Atlanta Wrongful Death Lawyer

People often wonder about the factors involved in deciding the monetary awards in a wrongful death action.  In Georgia, an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer can help establish the exact amounts that will be considered.  He will walk through the statutes that govern the process.  Monetary damages aren’t just arbitrarily made up, there are many rules about what can be considered and what can’t.

While there may be a few other considerations, an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer will tell you that there are commonly 5 points taken into consideration when establishing the cost of a human life.  The first and often easiest consideration is the amount of potential wages lost.  Estimating how many years the victim could have worked at their current job, the amount of pay they were currently earning, and remembering to keep up with the cost of inflation will give a good estimation of wages loss due to wrongful death.

Another statute that an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer will consider is the monetary value of the loss of companionship or parental guidance.  This one is a little ambiguous, but it is possible to estimate the amount of money, as well as the monetary value, lost by losing a lifelong companion or parent to help guide a child through life.

Atlanta Wrongful Death Lawyer

The value of a life, specifically, is another tricky figure best left up to an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer to estimate.  The value of an item is easy to establish.  If a car worth 20 thousand dollars is destroyed, the monetary compensation would be 20 thousand dollars.  Human life is much harder to establish.  The best way for an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer to establish the value of a life is to guess as well as he can, depending upon the jury.

An interesting consideration an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer will look at in establishing the monetary loss due to negligence is the potential quality of life lost.  Estimating what kinds of home improvements the victim might have worked on, thus raising the value of a house is one such aspect of this.  Potential investments, quality large ticket purchases, even collector’s items are all factors used to decide what future value of the quality of life lost would be.  A good Atlanta wrongful death lawyer will take all of these factors into consideration.

The final factor in determining the total value of loss an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer will consider is pain and suffering.  This is the hardest factor to decide upon in any wrongful death case.  The Atlanta wrongful death lawyer must decide upon a reasonable monetary value of human emotion.  Is the loss of a spouse worth more, emotionally, than the loss of a parent?  Do younger children suffer more or less than older children?  These are the types of questions the lawyer needs to ask, and come up with the answer to.

Atlanta Wrongful Death Lawyer

A good Atlanta wrongful death lawyer is one that can sit down and figure out financially how much money potential is lost from a death.  Most of the 5 factors of commonly used considerations are easy to establish, using concrete numbers.  However, an Atlanta wrongful death lawyer must also be able to establish the value of human emotion in regards to the loss of human life.

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