A fatal accident on the job can happen due to any number of circumstances. Sometimes, it truly is just an accident that couldn’t have been foreseen or prevented. Other times, however, it’s the result of someone else’s negligence. And, in some situations family members of the deceased worker may suspect negligence, but it’s not necessarily clear if that’s the case.
No matter what your situation, when you’ve lost a loved one in a work-related accident, you will need time and space to process your grief. The last thing Utica families want to think about is whether someone else’s negligence caused the accident and whether you’re taking the right legal steps to pursue any compensation to which you’re entitled. At our law firm, we attempt to help manage the legal side of things and keep unnecessary questions from intruding.
We will carefully analyze the question of negligence in the accident. Was your loved one working alongside or interacting with other colleagues at the time? Or was negligent maintenance of equipment a factor? Was the employer negligent in its enforcement of safety standards?
Any of these scenarios could give rise to a civil claim for wrongful death. A wrongful death lawsuit has the potential to compensate a grieving family well above and beyond the death benefits available under the New York workers’ compensation system. Such compensation can help a family transition to a new situation with the loss of one earner’s income. For more information about wrongful death lawsuits stemming from workplace accidents, please visit our website.