Proving Liability for a Fatal Car Accident
When someone dies in a fatal car accident, surviving loved ones are left to try to pick up the pieces – including filing a claim in an attempt to hold someone accountable for the wrongful death. A successful claim can provide a grieving family with a sense of justice and closure, as well as financial compensation from the at-fault party to help them move forward. Los Angeles car accident attorneys explain that to win a fatal car accident case, however, the filing party must prove liability.
When Can a Wrongful Death Claim Be Filed in California?
A wrongful death claim is a civil lawsuit that can be filed when someone is killed as a result of the wrongful act or neglect of another person (California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60). This includes a wrongful act that results in a fatal automobile accident, such as speeding, drunk driving or distracted driving.
Fatal car accidents are a common cause of wrongful death lawsuits in California. According to statistics collected by the California Office of Traffic Safety, 4,285 people died in traffic accidents in 2021 – a 7.6 percent increase from 2020. When a fatal car accident takes place, surviving loved ones have the right to file a wrongful death claim, including a surviving spouse, domestic partner or child.
How Is Liability Determined in a Fatal Car Accident?
Before a wrongful death claim can be filed for a fatal car accident, the liable or at-fault party must be determined. This is how the insurance system works under California’s fault-based law. Under this insurance rule, the individual or entity at fault for the fatal crash is held financially responsible for related damages.
Liability for a car accident can be determined after an investigation of the crash is conducted by professionals – often representatives of a car insurance company. Typically, an investigation seeks to identify which driver was violating a traffic law at the time of the crash, such as who ran a red light, failed to yield the right-of-way or wasn’t paying enough attention to the road.
In some car accident cases in California, liability is not immediately clear. This is especially common in cases where one or both drivers are deceased, as they cannot be interviewed to hear their side of the story. Instead, liability must be determined using evidence such as eyewitness statements, photographs of the crash scene, an analysis of the property damage and police reports.
Four Elements of Negligence
For surviving family members to hold another driver, an employer or company, the owner of the vehicle, a dram shop, the government, or another party liable for a fatal car accident, they must prove negligence. Negligence means the defendant failed to act with proper care based on the circumstances, such as through careless or reckless driving.
Negligence has four parts:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Causation
- Damages
The defendant must have had an obligation to act in a way that a reasonable and prudent party would have in the same circumstances. Then, the defendant must have breached or violated this duty of care through a negligent act or omission. This must be proven as the main cause of the fatal car accident, which must have resulted in damages or losses suffered by the filing party.
How a Wrongful Death Attorney in California Can Help
Filing a legal claim and proving liability are complicated tasks that you may not wish to deal with in the aftermath of losing someone you love in a fatal car accident. Rather than handling your claim alone, you can hire a wrongful death attorney in Los Angeles to take care of legal processes for you. This includes investigating the deadly crash to search for evidence of negligence or fault, as well as identifying the liable party and filing a claim on your behalf.
You can count on a specialized Los Angeles injury attorney to prove your case while your family focuses on healing and trying to move forward. Contact the attorneys at Rose, Klein & Marias LLP to discuss a fatal car accident case in detail during a free consultation.