It is devastating when someone you love dies because of another person’s negligence. However, the law provides your family with essential rights. To successfully achieve justice, you must prove the at-fault party’s negligence, which can be challenging.
Contact Williams Hart & Boundas and trust our wrongful death attorneys to provide the support and representation you need. We have extensive experience determining negligence in Houston wrongful death claims, and we are ready to help you.
What are the Elements of Negligence?
There are four elements you must prove to show neglect in a wrongful death claim: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Each one is important for building your case.
Duty of Care
The first element in wrongful death claims is the duty of care. It is the legal responsibility of individuals to meet certain standards to prevent harm to others. This obligation shows up in many situations.
For example, everyone who gets behind the wheel has to drive safely and responsibly. This means that following traffic laws, not speeding, staying focused, and being careful to prevent accidents can help avoid charges for wrongfully causing death through negligence.
Breach of Duty
After you establish a duty of care, you must show that the defendant breached their responsibility. A breach occurs when someone’s actions fail to meet what a reasonable person would have done in the same situation.
For example, a case involving a speeding driver would demonstrate a breach of duty after they caused the wrongful demise of your loved one in a fatal accident. The same applies to a doctor who makes the wrong diagnosis and a patient dies, which could be a breach of professional duty.
Causation
Causation is a complex but essential element in a case and requires a direct link between the defendant’s breach of duty and the negligent death of your loved one that they irresponsibly caused. This element comprises two components: factual causation (also known as but-for causation) and proximate causation.
Factual causation asks whether the death would have occurred but for the defendant’s negligent act. If the answer is no, then you establish factual causation. For example, if a faulty product caused a fatal injury, the injury would not have occurred but for the product’s defect.
Proximate causation addresses foreseeability. It asks whether the death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s negligent act. This prevents holding defendants liable for highly remote or unlikely outcomes. For example, while a driver’s speeding might be the factual cause of your loved one’s accident, if an unforeseeable event (such as a sudden earthquake) simultaneously caused the death, proving proximate causation might be more complex solely based on the speeding.
Damages
Finally, you must demonstrate that you suffered damages as a result of the wrongful death. In Houston, claiming wrongful death damages caused by carelessness usually includes:
- Emotional support, comfort, and love that the deceased provided
- Loss of guidance and counsel when a child loses a parent or a parent loses a child
- Compensation for the emotional suffering that surviving family members experience
- Financial losses, such as lost earning capacity, inheritance, and medical and funeral expenses
Correctly identifying and proving damages is a key role of our wrongful death attorneys at Williams Hart & Boundas.
Evidence in Wrongful Death Cases
Building a strong wrongful death case in Houston requires solid evidence to support each negligence claim. This can include:
- Witness statements
- Photos and videos from the scene
- Police reports and accident reconstructions
- Financial records to prove pecuniary losses
- Medical records and professional testimony
- Specialist testimony on the standard of care in professional negligence cases
Our lawyers will gather as much evidence as possible to strengthen your case and increase the likelihood of fair compensation.
Talk to a Houston Lawyer About Proving Fault in Wrongful Death Claims
Determining negligence in wrongful death cases requires experience and resources. An attorney from Williams Hart & Boundas can help investigate what happened, gather the evidence you need, establish negligence, and fight for the rights of surviving family members. Contact us now for a free consultation to help with determining negligence in Houston wrongful death claims.