Wrongful death claims come about when someone does something wrong that could have been prevented that results in the death of another. Truck accidents, car accidents, construction accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, defective products, and dog attacks can and often do result in death. Civil liability arises when someone does something wrong. The families of the victims often confuse civil liability with criminal liability. An attorney handling wrongful death claims handles civil matters. Criminal defense attorneys do handle claims for the victims they defend the wrong doer in criminal actions. The district attorney is generally responsible for prosecuting criminal cases on behalf of the state. You will often hear the People of the State of Utah verses Smith, or something along those lines. The district attorney will not prosecute on behalf of the victims family they are prosecuting on behalf of the state. In a civil action the wrongful death lawyer will be seeking compensatory damages. These damages are intended to make the family whole again. The civil attorney representing the family often knows very little and has little interest in prosecuting, primarily because it is not their job. The burden of proof is different for a criminal matter and a civil matter, the civil matter has a much lower standard of proof than the criminal matter. When someone does something wrong by accident that results in death there is a civil claim, but more often than not there is no criminal liability. When the individual intentionally causes death a civil and criminal action can be pursued. In the vast majority of cases a wrongful death lawyer can pursue a claim on behalf of the family.

A wrongful death lawyer will pursue a claim on behalf of a family in attempt to make the family whole again. The claim may include all the economic support that the deceased provided as well as intangibles, such as loss of companionship. A good personal injury lawyer is generally a good wrongful death lawyer. On occasion there are also issues pertaining to other matters such as probate and estate matters and in these cases the attorney may need to defer to another attorney with expertise in these areas of law. There are factors that make seem of no consequence when hiring a wrongful death lawyer that need to be taken into account. Hiring a Salt Lake City wrongful death lawyer is not the same as a hiring a wrongful death lawyer in Los Angeles or New York. What so special about Salk Lake City, you may ask ? Salt Lake City is a heavily influenced by the mormons and the jury pool is going to have more than just a slight influence from mormons. So it is important that the attorney hired to handle a wrongful death claim have a good understanding of the local culture. It is going be significantly different than any other area. You may not see to much of a difference between Chicago, New York and Los Angeloes, but Salt Lake City is more akin to a foreign country than a sister state of the union.

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Category: Legal
Keywords: wrongful death lawyer, attorney