Miami Wrongful Death Attorney

The loss of a loved one is always difficult, but when that loss is due to a wrongful act, negligence, or breach of contract, it is not only difficult but also against the law. Florida’s Wrongful Death Act provides a legal recourse of action for family members to take when a loved one dies because of another person’s or other entity’s negligence, wrongful act, or breach of contract. Wrongful death suits include cases of medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, boating accidents, drowning, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, faulty products, preventable accidents, and a host of other negligent or wrongful acts that result in the death of another person.

Family members of the deceased who may file a wrongful death civil suit include biological or adoptive children, a spouse, parents, any blood relatives, and adoptive brothers and sisters. The family members, or survivors, may recover monetary damages for lost financial support, companionship, parental guidance, and protection. Survivors may file a wrongful death suit for up to two years after the date of the death and receive compensation beginning on the date of death. Financial compensation includes lost lifetime earnings, such as wages, interest, savings, and retirement benefits.

Miami’s number of wrongful death cases is alarming. In the past eighteen months alone, the Miami-Dade Fire Department reported an astonishing one hundred and ninety-nine accidental drownings of children sixteen years old and younger. That is over eleven children each month. One third of those deaths are toddlers aged three and under who were able to access a swimming pool or some other body of water that should have been off limits to a child that young without proper adult supervision. Miami’s accidental drowning rate is disturbing, even more so since so many victims are young children.

In the United States, a person is injured or killed in a tractor-trailer truck accident every sixteen minutes, and Miami is no different. In fact, Florida has the third highest number of tractor-trailer truck accidents within the fifty states, which make it more likely for someone to be injured or killed on the highways and interstates of Miami than in forty-seven other states across the nation. Driving while texting or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or even driving too many hours at one time are all acts of negligence that if involved in an accident which killed someone, could constitute a wrongful death claim in civil court.

Miami’s elderly population is on the rise and so are the number of hospitalizations and deaths due to slips and falls. Every year, millions of seniors slip and fall due to poor maintenance and upkeep of public businesses and property. Most seniors who experience a bad fall will end up in the hospital during recovery. In fact, according to the National Safety Council, slips and falls are the number one reason for hospitalization among the senior population. Tragically, while in the hospital, some of those seniors will pass away due to complications from the fall, such as a head or neck trauma or spinal cord injury and some will fall victim to medical malpractice. Miami’s elderly population is the largest group of victims of medical malpractice throughout the Miami-Dade area.

It is your legal right as a survivor, to monetary compensation for the reckless act or negligence of another person, business, or other entity that caused the wrongful death of your loved one. Whether its medical bills, funeral expenses, lost earnings, or mental pain and suffering, Miami’s wrongful death attorneys can help make this difficult time a little less difficult financially and help ease the burden while you have time to grieve.