When your loved one dies because of another person’s negligence or a company’s irresponsibility, it can feel uncomfortable to file a wrongful death suit. After all, no amount of money or damages can replace what you’ve lost.
But in many cases, wrongful death lawsuits aren’t just a way to secure some measure of justice for your family — they’re an important tool for seeking change and ensuring that what happened to your loved one won’t happen to anyone else.
“I think people struggle with the idea of asking for a sum of money. Emotionally, thatap very difficult,” said Stephen Burg, shareholder at Burg Simpson. “They don’t always understand that money is tied to accountability and change. Itap the financial incentive that forces companies to change policies. The number doesn’t represent the value of the loved one — it represents accountability.”
For Colorado families, wrongful death lawsuits can provide invaluable legal recourse, but these claims can get complicated. Thatap where an experienced Colorado wrongful death attorney like Burg enters the picture.
“Each wrongful death case is individualized, so there’s not a cookie-cutter approach,” Burg said.
What Is Wrongful Death?
Legally speaking, a wrongful death occurs when a person or institution’s unreasonable conduct or failure to take reasonable action results in death. In Colorado, wrongful death lawsuits commonly tackle commercial trucking incidents, Burg said, but these kinds of cases can cover everything from fatal slip-and-falls to deadly product defects.
While medical malpractice is a type of wrongful death, the law treats medical malpractice cases differently from general negligence cases, requiring a different standard of proof for a medical malpractice suit.
A wrongful death lawsuit is a civil action that family members can take on behalf of their deceased loved one, a legal recourse that helps recoup everything from medical bills to emotional suffering damages. But wrongful death claims are not cash-grabs — they’re a route for family members seeking not only to remember their loved one, but to protect others as well.
“For 99.9% of our clients, their focus is on how to prevent this from happening to someone else,” Burg said. “We hear all the time, ‘The money’s never going to bring them back.’ What we try to do is help facilitate some good coming from it. If there’s a change in policies and procedures and it saves one life, then itap worth it.”
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Colorado?
In Colorado, a number of family members can file a wrongful death suit on behalf of a loved one.
The first priority goes to the deceased’s spouse, who has the exclusive right to file a wrongful death claim up to one year after the death. The deceased’s children can join that claim with the spouse’s consent.
If the deceased person had no spouse, their children, or beneficiaries, then parents have the right to file.
Burg Simpson’s work has also helped add siblings to the list of eligible filers, which is especially relevant in cases where the rest of a family was killed. In situations where no one else is available, grandchildren can also bring claims.
Regardless of who’s filing a wrongful death claim, they must file within two years of the victim’s death, in accordance with Colorado’s wrongful death statute of limitations.
How Do Attorneys Handle Wrongful Death Cases?
If you’re considering filing a wrongful death claim, Burg recommends working with an attorney experienced in wrongful death trials, with a proven track record of case results, someone who has successfully won a felonious killing determination, and a sense of compassion and connection with your family.
At Burg Simpson, the case process starts with a legal team that reviews the case and lays out a plan with the family. Burg Simpson attorneys will fact-find throughout the case, even bringing in investigators who can help a family and their attorneys understand the events around the wrongful death.
“Step one is helping the family get answers to what happened,” Burg said. “Then, we provide actionable steps — setting up the estate, walking them through the process step by step, and making sure they’re informed along the way.”
When a wrongful death case doesn’t involve immediate death, meaning the deceased went to the hospital/was receiving medical care before death, the legal team will usually open an estate for that person. The estate will own the medical bills and have the opportunity to recover them against the defendant.
Burg Simpson’s legal team helps guide all the intricacies of the claim’s entire process, but can also bring in specialists if an estate issue is beyond their expertise.
“We try to take the legal burden off the family so they can focus on grieving and what they need to do,” Burg said.
With your case in their hands, an attorney will also look into the at-fault party, determining whether they are insured, whether they can be sued as an individual or a company, and what kind of conduct actually caused the death. Some wrongful deaths can actually be classified as felonious killings, which are manslaughter or murder.
When a plaintiff and their attorney bring a wrongful death lawsuit in Colorado, the burden of proof is on them to show that the defendant’s negligence or actions caused death.
What Damages Are Available for Wrongful Death in Colorado?
For those who successfully bring a wrongful death claim, damages can cover anything from a deceased loved one’s medical expenses to emotional damages like loss of companionship. Non-economic damages in Colorado do .
Those caps generally disappear if your loved one’s death was a felonious killing or if the actions that led to death were extraordinarily reckless. The caps are also different for medical malpractice suits, which often end up costing families more than they can legally recoup.
“These caps are just a financial incentive of death—where essentially the lobbyists have set up that it’s cheaper to kill somebody than it is to permanently maim them,” Burg said.
Most wrongful death cases settle before ever reaching trial, Burg said. Typically, even trial cases move faster than catastrophic injury cases, which wait until the plaintiff has received treatment to determine the scope of their injuries.
For families seeking any measure of justice after the death of a loved one, a wrongful death suit may be one path forward. At Burg Simpson, like Burg strive not only to successfully settle or try these cases, but to honor the memory of a deceased loved one.
“The way I see my role is to get accountability, help get change, and celebrate the person who was taken,” Burg said. “We try to honor the person and the family, and focus on celebrating who that person was. Sometimes that includes donations to nonprofits or other ways to honor them. We try to have something positive come out of it.”
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.
