If you’ve lost a loved one in a car crash, you may be entitled to compensation. To prove liability, negligence, and your right to damage recovery, you are likely to need legal assistance.
By consulting an experienced Stockbridge car accident lawyer from John Foy & Associates, you can increase your chances of getting the money you deserve.
Damages in a Fatal Car Accident Case
If you lost a family member in a fatal car accident, you could recover several types of damages:
- Economic damages – anything that has to do with expenses related to the death of your loved one, including pre-death medical bills, funeral and burial expenses, loss of future income, loss of future benefits, loss of inheritance, and loss of household services.
- Non-economic damages – these damages have to cover your non-tangible losses, including mental anguish and pain and suffering. They also include loss of care guidance, nurturing, companionship, consortium, and love.
The goal of this compensation is to help you bring your quality of life as close as possible to what it was before the accident. That’s why it’s imperative to demonstrate how seriously the death of a loved one affected you and your family.
This doesn’t just involve presenting such tangible evidence as medical bills. You may also need to:
- Share your journals.
- Find witnesses of your family’s well-being.
- Hire expert witnesses to predict future death-related losses.
Just one missed piece of evidence could mean losing a significant part of a settlement. That’s why hiring a Stockbridge fatal car accident attorney comes highly recommended. An experienced fatal car accident lawyer in Stockbridge can help you collect evidence, hire expert witnesses, and give valuable advice about what information you need to share.
Proving Negligence in a Fatal Car Accident Case
To recover damages in a fatal car accident case, you need to prove the at-fault party’s negligence. To do that, you would have to:
- Demonstrate legal duty of care – this part is usually easy in a car accident because all traffic participants have a legal duty of care to behave reasonably on the road.
- Show the breach of the legal duty of care – this involves demonstrating how the at-fault party breached the legal duty of care to your loved one. For example, the driver ran a stop sign.
- Prove that the breach caused a fatal outcome – this involves providing evidence that the car accident led to your loved one’s death. For example, the strong impact of the crash caused fatal internal bleeding.
- Show that the fatal outcome led to damages – you have to prove that your loved one’s death led to damages that you claim you are entitled to. For example, if the person was the breadwinner of the family, their death led to the loss of financial support.
Keep in mind that no matter how straightforward the negligence in your fatal car accident case may be, it’s still your responsibility to prove it. An experienced fatal car accident attorney in Stockbridge can help you demonstrate the four aspects of negligence to improve your chances of fair damage recovery.
Comparative Negligence in a Fatal Car Accident Case
If your loved one was partially responsible for the fatal car accident, your payout could be reduced. Georgia is a modified comparative negligence state, which means that the money you receive is proportional to the decedent’s liability in the accident. If any party’s fault is over 50%, they can’t recover any damages.
For example, if you sue the at-fault driver for $100,000 in wrongful death damages, but the judge finds that your family member was 20% responsible, you can only get $80,000 ($100,000 minutes 20%).
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The Statute of Limitations in a Stockbridge Fatal Car Accident Case
After your loved one dies, you only have a limited amount of time to file a wrongful death claim. The statute of limitations for fatal car accident cases in Georgia is two years from the date of death.
After losing a family member, many people don’t feel ready to handle legal issues immediately. They put off contacting a lawyer for many months. While you have two years to file a lawsuit, delaying the process could hurt your case.
The faster a fatal car accident attorney can gain access to the evidence and start conducting an investigation, the easier it will be to build a strong case.
How a Stockbridge Fatal Car Accident Lawyer Can Help
In Georgia, you aren’t obligated to hire an attorney to file a wrongful death claim. It’s your right to handle the case without legal assistance. However, doing this can be complicated, especially when the at-fault party’s legal team is fighting hard to minimize the payout.
By hiring a fatal accident attorney, you can get assistance with:
- Investigating the circumstances of the accident.
- Collecting evidence and speaking to eyewitnesses.
- Hiring expert witnesses.
- Preparing and filing all documents on time.
- Negotiating a fair settlement with an insurance company.
- Proving your case to the judge and the jury if necessary.
- Offering valuable legal advice throughout the case.
When you are dealing with grief, fighting a legal battle can be frustrating. It’s easy to make mistakes, settle for an unfair amount, or lose a chance to get compensated. If you decide to work with a legal representative, you can take the burden off your shoulders and focus on emotional recovery.
Contact an Experienced Stockbridge Fatal Car Accident Attorney
At John Foy & Associates, we’ve been handling fatal car accident cases for many years. We know how to support our clients through the tough times while doing everything possible to help them obtain fair compensation. If you lost a loved one in a car crash, contact our Stockbridge fatal car accident attorneys for a free case evaluation today.
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