If the death of a person has been due to the negligence of someone else, the immediate family members of the victim are within their rights to file a lawsuit to claim for damages from the accused. These cases are known as wrongful death cases. Your personal injury lawyer in Hamilton would be able to tell you that these cases are not too uncommon since hundreds of wrongful death cases are filed every year. Each state has its own rules for dealing with such cases but the principles governing the laws and rules are generally the same. Your lawyer will need to determine liability and will help in deciding the compensation that you are entitled to.

If you ask your injury lawyer in Hamilton about it, you would come to know that a wrongful death claim is a civil lawsuit that is brought about to seek financial damages from the accused or their insurance provider. A civil suit is generally different from a criminal case that might be filed against the same accused by the state for causing the death of a person. However, the main difference is that while a criminal case is filed to penalize a person for causing the death of another person, a civil suit provides financial compensation to the victim's family.

In a civil lawsuit for wrongful death cases, the person filing the lawsuit is known as the plaintiff. In these cases, a plaintiff is normally the immediate family member of the deceased like the spouse or the child of the victim. However, in case the person who has died has a will in place, the court normally appoints someone as the representative of the estate who becomes the plaintiff and files the lawsuit. Your personal injury lawyer in Hamilton will tell you that the person against whom the lawsuit is filed is known as the defendant.

When it comes to wrongful death cases, the plaintiff is supposed to prove a few things with the help of their injury lawyer in Hamilton. As a plaintiff, one has to prove to the court that the defendant had a duty of care towards the victim and that the defendant caused a breach of that duty of care by not taking appropriate steps to safeguard the victim. In such cases merely showing that the defendant broke a law is not sufficient.