Wrongful Death

We are sorry if the death of a loved one has brought you to this page.

We developed this web page to assist those who face the life-altering emotional and financial consequences of losing a loved one because of another’s negligence or misconduct. Although we remain sensitive to our client’s emotional needs during this difficult time, our priority is taking care of their future finan­cial requirements.

If you feel that your loved one has died because of someone else’s neg­li­gent, reck­less or care­less behavior, con­tact us as soon as pos­sible. Prompt inves­ti­ga­tion of your case is crit­ical.

Our attor­neys are familiar with the phys­ical, emo­tional and finan­cial damage that wrongful death can cause. We are a team of legal pro­fes­sionals that has pro­vided skilled, aggres­sive and eth­ical legal ser­vices to res­i­dents of South Dakota for more than 25 years.

Wrongful Death and Dam­ages

In legal terms, wrongful death refers to a death that occurred because of the neg­li­gence or mis­deeds of another person, cor­po­ra­tion or other entity. A wrongful death action seeks to hold an indi­vidual, group or cor­po­ra­tion account­able for causing the death of another person. The pri­mary goal of a wrongful death action is to pro­vide relief to the deceased loved ones and to deter the wrongdoer from inflicting fur­ther harm on others. In a wrongful death action, con­sid­er­a­tion is given to the earn­ings the deceased would have pro­vided to their family had they lived, and dam­ages are awarded to sur­vivors based on this mon­e­tary loss.

State laws vary as to who may pursue a wrongful death claim. Gen­er­ally, it is the imme­diate family mem­bers (spouses, chil­dren and par­ents); how­ever, some states allow grand­par­ents, legal depen­dents or mem­bers of the extended family to file suit.

The amount of dam­ages awarded will depend on the plaintiff’s rela­tion­ship to the deceased, while the com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages may include com­pen­sa­tion for the following:

Reim­burse­ment for all med­ical expenses incurred as a result of the negligence.

Reim­burse­ment for the loss of any future income.

Reim­burse­ment for prop­erty damage, if applicable.

Reim­burse­ment for any future ser­vices nor­mally pro­vided to you by the person who has died.

Reim­burse­ment for loss of con­sor­tium (spouse’s loss of com­pan­ion­ship, help and affec­tion).

Reim­burse­ment for any puni­tive dam­ages (if neg­li­gence is found to be criminal).

Proving Neg­li­gence

Typ­i­cally, South Dakota Wrongful Death suits involve vehic­ular acci­dents (avi­a­tion, auto­mo­bile, ATV, motor­cycle or rail­road), defec­tive prod­ucts, med­ical mal­prac­tice, phar­ma­ceu­tical lia­bility, and a number of other sit­u­a­tions. The common ele­ment in most wrongful death actions is neg­li­gence. Negligence is the failure to use the standard of care that a reasonable person would have used in a similar situation.

Neg­li­gence must be proven in wrongful death cases and our attorneys are skilled in helping clients prove that the four crit­ical com­po­nents of neg­li­gence exist in their claim:

That the defen­dant had a duty to the deceased;

That the defen­dant failed in that duty (breach of duty);

That the defendant’s breach was the cause of the fatality; and

That the sur­vivors are enti­tled to dam­ages as a result of the loss of their loved one.

In addition to estab­lishing neg­li­gence, the joint life expectancy of the deceased and the sur­vivor or ben­e­fi­ciary must be pre­sented (to establish the loss of future earnings). The rela­tion­ship of the sur­vivor and deceased must also be shown. Last, but certainly not least, effec­tive pre­sen­ta­tion of the non-economical or emo­tional loss suf­fered by the sur­vivor is crit­ical to a fair award of damages.