I rarely write about personal injury matters because I accept those cases generally by referral only. Today though the subject of wrongful death lawsuits is appropriate as there has been an unfortunately high number of stories of innocent people meeting untimely ends.
The first question to ask in a wrongful death lawsuit is: Why sue someone for killing someone else? My primary answer to that question is: to gain some semblance of justice. Criminal sanctions are possible, maybe even probable, but you don't control that world. You can achieve for your loved one some sense of righting the wrong by forcing the at fault driver or person to pay. Second, the person lost was a financial resource for you and your family. A lawsuit will help to recover the financial loss you unnecessarily lost.
The next question to answer is: Who starts the lawsuit? In Minnesota, the next surviving kin has the right to start a lawsuit. That would be a surviving spouse, then a child, then a parent, then a sibling—in that order until someone is identified. The surviving parent can live in St. Cloud and the deceased child in White Bear Lake—the geography is not important, the family relationship is.
I have handled wrongful death cases for families. The work is a delicate blend of grief management with explaining complex legal issues and arriving at a good, justified conclusion. I hope you never have to call me on this topic, but if you do you will be in good, caring hands.
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