How to Maximize Your Family’s Compensation After a Fatal Manhasset Car Accident

If you have lost a loved one due to a fatal Manhasset car accident, your family may face significant financial pressures in the future. Contact the New York wrongful death lawyers at Cohan Law, PLLC to determine the best way to maximize your compensation and limit your economic burden. Our firm handles high-stakes New York wrongful death claims for families facing the sudden loss of a spouse, parent, child, or other loved one, and we know how to document the pecuniary losses insurers often try to minimize.

Calculate Your Economic Damages

Losing a loved one takes an incredible emotional and psychological burden, but the financial costs can also be tremendous. The funeral may be one of the most urgent expenses in this scenario, and it may be more expensive than you would have imagined. In New York, the price of an average funeral and burial can easily exceed $10,000.

Another economic burden your family may face is the loss of income that your loved one previously provided. For example, you might be a stay-at-home parent or homemaker. Perhaps you were reliant on your late spouse’s income to pay the bills. With these paychecks no longer coming in, you may have no idea how you will make it to the next month. A wrongful death claim may require a careful analysis of the decedent’s age, income history, employment benefits, expected career path, household services, financial support, and the value of parental guidance provided to surviving children.

Finally, your loved one might have left you with significant medical debt before passing away. Perhaps your spouse, adult child, or parent became comatose after their accident. Maybe a hospital kept them on life support for weeks before they passed away. The bills associated with this type of treatment can be extremely difficult to bear. A wrongful death claim may include reasonable medical expenses related to the fatal injury, funeral expenses, and other financial losses recognized under New York law.

Consider Your Wrongful Death and Survival Claim Damages

Unfortunately, New York law states that families cannot claim most non-economic damages associated with wrongful death lawsuits. Unlike many other states, the Empire State only allows families to recover “pecuniary damages” associated with fatal accidents. Under New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law § 5-4.3, wrongful death damages are tied to fair and just compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting from the decedent’s death. That said, it may be possible to recover certain types of non-economic damages despite these barriers. For example, you could attempt to recover compensation for the pain and suffering your loved one endured before ultimately passing away. That claim is generally pursued as a survival claim for the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering before death, rather than as emotional grief damages for surviving family members.

You Must Be Prepared to Negotiate Effectively for a Fair Settlement

With little to no access to compensation for non-economic damages, it becomes particularly important to negotiate effectively for a fair settlement. Families should highlight their economic damages and ensure they have enough to cover all of their financial costs in the future. Families may want to be especially careful to highlight the loss of future wages, as these losses can be significant (particularly in cases involving relatively young, high-earning decedents). A strong settlement demand may require employment records, tax returns, benefit information, expert economic analysis, medical billing records, funeral invoices, and documentation of the decedent’s role within the household.

We Help Grieving Families Identify Every Liable Party and Source of Insurance

Fatal Manhasset car accidents may involve more than one at-fault party. A negligent driver may have caused the crash, but a vehicle owner, employer, trucking company, rideshare company, bar or restaurant, municipality, or product manufacturer may also share responsibility depending on the facts. Identifying every liable party matters because each defendant may bring additional insurance coverage into the case.

Cohan Law can investigate the collision, review the police report, preserve crash evidence, identify all available insurance policies, and determine whether any commercial or umbrella coverage applies. In a wrongful death case, maximizing compensation often depends on building the strongest liability case and finding every legally responsible party.

Key Takeaways

• Make sure you receive enough to cover economic damages like unpaid medical bills, lost future income, and funeral expenses
• Consider your options for survival claim damages, including the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering before death despite New York’s prohibitive laws on wrongful death cases
• Negotiate effectively with a wrongful death lawyer to avoid an unpredictable trial
• New York wrongful death damages focus on pecuniary losses, so documentation of income, benefits, household services, and financial support is critical
• Every liable party and insurance policy should be identified before your family considers settlement

Can a Manhasset Auto Accident Lawyer Help Me?

A Manhasset auto accident lawyer can help if you want to maximize compensation for a wrongful death lawsuit. The stakes are high in this scenario, especially if you have lost a loved one who contributed considerable income to the family. A Cohan Law wrongful death attorney will value lost future earnings, identify all liable parties, and negotiate aggressively against insurers who routinely undervalue pecuniary losses. Are you facing financial issues after losing a family member to a fatal car accident? Contact us today for a free, fully confidential initial consultation.

Sources: 

newsday.com/long-island/nassau/hempstead-fatal-crash-henry-street-sokjtfjt

nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EPT/5-4.3

pix11.com/video/two-dead-in-multi-vehicle-crash-on-long-island-nysp/11612344/