The Role Of Negligence In Wrongful Death Claims

In this article, you can discover…

• How negligence affects a wrongful death claim.
• How negligence is proven in a court.
• The legal difference between gross and ordinary negligence.

How Is Negligence Defined In The Context Of A Wrongful Death Claim?

Negligence involves a breach of duty, causation, and damages. Negligence might involve malpractice, e.g., giving someone the wrong type of blood during a transfusion. It could involve a child firing an unsecured weapon and killing someone. It could also involve an apartment complex that did not maintain smoke detectors within the building, resulting in an unnoticed fire that cost lives.

How Is Negligence Typically Proven?

Proving negligence in a wrongful death involves proving that reasonable actions should have been taken that were not taken. It also involves proving that responsible parties should have been aware of possible risks and either did something or failed to do something that caused a death wrongfully.

Proving negligence in a medical malpractice case would involve an expert in the field looking through medical records and determining if care fell below an accepted standard. If a doctor or nurse failed to provide appropriate standards of care and this negligence caused a death, medical records will demonstrate this.

In product liability cases, we have to prove that the product is defective. We do this through expert witness testimony on the design, mechanics, and operation of the product that caused the wrongful death.

In vehicle accidents, we would rely on incident reports, police investigations, witness statements and camera footage to determine who the at-fault party was and which Georgia traffic laws they violated to cause a wrongful death.

What Is The Difference Between Gross Negligence And Ordinary Negligence?

Gross negligence involves conduct that is wanton, willful misconduct, or total disregard for the life or the rights of someone else. It’s more intentional. Ordinary negligence simply involves someone who had a duty and breached that duty, causing death. They may not have meant to cause harm, but they did.

In many cases, we can successfully argue gross negligence by showing that there was knowledge; someone responsible knew there was a problem, and they chose not to address it.

What Are Some Defenses Commonly Used Against Claims Of Negligence?

Defense in a negligence claim will often argue that causation is not applicable. In other words, that their actions or failure to act did not cause the death and that the deceased party would have passed away anyway. For example, did the person in the apartment fire die because the smoke detectors did not work or due to a pre-existing medical condition that made escape difficult?

Other times, the defense will seek to have a wrongful death claim dismissed because the correct party did not bring the claim. In the State of Georgia, it’s very important for the deceased party’s estate to bring the wrongful death claim as opposed to other parties.

Of course, insurance companies will often argue that an event was intentional instead of negligent, as their policies don’t often cover intentional acts. In these cases, legal work must be done to determine if negligence could have possibly and meaningfully contributed.

For example, consider a situation where parents do not properly secure a weapon in a house where a teenager known to be violent and mentally ill is living. If this teenager gets ahold of that weapon and uses it to kill a family member, negligence can be legally argued, as the weapon should have been secured but was not.

In every incident, a careful and comprehensive legal review of your family’s case is needed to help counter arguments for non-negligence and ensure you receive the economic and punitive damages that you merit after a wrongful death.

For more information on The Role Of Negligence In Wrongful Death Claims, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (770) 474-9335 today.