The Family Law Act entitles a grieving family in Ontario to bring a wrongful death claim before the court. A family member should present the claim to the court, if a loved one has been killed by an act of neglect, or due to the fault of others.
Other provisions in Family Law Act
The person that presents the claim should be a spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent or sibling. The claim needs to be filed within 2 years of the day when the deceased relative was killed. Family members can claim 2 types of damages, pecuniary and non-pecuniary.
How does the legal system decide whether or not a family has grounds for bringing a wrongful death claim?
The legal system looks at the circumstances surrounding the death of the decedent. Do those circumstances indicate that the decedent would have been allowed to pursue a personal injury claim, if he or she had survived? If the answer is “yes,” then the family has grounds for presenting the court with a wrongful death case.
What are the different damages that might get mentioned in the grieving family’s claim?
The cost of caring for the injured relative before he or she died; that could include the cost of hospital care. It might also include the cost of traveling to the injured relative’s bedside, and paying for a place to sleep, while acting as a caregiver. Personal Injury Lawyer in St John’s knows that if the decedent had held-down a paying job, then a listing of the family’s damages could include loss of a source of income. Of course, the court would want to see proof of the fact that the decedent had been gainfully employed.
If the deceased relative had performed various jobs for one or more family members, then any one of the relatives might want to claim loss of services. The loved one’s death had introduced the need to pay for such services.
A child or a grandchild might have reason to claim loss of guidance, or loss of companionship, or both. The court could not argue with claims that a decedent’s guidance had included the sharing of insights, and those same insights were not included in any words that had been stated by a new “guide.”
Finally, funeral and burial expenses: The costs of a funeral could vary, depending on the belief system of the person that was killed. The costs might include a payment for some member of the clergy, as well as money for renting space in a House of Worship.
The nature of the burial expenses, too, would depend on the provisions of the deceased’s belief system. Some religions, forbid the practice of cremation. That stipulation could increase the cost of a burial.