When a death occurs due to negligence or wrongdoing, close family members or the estate of the deceased can pursue a wrongful death claim.
If the defendant is found liable for the death, the defendant can be made to compensate victims, including paying for medical bills incurred before death, funeral expenses, loss of wages the deceased would have earned, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of companionship.
Defendants – and their insurers – often do not want to provide compensation for all of these losses, so they may raise defenses. It’s up to the victims to defeat those defenses, and a personal injury lawyer at Diaco Law can help.
Let’s take a look at some of the common defenses in wrongful death claims to better understand how a defendant may try to evade responsibility for causing a death to occur.
Common defenses in wrongful death claims
Here are some defenses that a defendant could raise in court to try to avoid being made to pay for your losses:
- Your claim is time-barred: If the statute of limitations has expired, you can no longer make a claim.
- The defendant had no obligation to the deceased: If someone doesn’t have any duty to protect or keep the deceased safe, they can’t be held liable for failing to fulfill that obligation. For example, if a doctor happened upon the scene of an accident in which your loved one sustained injury and chose not to become involved even though they could have treated and saved them, you can’t usually make a wrongful death claim because they had no legal obligation to intervene.
- The defendant didn’t fail in their obligations: Unless a defendant was negligent or otherwise violated a legal obligation, there is no reason to hold them accountable for the death. If a property owner had a safe premise and did everything right, but the deceased happened to trip, fall down their stairs, and suffer fatal injuries, the property owner shouldn’t be to blame.
- The defendant’s actions weren’t the cause of death: If a defendant was careless but something else caused the death, then you can’t make a wrongful death claim.
- Assumption of the risk: In some cases, a person who engages in high-risk activities assumes the risk of something going wrong. If the deceased was killed in this type of circumstance, then it may not be possible to make a wrongful death claim against those who you believe were involved in causing the fatal accident. For example, if your deceased loved one was killed while scuba diving on a dangerous dive, the organizers of the dive aren’t necessarily at fault.
- Lack of evidence: The plaintiff has to show that the defendant should be held liable for the death. The plaintiff must prove this by a preponderance of the evidence or show that more likely than not that the defendant is to blame. If the plaintiff falls short, then the defendant can’t be held liable.
If a plaintiff meets their burden of proving their case, then the defendant will be held liable unless the defendant can successfully prove one of these defenses.
Getting Legal Help From a Florida Wrongful Death Lawyer
If your loved one was killed, don’t let the defendant avoid liability by convincing a court that these defenses are valid when they aren’t.
Reach out to Diaco Law today online or by calling (813) 221-7978 to talk with an experienced Tampa personal injury lawyer to get help proving your claim, defeating common wrongful death defenses, and getting the full and fair compensation that you deserve.