What happens when a workplace injury or Wrongful Death case goes to trial?
When it comes down to wrongful death in the workplace, there are several other factors, should the case go to trial (and a lawyer should be prepared for this in these types of cases), that a judge will take into consideration. If surviving family members choose to pursue legal action against the defendant (i.e. the company, employer, or another employee whom is being held responsible for the death in a legal sense) the court will go to great lengths to establish the following before ordering any financial compensation be granted to the victim’s family:
- Did the employee die because of the defendant’s negligent behavior at the workplace?
- Did the defendant knowingly cause pain and suffering to the employee before their passing?
- Had the employee not passed away, would he or she have had grounds for a lawsuit in regards to the accident?
Important to remember: Within a Wrongful Death case, the Statute of Limitations clock is said to begin ticking down when the wronged party (the “plaintiff”, in wrongful death cases, the decedent’s family) discovers through the reasonable due diligence of a skilled lawyer, the cause of the victim’s death. In the context of this article, this would mean the lawyer must establish how a decedent passed away in a workplace accident in a timeframe that’s considered reasonable.