SOUTHFIELD WRONGFUL DEATH ATTORNEY

• Bicycle accidents: Pedestrians and bicyclists are also considered vulnerable roadway users, and any incident involving a heavier vehicle could lead to significant injuries or death.
• Medical malpractice: When a medical professional makes a careless mistake or performs negligently, lives are in the balance. Individuals who have lost a loved one due to the mistake of a medical provider should be able to recover compensation for their losses.
• Premises liability incidents: Property owners have a duty to ensure the safety of individuals on their premises, and the failure of this duty could lead to significant long-lasting injuries and death.
• Defective products: Consumers should be able to count on the safety of the products that they purchase. Unfortunately, unsafe products make it into homes on a regular basis. Using or consuming a defective product can be deadly. This includes toys, electronics, medicines, foods and beverages, appliances, tools, and more.

This is only a sampling of the types of wrongful death claims that we help clients with, and we strongly encourage you to reach out to one of our attorneys for a free consultation so we can guide you on the best path moving forward towards securing closure and compensation for your loss.

Investigation And Discovery Process In Wrongful Death Cases 

In order to prove all of these elements, there are various types of evidence that an attorney will need to gather and present to the insurance carrier or to the wrongful death jury. This could include photographs taken at the scene of the incident, video surveillance footage of the incident, police reports, accident reports, eyewitness testimony, and more. In some cases, it may even be necessary to work with an accident reconstruction expert who can use complex 3D modeling and evidence gathering techniques to adequately show what likely happened to cause the death.

The investigation into a wrongful death claim will begin immediately after an attorney takes your case. However, it can take some time for the investigation process to conclude. It is very likely that a wrongful death lawsuit will be filed even before the investigation is complete. Once the claim is filed, this begins what is known as the “discovery process.” 

The discovery process is not part of the typical insurance claim process. This only happens after the civil claim is filed. Attorneys for the defendant and the plaintiff will have to exchange the evidence that they have gathered with one another. Every party involved operates with the same evidence before the court case begins and after any trial begins. There should not be anything hidden.

It is not uncommon for one or both parties to decide to settle a claim or drop the case while the discovery process is ongoing. That is because, after discovery starts, both sides begin to see the type of evidence that will come up in the courtroom. For example, if the defendant begins to notice that the evidence is piling up against them, this may push them and their attorneys towards a settlement with the plaintiffs. Likewise, if the plaintiff begins to see that their case is not as strong as they thought it was, they may need to accept a lower settlement than they would have liked or end up dropping the claim altogether.

As part of the discovery process, there may need to be depositions taken from the witnesses involved. Depositions are given under oath, and they involve the attorneys for the case asking the witnesses various questions that will likely also come up in the courtroom. Again, this is all part of the process of preparing for the eventual court case and having full information going into the courtroom.

We do want to point out that, even after a wrongful death claim is filed, this does not mean that the investigation is done. There will be continued investigations throughout the process, even while discovery is ongoing. However, any new evidence that either side discovers that they will use to support their case will need to be turned over to the other side as well.