4 Wrongful Death Recommendations For You

Have you lost a loved one in a preventable accident? Read our 4 wrongful death recommendations for you, then call our Naperville lawyers now.

1) Choosing the Best Lawyer For Your Case

4 Wrongful Death Recommendations For YouThe most important thing you can look for is a connection and communication with the lawyer that you’re going to be working with. Oftentimes, wrongful death cases can take two, sometimes even three, years to reach conclusion. During that time, there will be a lot of emotional conversations, a lot of big emotional decisions that need to be made, and it’s important that you’re working with someone that has experience, has gone through that process before, is familiar with the different stages that a wrongful death case can go through, and is available at all hours of the day, all of the time, to go through the process and help you with your wrongful death case.

2) Attorney Fees

It’s a difficult question to answer in a general term because it really depends on a case-by-case basis. Some cases, such as a medical malpractice case or a complicated product liability case, may have much greater or higher expense than, say, an automobile accident case or a less complicated type of case. Knowing more specifics about a case, we’re usually able to tell a person an approximate range or estimation as to what I think the costs are going to be in order to litigate the wrongful death case, and those are the different factors that you have to look at.

It’s important to talk to an attorney that has actually tried a number of case, that knows and understands what all the possible hidden costs could be and what other costs may be associated with taking a case to trial, because they’ve done it many, many, many times before.

3) Case Value

This is one of the most difficult questions that, as a personal injury lawyer, we can be asked. The place we first start is what does the law allow? The law allows you to be compensated for the economic loss that you’ve suffered. In other words, if they’re the main wage-earner in the house, the person that made the money, you’re entitled to the lifetime of income that that person would’ve earned and helped benefit the family.

You’re also entitled to the non-job type things that a person contributes to a family— in other words, the love, the support, the education, the training that can be provided to siblings and to children. All of those things are also compensable. Lastly, in Illinois, you are compensated for what we call grief and sorrow. In other words, you can and will receive money for your grief and sorrow. You’re allowed to tell the jury about more than just the wages that you’ve lost or the financial hardship that you’ve had; you’re given an opportunity to explain to the jury what this loss has meant to you and your family from an emotion.

4) Available Damages

You would be entitled to the wage loss, in other words, the lost earnings that you’ve suffered because the person has passed away. If they contribute to your family and your family’s income, and you no longer have that income, you would be entitled to the loss of that income because of the death of the person. You’re also entitled to compensation for all the other things that the person may have done, be it helping around the house, cutting grass, providing aid and assistance to the children – any other things that the person did to contribute to the overall happiness, health and well-being of the family is also something that you can be compensated for. In addition, in Illinois, you are also entitled to compensation for the grief and sorrow that you’ve suffered.

While it is almost impossible to put an exact value on a loss of someone’s life, these are just some of the categories that we take a look at in helping decide what will be a fair value or a fair amount in the event of someone’s wrongful death.


Have you lost a person that you love in a preventable accident in Illinois and have questions about these 4 wrongful death recommendations for you? Contact our experienced Naperville wrongful death attorneys today for a free consultation and case evaluation.

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