Experienced Arizona Attorneys Handling Wrongful Death Cases
If you have lost a loved one in a fatal accident, you are suffering enough. Unfortunately, and at the same time you are mourning the loss of a loved one, you must also grapple with an unfamiliar and daunting legal process. Hiring an experienced attorney immediately will help remove that burden, so you can deal with your loss without the added stress of shouldering the legal process.
The personal injury litigation attorneys of Israel & Gerity understand. We have been focused on providing effective legal services for victims of negligence and their families since we opened our doors. We are compassionate, responsive and 100 percent focused on helping you obtain the full and fair money damages you deserve for your financial losses.
Contact our offices in Phoenix to arrange a free consultation today. We handle wrongful death claims on contingency. You will not pay attorneys fees unless we help you get money in a settlement or jury award.
What to Expect When You File a Wrongful Death Claim
For those many who are unfamiliar with the legal process, the typical steps in a claim follow.
Oftentimes an injury or wrongful death results from an auto accident, construction site, slip and fall or other accident. Retained counsel should immediately perform an investigation. This includes interviews of persons with knowledge and collecting documents, photographs and other important evidence before it is lost. Identifying available insurance and putting those carriers on notice is very important. The client should not discuss the case with anyone without retained counsel's consent or direction.
Meanwhile, the client should seek treatment for the physical or emotional injuries. This includes seeing the family doctor or other specialist so that injuries or conditions can be diagnosed and the proper treatment can be identified. The treatment should continue until the client has reached maximum medical improvement.
Once the client's total losses can be identified, a demand for compensation on the wrongdoer or his/her insurance carrier is formulated. Losses that should be taken into account often include the cost of treatment, loss of wages or income, out-of-pocket expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship, etc. In some cases, the client returns to his/her pre-accident condition. In other cases, the client will need future treatment or has a permanent condition that will not improve. In such cases, costs of future treatment or evaluating the impact of a permanent condition are also added to the demand formulation.
Demand is then made on the wrongdoer or insurance carrier. If the claim settles, the matter should be over. In some auto accident cases, the client is not fully compensated because the wrongdoer's insurance limits are low. In that case, the client's underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage then comes into play. About 70 percent of claims settle without litigation.
If the wrongdoer or its insurance carrier will not settle, litigation is the next step. The typical processes in litigation include filing the Complaint, conducting depositions and discovery, filing motions, mediation (a formal process to seek pre-trial settlement) and, if the case will not resolve, preliminary arbitration (cases under $50,000) or a jury trial. Of the approximately 40 percent of cases that require litigation because they did not settle beforehand, 90 percent of those cases settle or resolve before trial. Thus, only about four to five percent of claims ever make it all the way to a trial.
In nearly all cases that go to trial, the jury's verdict is the last step, unless collection becomes necessary because the wrongdoer cannot satisfy the judgment with insurance. In some cases, an appeal of the jury verdict may occur due to a claimed error in the proceedings. This occurs in approximately 10 percent of jury verdicts.
Contact us to discuss the specifics of your wrongful death claim with one of our lawyers right away. We represent clients in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and communities throughout Arizona.
