“When’s daddy coming home?”
It’s the question you hoped you would never have to answer. How do you explain to a 4-year-old that daddy is never coming home?
You spoke to him before he left work; he rang to say he’d be late. 20 minutes later he was sideswiped out of your life on Highway 99, by a driver who wasn’t paying attention to the road.
How are you going to cope without him? How will you find the time to work and bring up a little girl and give her the attention she needs? How will you earn enough to feed and clothe the two of you and meet the rent?
Too many people needlessly die on Seattle’s roads as a result of other people’s carelessness. If you lose someone in a fatal car accident, there are legal options available to pursue compensation. These are some of the things you could claim for:
- Loss of future earnings: Living and bringing up a child is expensive. Becoming a single parent can cause huge financial distress.
- Loss of companionship and affection: Known legally as loss of consortium. You can claim for losing your spouse and for your daughter losing her dad.
- Medical bills: Even when someone dies in a car crash, there can be medical bills — not everyone dies straight away.
- Funeral expenses: While we all have to pay funeral bills eventually, it can come as an unexpected cost.
Bringing a wrongful death claim cannot make up for the emotional consequences of losing someone, but it could ease the financial implications.