What part of public outrage does this tone-deaf teen and her boyfriend (i.e., the parents of the victim) not understand?
Whatever our personal beliefs, we have in common the feeling that it is a serious wrong to behave with such gross disrespect and indecency towards a newborn human life, and then file a lawsuit against the hospital seeking damages for loss of love and emotional distress! MOO
What Is the New Mexico Wrongful Death Statute?
The New Mexico
wrongful death statute identifies rights and remedies for surviving family members of a deceased person.
The New Mexico wrongful death statute provides that if the act, neglect, or default of another had not killed the victim and the victim would have had the right to recover compensation in a personal injury action, then the person who caused the death is liable in a wrongful death claim.
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Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in New Mexico?
The New Mexico wrongful death statute permits only
certain parties to bring a wrongful death claim. A personal representative must file a wrongful death claim. Who the personal representative is depends on the circumstances surrounding the case.
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Determining Liability
Determining liability for wrongful death is a crucial element in obtaining compensation. Establishing the essential elements of negligence is required for holding someone legally accountable for a wrongful death. A negligence claim has four basic elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
Duty
A personal injury attorney establishes that the defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit owed a duty of care to the deceased. For example, a driver owes a duty of care to those around them to operate their vehicle reasonably so as to avoid causing an accident.
Breach
The defendant must have breached this duty of care or failed to uphold their duty of care. In the previous example, a driver fails to operate their vehicle reasonably if they are intoxicated at the time of the accident.
Causation
You must establish that the defendant’s breach of duty caused the wrongful death of your loved one. Continuing with the same example, the defendant, while intoxicated, hit and killed a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk.
Using these facts, the surviving spouse of the pedestrian killed in the accident may choose to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver for causing the death of the loved one.
Damages
In a wrongful death case, the death of the victim will create damages—both economic and non-economic—which we discuss in greater detail in the next section.
What Are the Possible Damages in a New Mexico Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
When your attorney proves liability for the death of your loved one, the lawsuit moves forward with the issue of compensation.
Wrongful death lawsuits seek to compensate surviving family members for their loss. Compensatory damages are separated into two categories called economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages include direct financial losses that are calculated with certainty. These damages include:
- Medical expenses,
- Funeral and burial expenses,
- Loss of economic benefits like life insurance,
- Loss of financial support,
- Loss of inheritance.
Support for economic damages comes from receipts, invoices, pay stubs, and statements. It’s important to maintain all records of these losses to prove these economic losses.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages include intangible, subjective losses that are identified as the following:
- Emotional distress,
- Loss of love,
- Loss of companionship, and
- Loss of consortium.
Non-economic damages often comprise the bulk of damages in wrongful death cases. These damages vary greatly from case to case because they require the valuation of something incalculable—the loss of a loved one.
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How Are Damages Distributed?
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If the deceased person had no surviving spouse or surviving children or grandchildren,
the deceased person’s parents receive the damages award.