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A Gaithersburg wrongful death lawyer provides essential support for families who have lost a loved one due to someone else’s negligence or misconduct. At Regan Zambri Long, we understand that no legal remedy can truly compensate for the loss of a family member, but pursuing justice can provide financial stability and a sense of closure during an incredibly difficult time.
Our compassionate attorneys have extensive experience helping Montgomery County families navigate the legal process following a preventable death. If you’ve lost a loved one due to another’s negligence, contact our legal team for a confidential consultation to discuss how we can help.
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A wrongful death lawsuit is a civil legal action seeking compensation when someone dies due to someone else’s negligence, reckless behavior, or intentional misconduct. A wrongful death lawsuit is not a criminal prosecution, but instead, is a way for families to hold responsible parties financially accountable for a preventable death.
To succeed, the lawsuit must prove a duty of care existed, that duty was breached, the breach directly caused the death, and quantifiable damages resulted.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of personal injury claims involving wrongful death in Gaithersburg:
When drivers engage in negligent behaviors like texting while driving, speeding, running red lights, or operating vehicles under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they create unreasonable risks that too often result in preventable deaths. Additionally, commercial truck accidents frequently cause catastrophic fatalities due to the extreme size and weight disparity between commercial vehicles and passenger cars.
When medical professionals fail to meet the accepted standard of care in their field, and this negligence leads to a fatal outcome, surviving family members may have a wrongful death claim. The most common medical errors include misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, surgical errors, and medication mistakes.
Dangerous working conditions claim lives across various industries, with construction, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture presenting particularly significant risks. When employers fail to maintain safe workplaces or provide proper training and equipment, fatal accidents can result. Falls from heights, machinery accidents, toxic exposure, and transportation incidents on the job can all lead to fatal workplace injuries.
Consumer products that malfunction due to design flaws, manufacturing defects, or inadequate safety warnings sometimes cause fatal injuries to users. These wrongful death cases proceed under product liability theories, which may not require proving negligence if the defect itself can be established.
Slip and fall accidents, inadequate security leading to criminal assaults, swimming pool drownings, and other premises hazards can all support wrongful death claims when property owners neglect their duty of care.
Vulnerable elderly residents sometimes suffer fatal injuries due to substandard care in nursing facilities. Pressure ulcers that develop into fatal infections, falls resulting from inadequate supervision, medication errors, and other forms of neglect can support wrongful death claims against both facilities and individual staff members in appropriate cases.
Not just anyone can file a wrongful death claim for the loss of a loved one in Maryland. In fact, Maryland law strictly limits who may pursue wrongful death claims:
Maryland’s wrongful death statute gives primary beneficiary status to the deceased person’s spouse, children, and parents. These immediate family members have the first right to file wrongful death claims and receive compensation.
When no primary beneficiaries exist, Maryland law allows secondary beneficiaries to pursue wrongful death claims. This category includes siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, and other relatives who were financially dependent on the deceased before their death.
Maryland recognizes that when someone dies due to another’s negligence, the loss extends far beyond immediate funeral expenses. Comprehensive compensation addresses the family’s loss both financially and emotionally.
Wrongful death claims usually cover reasonable costs for funerals, burials, or cremations. These can include expenses like the funeral service itself, a casket or urn, transportation of the deceased, a cemetery plot, and any memorial services. Compensation for these costs not only helps cover the necessary arrangements but also honors the person who has passed, making the process a bit easier for those left behind.
Medical expenses that arise between the moment of injury and the eventual death can be a major factor in wrongful death claims. These costs can include everything from emergency crews rushing to help at the scene to the high-tech care in intensive care units, complex surgeries done by talented doctors, necessary medications for pain and recovery, and other healthcare expenses that come directly from the injury or illness. Together, these expenses paint a vivid picture of the extensive medical efforts made in a desperate bid to save a life before the tragic outcome.
Economic damages often form the most significant component of wrongful death compensation. These include lost income (both current and future) that would have supported the family, plus employment benefits like health insurance and retirement contributions. The economic value of household services—childcare, home maintenance, and daily family support—is also factored into compensation.
Maryland recognizes that losing a loved one has a serious emotional and psychological impact. While no amount of money can truly take away the grief someone feels, compensation can help acknowledge the deep sadness that comes with such a loss and provide necessary support during an overwhelmingly difficult time. That compensation can provide a little relief from the financial stress that often comes with saying goodbye, offering some help as they begin the healing process.
The permanent absence of the deceased’s love, guidance, and companionship represents a profound non-economic loss that Maryland law recognizes explicitly. This loss of consortium claim acknowledges the relational dimension of wrongful death beyond purely financial considerations. Spousal relationships and parent-child relationships receive particular recognition under this damage category, acknowledging the unique intimacy and lifelong bonds these relationships entail.
