Wrongful Death in Custody: Section 1983, Monell Claims, and the State Law Track
Deaths in jail or prison generate both Section 1983 constitutional claims and state wrongful-death actions, each with different standards,…
Category
Wrongful Death
Survival actions, damages frameworks
Nursing Home Wrongful Death: SNF Negligence, Fall Claims, and the Arbitration Defense
Deaths in skilled nursing facilities from falls, untreated pressure ulcers, and delayed infection response are compensable wrongful death c…
Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child: Viability, State Law, and Damages in Prenatal Loss Claims
Wrongful death claims for the death of a fetus or stillborn child are cognizable in most states but follow rules that differ sharply from s…
Wrongful Death With a Terminal Diagnosis: Damages, Defense Arguments, and Expert Strategy
When a decedent was already living with a terminal or life-limiting condition, the defense claims their death was inevitable and damages sh…
Loss of Consortium in Wrongful Death: Standing, Proof, and the Apportionment Trap
Loss of consortium claims in wrongful death cases require careful attention to who has standing, what must be proven beyond the decedent's…
Punitive Damages in Wrongful Death: Standards, Evidence, and Due-Process Limits
Not all states allow punitive damages in wrongful-death actions, and in those that do, BMW v. Gore and State Farm v. Campbell impose a cons…
Allocating a Global Wrongful-Death and Survival Settlement
How you split a global settlement between the wrongful-death and survival claims, and among heirs, quietly decides the family's net recover…
Valuing the Wrongful Death of a Child When There Is No Lost Income
Damages models built on lost economic support collapse when the decedent is a young child who earned nothing. Here is how to frame value ar…
Valuing the Wrongful-Death Case With No Lost Wages
When the decedent had no paycheck, the defense opens low. The counsel who build the household-services model and a restrained non-economic…
When the Wrongful-Death Limitations Clock Starts Running
Wrongful-death and survival claims run on different clocks, and latent-cause deaths, statutes of repose, and the one-action rule can bar a…
Proving Conscious Pain and Suffering in the Survival Claim
Where the decedent survived the injury by minutes or hours, the survival claim carries a distinct and often significant recovery. Building…
Fisher v. Lee and the Constitutional Attack on Wrongful-Death Caps
An Oregon appeals court struck the $500,000 noneconomic cap as applied under the remedy clause. How Fisher v. Lee reopens the as-applied ch…