The idea of a wrongful death can be confusing to many people for one simple reason: All deaths feel wrong. However, wrongful death as a legal term means something else entirely. It means that there was someone at fault for the death, whether due to their intentional actions or because they were negligent.
In the state of California, if another person’s actions or inactions led to the death of a loved one, then you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit. If you win, you may be able to recover financial compensation for economic losses associated with the death. This is all done in civil court and has nothing to do with what may or may not be happening in criminal court.
Wrongful death stats in California are surprising
At Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas, we of course keep up to date more on California wrongful death statistics than we do other states. This state has a higher rate of accident death than any other state in the U.S. The most common cause of accident death is fatal car accidents. In fact, in California alone more than 4,000 people die on average from car accidents easy year. When you consider that only 10,000 people die in California each year, you can see that they are very much the leading cause of death.
About 300 of these 4,000 auto accident deaths involve a commercial vehicle such as a semi-truck. About 100 Californians are killed due to coming into contact with machinery, and more than 300 California fatalities occur at the person’s place of work. About one-third of those involve some type of motor vehicle, though slip and fall accidents are another common cause of workplace accidents.
Fewer than one percent of California deaths happen as a result of toxic exposure or fire / explosion. The majority of these are the result of negligence and it’s more likely than not that they happen at work or are work related.
More about wrongful death car accidents
Not every fatal car accident leads to a wrongful death suit. In order for it to qualify, the person filing the suit must qualify as a person who can file, and there must be evidence or reason to believe that the victim wouldn’t have died if the at-fault driver hadn’t acted negligently. If you’re not sure if you qualify to file a wrongful death suit, contact Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 right away for your free case evaluation.
Some of the most common types of wrongful death car accidents in California include driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol (including prescription medication), texting while driving, driving while drowsy (this happens frequently with commercial drivers), aggressive and / or reckless driving, and cars that weren’t kept in safe condition by their driver.
In most cases a wrongful death case is filed against the driver but in some cases it may be filed against the manufacturer of the vehicle they were driving (or the deceased was driving), the employer of a commercial driver, the owner of a commercial vehicle driven by someone else, the government (in the situation that there were defects in the road), or another third party who created dangerous conditions.
If you’re not sure if your cases qualifies, or if you have additional questions, please reach out to Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 for your free case evaluation.
