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                        On a daily basis the last thing most us think about or consider is our own mortality or that of our loved ones, but unfortunately we are all mortal.  The death of a loved can be shocking and devastating, especially if there were very young children that were depended on the deceased.  A wrongful death claim is likewise one of the last things we think about or consider.  A wrongful death is just that - a death that should have occurred. 

            Advances in medical treatment, procedures, and medical technology often prolong and save people from death.  Our laws and regulations and advances in technology have also help make our lives longer by preventing or minimizing risks that could lead to a wrongful death.  Sometimes the opposite happens and our very own advances lead to wrongful deaths on a massive scale.  Advances in science and technology often leads to much higher risks and much higher wrongful death tolls that result from error.  Sometimes the errors are small or seemingly trivial.  This may be caused by large scale production and distribution of defective products, dangerous drugs, tainted food, mislabeled products, and large  scale accidents. Occasionally greed is the culprit and the number of wrongful deaths resulting from such greed can likewise occur on a massive scale.   Sometimes it is the desire of big business to avoid large scale recalls and therefore the large scale losses.  Sometimes big business decides to make bigger profits by distributing defective products after carefully considering the odds of successful lawsuits.  Sometimes it is simply in error in the manufacturer of a drug or a product. 

            Big businesses often complain about how lawyers whether it be personal injury lawyers, wrongful death lawyers or product liability lawyers, force them to make their products safer, but fail say that, they generally say lawyers make products more expensive.   Politicians often support big business and say the same thing, but mass scale wrongful deaths quickly remind politicians of the purpose of our laws, which is to protect the people.   Despite our disdain for the profession, it is wrong death lawyers, personal injury lawyers, and other tort law lawyers that enforce the laws and force businesses to refrain from placing dangerous products in the market.

            A wrongful death claim arises when the wrongdoing of another results in death.  Under California law and most other states the heirs of the estate of the deceased are entitled to make a claim.  A wrongful death claim cannot be made, because of family ties.  The heirs are the ones that have a right.  Generally the persons with a right to a wrongful death claim are the children and spouse of the deceased.  A wrongful death lawyer cannot represent the children directly and the surviving parent or a relative has to be appointed a guardian for the children to pursue the claim. If there are no children it all goes to the spouse and if there is no spouse it all goes to the children.   A wrongful death claim cannot be made by the heir if the heir is the one that caused the death directly or indirectly. Living with a person for a long time does not provide for a right to compensation fro the wrongful death of the companion.  Children that are informally adopted likewise do not give a right to the adoptive parents to make a claim.  The child has to be formally adopted.   Under the laws of many states the claimants for a wrongful death claim are identified very similarly to the way heirs are identified under estate laws when the deceased dies without a will.

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