CALIFORNIA WRONGFUL DEATH LAWYER (PART IV): DEATH OF A MINOR CHILD
The following is part four in a four-part series on wrongful death. If you believe a loved one was the victim of a wrongful death and you are in need of a California wrongful death lawyer, please call us at 1-800-ALAWPRO.
DEATH OF A MINOR CHILD
Economic damages consist of:
1. The value of the financial support, if any, that the child would have contributed to the family during either the life expectancy that the child had before [his/her] death or the life expectancy of the Plaintiff, whichever is shorter;
2. The loss of gifts or benefits that the Plaintiff could have expected to receive from the child;
3. Funeral and burial expenses; and
4. The amount paid, and reasonably certain to be paid in the future, to obtain household services that the child would have provided.
General damages consist of:
1. The loss of the child’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support.
There is no compensation for the Plaintiff’s grief, sorrow or mental anguish because of the death of the child; nor is there compensation for the child’s pain and suffering before death [CACI 3922].
CONCLUSION
One of the most difficult things we are asked to do as trial lawyers is to ask the jury to put a value on the loss of a loved one. We can tell the jury how we value other things and then show that the Plaintiffs would gladly give up those things in exchange for the life of the loved one.
When I was a little boy, I once asked my mother what she feared most. I was expecting her to say getting sick, or losing our house, my dad losing his job or even losing everything we had. Her answer was “dying before my children”. It wasn’t until many, many years later, after I also became a parent, that I could understand her answer. Our greatest fear in life is not the loss of our physical possessions, or even the loss of our own life; it is the death of our loved ones.
Read our whole series on Wrongful Death:
PART III: CALIFORNIA WRONGFUL DEATH LAWYER: DEATH OF AN ADULT
PART IV: CALIFORNIA WRONGFUL DEATH LAWYER: DEATH OF AN ADULT
