Wrongful Death: No death feels right, yet some seem more senseless than others. When a child is killed in the cross-fire of a gang war, when a family dies because a truck goes out of control, when a bridge collapses and dozens of people drown, we question why such senseless things happen. Surely they are avoidable.

In some cases, a person can be held responsible for such deaths. Civil suits can be brought by certain close relatives and may succeed even if the people sued have not been convicted of criminal charges. Think O.J. Simpson.

Lawsuits claiming wrongful death generally charge that the actions of a person, a company or some other agency resulted in a person dying. The Kosner Firm can help you decide whether the facts of the case support taking legal action and determine who can sue on behalf of the victim's estate. This is generally a surviving spouse, children, beneficiaries or dependents.

Illinois' Wrongful Death Statute controls all such cases filed in the state.

One factor that figures into claims under that law is the "loss of society" suffered by surviving relatives. This refers to their loss of the companionship and love they had the right to expect from the person who was killed. The law says a jury must consider the life expectancies of the person and his or her survivors, as well as other factors, when figuring out the amount to be given20the persons suing. Economic damages, such as loss of future earnings, may also be awarded but generally, punitive damages aren't. In Illinois, a judge must approve a count seeking such damages before they can be part of the complaint. To get approval of this count in a wrongful death claim, the plaintiff must show that the defendant's behavior was in conscious disregard for the safety of other persons.

In a wrongful death suit, the judge also sets the amount each beneficiary will receive after the jury sets a total dollar figure to be split up. Thus, the people who sue under the Wrongful Death Act may or may not be the ones who take funds. While the jury knows who the heirs are, and the suit can ask for a specific amount for each person, the jury fills out a verdict form that only has blanks for total figures for the various elements of damages - loss of society, lost future wages, loss of consortium - and a total figure. After the trial, the judge determines who gets what based on "degrees of dependency." This is measured by the nature of the relationships between the survivors and the deceased during the deceased's life: Who was closest? Who was financially dependent? And so forth. When there are little children, the surviving spouse will usually get half the total money and the rest will be divided equally among the kids; this is not a hard and fast rule, just the way it is usually done. If the decedent dies with adult children, the surviving spouse generally gets most, if not all, of the money, though where such a family agrees on how the money should be split, the judge will almost always honor the agreement, though judges don't have to. In the event the family cannot agree, then a dependency hearing will be held where the family gets a chance to testify so the judge can determine who gets what. Such hearings are rare.

There's another, entirely separate, act that sometimes becomes part of a wrongful death suit. It's called the Illinois Survival Statute and allows family members, executors and other interested parties to bring a suit that someone who has died could have filed had he or she lived. Many states don't have such a law. As an example: if someone suffers broken bones in a car accident and later dies because of something unrelated, survivors can still bring suit related to the accident. The Survival Statute also recognizes the suffering and pain people have before death, and that had they survived they could have sued because of it. Even if negligence did not kill the person, if that person suffered greatly because of poor medical or nursing care, there can be liability. In such cases, a count under the Survival Statute may be included in a wrongful death complaint. This conscious pain and suffering can be key in some cases. A jury could award substantial damages for the suffering but little for the death if life expectancy was short or if the deceased didn't have close relatives who would claim substantial loss of society.