Successfully establishing liability in wrongful death cases requires methodically proving each element of the underlying negligence claim. In any personal injury lawsuit, the plaintiff must prove the four elements of negligent: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.
Every wrongful death claim begins by establishing that the defendant owed a legal duty to the deceased. This duty varies depending on the relationship between the parties and the context of the incident. For example, drivers owe all other road users a duty to operate their vehicles safely; medical providers owe patients a duty to provide care meeting professional standards; property owners owe visitors a duty to maintain reasonably safe premises, etc.
Once the duty is established, the case must demonstrate how the defendant’s actions or omissions violated that duty. This breach may involve doing something a reasonable person wouldn’t do or failing to take precautions a reasonable person would have implemented.
In car accidents, breach might be established through witness testimony about speeding or distracted driving. Medical malpractice cases rely on expert testimony comparing the provider’s actions to accepted standards. Product liability may involve engineering analysis showing design flaws.
Proving that the breach directly caused the death represents a critical and often challenging element of wrongful death cases. This causation requirement involves two key elements: actual cause and proximate cause.
Actual cause is the idea that the death would not have occurred but for the negligent action or inaction of the responsible party. In other words, you need to clearly demonstrate that their negligence was the main reason for the death.
Proximate cause, on the other hand, addresses the question of whether the connection between the negligent act and the death is sufficiently direct and foreseeable. This means we need to figure out if the death was a likely outcome of the behavior in question, considering the specific situation.
Together, these two ideas are key to holding someone responsible in wrongful death cases, and it often requires digging into both how the negligence directly affected the situation and whether the death was something that could have been anticipated.
The reality of death inherently confirms the presence of damages, but the detailed documentation of these damages can make a difference in determining the amount of compensation awarded. Gathering solid evidence of both financial impacts, like lost income, medical bills, and funeral costs, and emotional losses, such as grief, loss of companionship, and reduced quality of life, is essential. This thorough approach helps show the true pain and struggles that the family is going through, ensuring that the compensation reflects the real impact of their loss.
Navigating a wrongful death claim while grieving presents overwhelming challenges for most families. Our experienced attorneys manage all legal aspects of your case, allowing you to focus on emotional healing while pursuing justice for your loved one.
Thorough investigation forms the foundation of successful wrongful death claims. Our team begins work immediately after you contact us, taking steps to preserve evidence before it disappears or gets altered.
We identify and interview witnesses while their memories remain fresh, obtaining sworn statements documenting their observations. We also secure physical evidence, accident reports, medical records, and other documentation establishing how the fatal incident occurred and who bears responsibility.
For more complicated cases, we work with specialized experts, including accident reconstruction experts, medical specialists, engineers, and others whose professional analysis strengthens causation evidence and counters defense arguments.
Accurately valuing a wrongful death claim requires specialized expertise in multiple disciplines. We collaborate with medical experts who can explain the nature of the fatal injuries and whether proper care could have prevented the death.
Economic experts, including forensic accountants and vocational specialists, help calculate the full financial impact of your loved one’s absence. Their analysis considers not just historical earnings but career trajectory, potential advancement, benefits, and the value of household services.
The brutal truth is that insurance adjusters try to minimize wrongful death payouts. Our experienced negotiators anticipate and counter their tactics with thoroughly documented evidence of liability and comprehensive proof of your family’s losses. We manage all communications with insurers, protecting you from potentially harmful direct contact during your vulnerable grieving period. We will make sure you don’t make statements that might be misinterpreted or accept premature settlement offers before understanding the full extent of your losses.
When you cannot reach a fair settlement, we don’t hesitate to present your case to a jury. Our personal injury trial attorneys have extensive experience presenting wrongful death evidence in court. We use compelling exhibits, expert testimony, and practical narrative techniques to help jurors understand both how the negligence occurred and the profound impact your loved one’s death has had on your family.
Our firm represents wrongful death clients on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay no upfront costs to begin your case and no attorney fees if we don’t secure compensation. We also advance the costs of investigation, expert witnesses, and litigation expenses, removing financial constraints to pursuing justice.
Losing a loved one to someone else’s negligence creates both emotional anguish and practical challenges for surviving family members. Our experienced wrongful death attorneys provide the legal support you need during this difficult time. We offer a free consultation to new clients where we’ll evaluate the circumstances of your loved one’s untimely death, explain relevant legal principles, and help you understand the next steps.
Contact Regan Zambri Long today for a free, confidential consultation. Our experienced wrongful death attorneys will help you understand your legal options and guide you through this challenging process with both professional skill and personal compassion.
