Claiming Compensation for the Deceased

Death is an unavoidable fact of our lives and losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences of a person’s life. Most of the time we can begin to get over our loss but if the death of our loved one was due to the negligence or ignorance of another person, it becomes very difficult to accept the situation and forgive the guilty party. Claiming compensation for the deceased cannot bring the person back but it can really help us a lot at least emotionally and financially.

A large number of fatal injury accidents occur in UK every year in which one person’s negligent behaviour led to the death of another person. Fatal injury accidents can take place across different avenues like:

• Road traffic accidents
• Work related accidents
• Accidents at public places or at public transport
• Deaths due to hazardous substances and poisoning
• Animal attacks
• Medical negligence

When a person dies as a consequence of any of these fatal injury accidents, the compensation claim can be filed in two basic parts: for the deceased person and for the deceased person’s relatives. The first part of the claim covers the emotional and physical distress and pain sustained by the deceased person from the event of accidents till the death. This kind of compensation cannot be made if the person died on the spot or never returned to consciousness. No or very little compensation is given in such cases because the suffering and pain undergone by the victim was minimal. In the other part of the claim that is for the relatives of the deceased person, including his or her grandparents, grandchildren, parents, children, spouse or a live in partner for at least 2 years.

The compensation amount that the deceased person’s relatives receive also covers the funeral expenses, apart from the medical expenses made on the deceased person from the accident to the death, loss of income if the relatives were dependant upon the deceased person and mental and emotional loss that the relatives have to undergo.

There are several lawyers and solicitors in the market who are there to guide you through the process of claiming compensation for the deceased relative of yours. There are also lawyers out there who work on the basis of contingency fees which means that you do not need to pay any fees to these lawyers unless they win the case for you and you get the compensation amount in your bank account.