A lot of times clients ask Pittsburgh wrongful death, Medical malpractice, car accident and slip and fall attorney Bernie Tully if wrongful death claims are limited to certain situations.
The answer is no.
A Wrongful Death claim can arise under ANY situation.
Here is an example of the virtually unlimited circumstances in which a wrongful death claim can occur;
Trial Date Set For Sandra Bland Case
A U.S. District Judge, David Hittner, has set a trial date for the Sandra Bland case. The trial is set to take place on January 23rd of 2017.
The family of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago woman, who was found dead in a Texas jail cell, filed the wrongful death suit. The medical examiner had ruled Sandra Bland’s death a suicide, but her family disputes that claim.
Sandra Bland’s family are seeking unspecified damages from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state trooper who performed the initial arrest, Waller County and the two jailers present during her time in prison.
Well there you have it. A wrongful death claim from a prison setting.
In this case, the prisoner died in a Texas jail cell. No one is disputing that fact.
What is being disputed however is HOW Miss Bland died.
Was it because she committed suicide of her own accord as the jail claims?
Or was it because the jail and the people running the jail did not take adequate precautions to insure that Miss Bland would not commit suicide or die in her cell question?
A jury will have to decide this issue.
But maybe not.
Why do most Wrongful Death cases settle?
ONE WORD- RISK
What is Pittsburgh wrongful death, Medical malpractice, car accident and slip and fall attorney Bernie Tully trying to get at?
Neither side may want to take a chance of having the matter decided by a jury.
The family for example must know that there are serious problems with their case. The coroner for example ruled Ms. Bland’s death a suicide.
If the jury accepts that, then how are they going to find for the estate and against the jail?
What more could the jail do to prevent the suicide is what the attorneys for the jail will argue.
So maybe the estate wants to settle the matter out of court.
Likewise, the jail officials have to be worried about the fact that they had control of the facility and a prisoner died while in their custody.
Jail officials have to be very concerned that the jury may want to send out a message here by giving a huge $$ award.
Maybe their thoughts are we should compromise this case and work out a settlement to avoid getting whacked by a jury.
Do you see why most wrongful death cases end up settling in the end?
I hope this blog was of some value in understanding why most wrongful death cases settle out of court.
Thanks for reading.
Bernie the attorney.