Durham Wrongful Death Attorney

What does a Durham wrongful death attorney do? He or she helps family members recover compensation from parties that wrongfully cause the death of the person in question.

The nature of wrongful death claims is often confusing to family members and heirs of the deceased. The reason is there is an inherent conflict in bringing such a lawsuit. After all, the primary person harmed is no longer alive. This begs the question of who should be the suing party, known as a plaintiff. The answer ranges by statute, but usually consists of the surviving immediate family. This would include the spouse and children.

The classic example as any Durham wrongful death attorney will tell you is the OJ case. In that situation, OJ was found innocent of the criminal charges of murdering Ron Goldman and his ex-wife Nicole Brown. The verdict was soon followed by a civil action accusing him of wrongfully killing the two. The case was brought by the parents of the victims and, oddly, two of the Brown-Simpson children. The civil matter involved only money and thus did not require the jury to find Simpson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, it merely needed to determine the evidence was slightly more in favor of the survivors than the defendant. The jury found as much and awarded a total verdict in excess of $30 million dollars.

You can see the stark difference between the criminal and civil trial results. Your case will be civil in nature, but there are just as many strategic decisions as would be expected in a criminal case. The decisions start off with the best accusations to make, the best court to file the case in and go from there. Making the right decisions can return verdicts in the millions. Making the wrong ones can result in a small judgment or even a defense verdict.

So, how do you deal with all this? The key is to find the best Durham wrongful death attorney you can. The key is to find someone who handles wrongful death cases and does them well. You want to look for news reprints on the websites of the attorneys. There should be reprints from newspapers depicting big victories. Some Durham attorneys find these distasteful, so you can alternatively look for the designation of “certified specialist” on their website. This means that the state licensing agency recognizes them as excellent attorneys, to wit, someone you can put your confidence in.