When you lose a loved one unexpectedly it is going to be traumatic time, no matter what is going on. This is often compounded when the death was caused by someone else. You know that no amount of money will compensate for losing your loved one, but when you claim a compensation it can help take care of the financial burdens.
What Is The Law In Relation To Claims From Fatal Accidents
When you look at the Fatal Accident Act of 1976, you will notice that a dependent of someone who has passed can file for compensation if the accident came from the error or negligence of another person.
Who counts as a dependent:
Ex-spouse or a current spouse.
Someone who has been co-habitating with the person who passed away as long as they have lived together as a husband or wife for 2 years before the death happened.
Adopted, blood children and children gained through a marriage.
You may even find the parents, grandparents, and those who were treated by the dead person as a parent would be,.
Sibilings, aunts, uncles, nieces, and even nephews.
What Type Of Claim Can You Get In A Fatal Accident Case
Each case will be different. That is going to impact the amount of compensation you get as well as the accident will have a variety of factors to consider. Typically you will be able to claim in one of the following categories after the accident.
- Pain and suffering along with the amenity loss of the deceased – this is going to come from the compensation of the disease the deceased may have suffered from like asbestos or if they were bed ridden because of negligence of the medical doctors, but this claim usually is compensated based off of the pain and suffering the person who passed away had while living with the disease.
- Actual losses – is going to come from the cost of caring for the person and handling of the estate that people have to process. This is going to cover the medical expenses and even the cost of going to and from the location. The funeral expenses are often included in this price as well.
- Earnings loss – The loss of earnings may not be thought about at first, but when they are not alive you need to consider the loss of earnings over time.
- Services loss – This compensation will be a loss of the information that people have done before like housework, childcare, and even the other chores. This could even be the cost of replacing a caregiver if people were caring for someone else.
- Dependency loss – Usually this will be the largest factor in the fatal accident claims. This is going to be the part that will allow people to get a compensation for the income loss in the family. This can easily vary depending on how much money people were making when they passed away. This is going to take all the different calculations on what the people were making from healthcare, company car, and even the mobile phones people had.
Limitations On The Statutory Award For Beravement
In addition to everything that was already listed you will notice that you have the potential to get a nominal amount of almost 13,000 pounds for a Bereavement. This is a different amount than what is listed above and one that you are entitled to claim as a dependent. When a fatal accident happens, you will find that this reward if a successful case is made will be responsible to be made from the negligent part even if you do not have any loss of income. This amount is only able to be paid to a parent of a deceased minor.
Time Limits That Are Present
The sad part is you do have a three year time limit to file the accident compensation claims. This is going to start the date that people have died and it has to be linked to the accident.
Even if the people were in the middle of a personal injury claim at the time, the deadline will start at the time they were pronounced dead. This will allow the family to continue all the claims.
Should You Hire A Solicitor To Help File The Claim?
You will find the amount of challenges surrounding these cases are complex. What makes it even harder is you are often still reeling from the loss of the loved one. Then you will have to throw in all the legal issues as well, but even the personal questions that you have to ask which is going to make it even more draining.
No matter it is important that you hire a claims solicitor who is experienced in this type of claim. Most of the time you will find the solicitors who handle this type of claim work on a No Win No Fee basis.
You are going to get a free consultation typically, but you will also find out the merits of your case as well by having the solicitor look through all the notes that are involving the case. You have a very strong case, the solicitors tend to put the No Win No Fee claim in place. This is also called a conditional fee agreement. You will not have to pay for any legal fees at all through the proceedings. You only have to pay the fee if you end up winning the case. The rest of the fees are going to come from the defendant in the case.
However, to get a great case you will have to keep a documentary of all the evidence from the case. This is going to include any payment slips, the employer letter, statements from witnesses, doctor letters, police reports, photographs, and even receipts from the care of the deceased all of these are going to be invaluable in getting the compensation you d
Not only are most lawyers going to pursue the damages you are allowed, the staff knows the financial burden and tends to work to get early part payments released to help with the finances and the burden you may be experiencing.
It is sad that people have to die in accidents that are not their fault. If the accident was caused by someone else, you need to make sure you get in touch with us soon to get a claim started for the compensation you deserve sooner rather than later.