What Damages are Awarded in Colorado Wrongful Death Lawsuits?

If you have lost a loved one due to the carelessness of others, your feelings of grief are most likely worsened by a pervading sense of injustice. Your loved one did not deserve to become a victim to others’ negligence, and their surviving family deserves financial compensation— not because it will make up for their loss, but because it will hold guilty parties accountable and acknowledge the severe damages the family has suffered.

In Colorado, anyone can file a wrongful death lawsuit as long as they are close family members (typically the spouse or child of the deceased, but if none exist, a parent or sibling may file the suit) of the deceased. However, though a wrongful death suit is a civil suit and not a criminal one, it is still crucial that you seek the services of a wrongful death attorney in Colorado rather than attempting to represent yourself in settlement negotiations.

In Colorado, a wrongful death lawsuit is a civil suit brought against a party who was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of a parent, spouse, sibling, or child due to negligence or misconduct.

In order for a Colorado personal injury attorney to successfully negotiate your financial settlement, they must be able to provide a preponderance of evidence that your loved one’s death was caused by another party’s negligence, misconduct, carelessness, or wrongful action. When hiring a lawyer, it is important to make sure that they have prior experience in wrongful death law.

• The cost of future wages of the deceased (especially in the instance that the deceased was the primary breadwinner in the family)
• Benefits the deceased received from their employer (medical insurance, savings accounts, stocks, etc.)
• Funeral expenses for the deceased
• Any medical debt accrued in the attempted treatment of the deceased’s initial injuries
• Pain and suffering—though this is impossible to truly quantify, you can receive some financial compensation for your emotional damages or for the pain and suffering of your loved one (especially in the case that your loved one suffered a painful death)

While the first four of these common damages are economic damages with clear dollar values, the last is considered a non-economic damage, a difficult injury to establish in court. However, an experienced wrongful death attorney in Colorado will establish the very real suffering your family has experienced and argue that the guilty party should seek to make amends for those damages, too. When you lose a loved one, the first thing to impact you is likely not the deceased’s loss wages or medical debt—instead, it is the very real emotional pain of an irreplaceable loss. Personal injury lawyer James Shaw believes you have the right to attempt to seek compensation for those damages along with the more tangible economic losses your family has suffered.

The statute of limitations to file a wrongful death suit in Colorado is two years from the date of your loved one’s death. Though seeking legal representation is likely the last thing on your mind when dealing with the loss of a loved one, it is best to hire a qualified wrongful death attorney as soon as is reasonably possible.

If you lost your loved one due to the negligence of another, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Contact Colorado personal injury attorney James Shaw toll-free today at 1-800-555-0101 to discuss your wrongful death case today.

Attorney James Shaw knows you have many options of representation available, so to help you make the best decision for your family, we offer no-cost and no-obligation initial consultations so you can be sure you have made the right choice.