Hi, this is Matt Eason, and I’m a personal injury and wrongful death attorney here in Sacramento. I’ve been practicing in those areas of law for over 25 years. I recently received a question from someone asking, “Where does the money come from in a wrongful death lawsuit?”
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As the question is a bit ambiguous, I think I’ll answer it in two different directions. Where does the money come from to fund the bringing of a wrongful death lawsuit? Where does the money come to satisfy a judgment of a wrongful death lawsuit?
With respect to the first question, where does the money come from to fund a wrongful death lawsuit? The answer really is the attorneys are going to provide those funds. A good, wrongful death attorney will normally front all the costs necessary and not charge any attorneys fees until the case is resolved. Then the attorneys’ fees at that stage are usually compensated on a contingency or percentage basis. So the short answer as to how a lawsuit is funded; the attorney will do that for you.
The second sub question is where does the money come from to satisfy a claim or judgment in a wrongful death accident or lawsuit? That is historically coming from the insurance policy representing the defendant. Most individuals don’t have a significant amount of resources to pay for the wrongful death of somebody. A lot of people, unfortunately, their biggest assets, are retirement accounts or the equity in their home, and large portions of that, if not all of that, are exempt from collection.
So as a practical matter, to recover money on a wrongful death action is almost always going to be dependent upon the defendant’s assets or their insurance company, or possibly their employer. If you’ve got questions about wrongful death action, I hope you’ll consider reaching out to myself, Matt Eason, and all of the Sacramento wrongful death lawyers at our office Eason & Tambornini.
