guidance, protection, all the things which make us human. For the economic loss, what is typically done when there’s a salaried employee is we produce the income tax returns, produce maybe a boss or a coworker to discuss the duties or obligations and salary of the deceased person, how well they were doing in the company, if they were moving up in the company, what they did for the company, as well as the benefits, the insurance, the pension, the 401K. That all has a value, and we present the economic evidence related to the economic loss. Oftentimes we’ll end up using what’s called an economist to project wages into the future, what the person would have earned over their lifetime. Now the second element of damage, the loss of society, that is the unique relationship, the comfort, the guidance, companionship. We bring in family members. We may bring in neighbors, co-employees, friends, people who knew the family unit, people who knew the deceased and what type of person he was, how he treated people, what his hobbies and interests were, what advice he had given to his family members, how he was protective of them. We provide a broad range of evidence so the jury can get a good understanding and good flavor of the deceased person, as well as his relationships with his heirs who suffered the loss.
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