LET OUR WRONGFUL DEATH ATTORNEYS IN RICHMOND VIRGINIA HELP YOU MOVE FORWARD
Contact our firm now online or by phone at (828) 414-8614 to schedule a free case evaluation with our Richmond wrongful death lawyers.
If you lost a loved one in an accident that wasn’t the victim’s fault, a Richmond wrongful death lawyer can help.
Whether the victim died due to injuries sustained in a car accident, truck accident, or another type of injury accident, you and your family deserve justice and fair compensation for your losses.
A settlement won’t bring your loved one back, but it can help compensate for lost financial support, household assistance, care, and companionship. It will also ensure the at-fault party is held responsible for their actions.
The Richmond personal injury attorneys at River Run Law can help. We offer a free consultation to help you consider your options for pursuing legal action. We understand how painful your situation is, and we are here to fight for you.
What Is Considered Wrongful Death in Virginia?
Any negligent or wrongful act can lead to a fatal accident, potentially providing the opportunity for the victim’s family members to pursue legal action. Some of the most common types of accidents that lead to wrongful death include:
- Car crashes,
- Bicycle accidents,
- Motorcycle accidents,
- Pedestrian accidents,
- Commercial trucking accidents,
- Bus accidents,
- Train accidents,
- Construction accidents,
- Slip and fall accidents,
- Victims of crime, and
- Defective product accidents.
Whatever the cause of your loved one’s death, a wrongful death attorney can help you recover the financial compensation you deserve for your losses.
The experienced lawyers at River Run Law assist our Richmond, VA clients with all types of injury accident claims. If a loved one has sustained life-threatening injuries, don’t wait to contact us. We will work closely with you to help ensure they get the best possible care.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Virginia?
The Virginia laws are highly complex, potentially causing confusion about who can file and benefit from a wrongful death action.
Only a personal representative of the victim’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit. The personal representative files legal action on behalf of statutory beneficiaries who, according the laws, can be:
- The victim’s spouse,
- The victim’s children, or
- The victim’s grandchildren.
Grandchildren are entitled to benefit only if their parent (the victim’s child) is deceased.
The victim’s parents may also be beneficiaries if they, within the past 12 months, “regularly received support or regularly received services from the decedent for necessaries, including living expenses, food, shelter, health care expenses, or in-home assistance or care.”
If the victim had a spouse but no children or grandchildren, the parents and spouse can both be beneficiaries. If the victim had no spouse, children, or grandchildren, the statutes allow parents, siblings, or other family members who shared the victim’s household to benefit from legal action.
Finally, if the victim had none of the family members described above, the court will consider allowing other relatives to be beneficiaries of a wrongful death claim.
What Is the Value of My Richmond, VA Wrongful Death Claim?
When you trust the Richmond wrongful death lawyers at River Run Law, we will fight tirelessly to get you the compensation you deserve. Due to the many different types of fatal accidents that can occur, we can’t identify any average Richmond wrongful death settlement amount.
Depending on the details of your case, you might be entitled to compensation for:
- Loss of financial support;
- Loss of household services;
- Loss of inheritance;
- Loss of guidance, support, and counsel;
- Loss of love, companionship, and consort;
- Emotional trauma; and
- Burial, funeral, and related expenses.
To calculate the value of your claim, we will identify all of your damages and document them using medical records, income tax and wage records, and established methods for calculating future asset and income values. We may also call on subject matter experts to provide opinions or testimony in support of our identified claim value.
How Long Do I Have to File a Virginia Wrongful Death Claim?
The Virginia statute of limitations for wrongful death provides only two years from the victim’s death to file a legal claim. If you don’t file a civil lawsuit within the allotted time, you could lose your right to recover compensation.
Contacting a wrongful death lawyer as soon as possible can help protect your rights. At River Run Law, our team provides compassionate assistance for grieving families who lost a loved one to someone else’s wrongful action. We fight aggressively to get you the justice and compensation you need for peace of mind and a secure future.
Proving Liability for Your Richmond Wrongful Death Claim
When you choose River Run Law to assist you with your claim, we start with an exhaustive investigation of the victim’s fatal accident. We obtain evidence, talk to witnesses, and document every detail of the incident.
Once we identify all parties who caused or contributed to the victim’s death, we must establish the following facts:
- That the at-fault party owed a duty of care to the victim;
- That the at-fault party breached their duty through wrongful or negligent actions;
- That the at-fault party’s breach of duty was the direct cause of the victim’s fatal injuries; and
- The amount of all damages that you sustained.
To build the most persuasive case possible, we obtain information such as:
- Police/accident reports,
- Coroner’s reports,
- Photos and videos of the accident scene
- Safety records,
- Medical records, and
- Expert testimony.
The specific types of evidence we seek out will depend on the details of the victim’s injury accident. If necessary, we may use other experts for accident scene reconstruction or to support the specific value of your damages.
Will My Wrongful Death Case Have to Go to Court?
The Richmond wrongful death lawyers from River Run Law will strive to successfully resolve your case without having to go to court. In most cases, we can negotiate a fair settlement with the at-fault party’s insurance company. This gets a settlement in your hands as quickly as possible and saves you the pain of a trial.
You and your family have been through enough already. If we can get you the results you deserve without filing a lawsuit, we will. However, if the insurance company refuses to make a reasonable offer, we will not hesitate to fight for you in court.
It isn’t possible to definitively estimate how long it takes to get a wrongful death settlement in Richmond, on average, because every case is different. Your family deserves justice for your loved one’s death, and we never want to do anything to compromise the outcome you deserve.
How a Wrongful Death Attorney Can Help
You aren’t legally required to hire a wrongful death attorney to pursue a claim, but the value that River Run Law can provide is significant.
We handle everything on your behalf, from beginning to end. This leaves you free to spend time with family and deal with the many challenges you currently face. This also helps us protect your legal rights.
The insurance company might contact you and offer a small settlement for your loss, hoping to minimize their legal and financial liability. We know what your claim is worth, and we won’t let the insurance company undervalue your damages.
We put our network of resources to work for you, handling the investigation and doing whatever it takes to build a persuasive case. We handle all communication with the insurance company, other attorneys, and any other party involved with your case.
Speaking of communication, you will hear from us often. We proactively communicate with you to keep you updated about the progress of your claim. We are available to you by phone, email, video conference, or whatever other communication method you might prefer.
We will be here to answer your questions and make sure you understand all your options. We want to help secure the best possible future for you and your loved ones.
Consult a Richmond Wrongful Death Lawyer Today
Losing a loved one can be devastating to every member of the family. If you depended on the victim for emotional, financial, and/or physical support, you could find yourself traumatized in a variety of ways.
The River Run Law team is here to help you. We can meet with you by video conference, speak on the phone, communicate via email, or come to you in person.
We fight to get justice for your loved one and help you achieve the financial security you need to move on.
We offer a free consultation and case evaluation to answer your questions and explain how to get started with the legal process.
You won’t owe us any legal fees until we recover compensation for you, so you never have to worry about being able to afford the help of our wrongful death lawyers in Richmond.
To learn more about us or to schedule your consultation, call or contact us now.
Where You Can Find Our Richmond Office Location