Once damages are recovered through a wrongful death claim, the first step is for the estate to be paid back any expenses it incurred, including attorneys’ fees. The remainder is paid to your loved one’s beneficiaries as determined by the Intestate Succession Act, which are the same rules that apply if your loved one died without a will.

In most circumstances, a person’s closest relatives receive percentages of the wrongful death settlement or court award. These relatives include a surviving spouse, children, and parents.

At Goolsby Law Firm, we use wrongful death claims to secure as much money as possible to fill in the blanks of what is left behind when you lose a loved one. A wrongful death claim cannot bring them back and it may not provide justice or closure. However, under the law, we will do everything possible through a wrongful death claim to help you receive as much compensation as possible.

A wrongful death attorney will:

• Calculate all expenses related to the decedent’s death: When you lose a relative, there are always costs. If your loved one did not pass away at the scene, they would have incurred medical bills. We will calculate all of the expenses that arose from the date of the accident to the date of death. We also will calculate all of the funeral and burial costs you and your family had to pay because of the fatal accident.
• Hire an expert economist: During a wrongful death claim, we will pursue compensation for the value of your loved one’s life and what they provided to you and other family members. This effort requires working with a highly educated and experienced economist. Wrongful death attorney Thom Goolsby routinely works with Ph.D.-level economists, many of whom are from North Carolina’s respected universities.
• Determine the value of decedent’s life: We work with our economists and other financial professionals to answer several questions, such as: what was your loved one’s earning potential, how long were they expected to live, and what were their financial prospects in the future? Or, if you lost your spouse who managed your household and focused on raising your children, we will calculate the value of the many services they provided. We work hard to build up the economic formula to capture all of the money available for the family.

We regularly receive calls from grieving family members who wish to know more about typical wrongful death settlement amounts and how much their case may be worth. There is no quick answer, but we will always help you establish a baseline.

The amount of a wrongful death settlement or court ruling depends on the facts, including the family’s specific losses, the decedent’s pain and suffering, and the economic value of the decedent’s life. No two wrongful death claims are the same.

You cannot assume your case is worth very little or a great deal. The only way to gauge how much a case may be worth is to work closely with a wrongful death attorney and an economic expert.