If you lost a loved one due to someone else’s negligence, it can feel unfair. You may not know what to do. After all, he or she is not alive to pursue a personal injury lawsuit. This, however, is where a survival action lawsuit comes into play. If you lost a spouse or family member because someone else was careless, you may be able to demand compensation on the deceased’s behalf with the help of a wrongful death lawyer.
Survival Action Is not the Same As Wrongful Death
One of the first things to note about survival action is that it is not the same as a wrongful death claim. Both claims involve the loss of a person due to the negligence of another party, but the damages that you seek in a survival action are not the same as the damages that you seek in a wrongful death claim.
In a survival action, you are seeking compensation for the deceased. You are requesting compensation for your loved one’s pain and suffering, medical bills and loss of wages. If your loved one was in an accident, but lived for days or weeks but still died from injuries sustained during the accident, then you may be able to sue for the losses during that time. In a survival action, the estate pursues any damages that the deceased would have been entitled to if he or she survived.
Survival Action May Be Included in Wrongful Death
With wrongful death claims, you are suing for injuries that you sustained because of your loved one’s death. While these are two separate issues, survival actions can sometimes be included in wrongful death claims. Sometimes, in a wrongful death action, you will seek damages for the pain and suffering of your loved one before his or her death. Survival action and wrongful death lawsuits have a statute of limitations. Every state has a different statute, so you must know when to file a lawsuit and when it’s too late.
To lose a loved one is difficult. It can be even more difficult knowing that his or her death was caused by someone else’s negligence. If you lost a loved one, but he or she survived for weeks or months after the accident, then a survival action might be appropriate. These lawsuits provide a means to file a lawsuit on behalf of the damages that the deceased would have been entitled to.