Long Island Wrongful Death Attorney

Experienced Wrongful Death Lawyers Serving Long Island, NY

Wrongful death is a death caused as a result of another’s negligent or intentional actions. No matter what the circumstances, the death of a loved one is possibly the most difficult event that one will face in a lifetime. If another party’s negligence or intentional actions was the cause of the death, the tragedy is one of even greater anguish. A wrongful death may happen in a number of ways including (but not limited to) car accidents, construction accidents, accidents involving premises liability, medical malpractice, assault or defective products. Palermo Law has a Long Island Wrongful Death Attorney dedicated to representing individuals that have lost loved ones because of another’s negligent or intentional conduct.

The Next Steps Following a Wrongful Death

If a loved one has suffered a wrongful death from an accident in Suffolk County, Long Island , it is important to consult with a car accident attorney as soon as possible. Hiring an attorney early on in the process will help protect your legal rights, ensure your medical expenses are paid and give you an advantage building a strong personal injury case. An early investigation will also help preserve key evidence in your case.

There are so many emotions present when a loved one dies. Likely you are not immediately thinking about compensation for your losses. However, if a wrongful death does take place, it is important to act as soon as you can. The statute of limitations in New York generally gives you 2 years after the loved one has died to file for court for a wrongful death. In certain instances that time frame may be reduced to as little as 90 days. Therefore, it is imperative to document details immediately and have a lawyer to protect your rights as soon as possible. At Palermo Law, we will take care of your case while you take the time you need to grieve the loss of your loved one.

How Much Is My Long Island Wrongful Death Case Worth?

Beside the emotional trauma there is often a significant financial hardship caused by a wrongful death, especially if the decedent was supporting a family. Economic compensation for a wrongful death includes all medical, nursing and funeral expenses as well as loss of future income or support.

In addition, non-economic compensation can be obtained. This applies to any pain and suffering that occurred to the person before they passed. Factors that contribute to this include the personal injuries before dying, the severity of pain and the duration of suffering.

FAQs About Wrongful Death

Is a Wrongful Death Enough to Pursue a Claim?

While any injury can completely disrupt your life, New York has a statute called the “Serious Injury” Threshold that determines whether or not a person is able to file a personal injury claim. Here is what the State of New York considers to be a serious injury:

Death
Dismemberment
Significant disfigurement
Fracture
Loss of fetus
Permanent loss of use of body organ, member, function or system
Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member
Significant limitation of use of a body function or system
Medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person’s usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment

Wrongful death is clearly eligible in this threshold to pursue a claim. Therefore it is a good idea to consult with a personal injury lawyer to discuss your next steps.

If I Hire Your Law Firm Who Will Handle My Case?

I personally handle all of the cases that my law firm takes on. I have a team that assists me in every case. My case manager makes sure that all phases of the case are progressing appropriately, including gathering of evidence, gathering of medical records, and dealing with any insurance issues. My legal assistant handles all communications with healthcare providers and insurance adjusters. My paralegal assists in drafting legal documents.

This allows me to focus on building your case for trial, handling of depositions and legal work, and to negotiate settlements. I always handle all of the depositions, mediations, arbitrations, settlement negotiations and of course trials. Your case is never passed off to a junior partner or associate. You can rest assured that the attorney that you hire for your whiplash injury, will be the attorney that represents you the entire time your case is with my office.

How Much Compensation Am I Entitled To For Our Case?

In a personal injury claim, the goal is to compensate you for all of your losses following an accident. Most losses can be broken down into two categories, economic losses and non-economic losses. Adding your economic losses and your non-economic losses will give you the total amount of compensation that you are entitled to following an accident.

Economic Losses: Economic losses in a wrongful death claim include medical bills, funeral expenses and other out of pocket expenses. In most cases your medical bills for the incident will be paid for by some form of insurance. However, any co-payments and unreimbursed medical expenses that you incur are reimbursable through your lawsuit. Also, in some cases you may be required to reimburse your healthcare provider for medical expenses that they have incurred if you receive a settlement. In such cases that amount of money will be passed onto the defendant in the case.

There are often out of pocket expenses associated with an injury such as travel expenses and cost of modifications to your home or vehicle. This is also the responsibility of the at fault party.

Non-economic Losses: Non-economic losses include your pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and other emotional injuries. Unlike economic damages, non-economic damages are more subjective. Therefore, it can often be difficult to put a financial figure on such damages. A wrongful death case is the most devastating when it comes to pain and suffering. The way it is usually done is by comparing people that have suffered similar injuries and seeing what juries have awarded them at trial. However, if a settlement cannot be reached then that amount of money is decided by a jury. This can often lead to a wide discrepancy from case to case. Also, like economic losses, non-economic losses can also be permanent. In such cases that will have to be accounted for in the jury’s verdict or in the settlement.

Finally, perhaps the most important factor in determining the amount of money that you are entitled to following an accident is the amount of insurance the responsible party has to satisfy any judgment you obtain. For example, if your total losses equal $1,000,000 but the responsible party is only insured for $25,000, your only way of recovering the difference will be by personally enforcing the judgment you obtain at trial against the responsible party’s assets. In my experience as a Car Accident Attorney, most people do not have assets to pay that type of judgment. Therefore, for most accidents, your recovery will be limited by the other party’s insurance. However, there are situations where you can make an additional claim against your own insurance carrier if the responsible party is underinsured.

What should I bring to my initial consultation?

If you suffered whiplash from a car accident, it is always helpful to bring in the Police Accident Report. Sometimes that is not available immediately following a motor vehicle accident. So it’s ok if you don’t have it. We can always contact the police at a later date to obtain it. Often following an accident, you will receive a field report. That’s a good idea to bring as well. Another helpful item to bring to an initial consultation following a car accident is your car insurance policy. This way we can go over your coverages. Again, this is not necessary and can always be reviewed at a later date. Other helpful information would be a list of witnesses, a list of the doctors that you saw, photographs of the accident scene and property damage photos. Finally, any written communications from any insurance companies is helpful.

Ultimately, we can get any of these items following the consultation once we begin our investigation. Our Suffolk County Car Accident Law Firm always does an in-depth investigation on any case that we are retained on. We gather all relevant paperwork, reach out to all witnesses and even hire experts in the areas of accident reconstruction and engineering if necessary.

Why Hire Palermo Law for my Long Island Wrongful Death Case?

We always offer a free no obligation consultation.
We never charge a fee unless we win your case.
We provide personal one on one attention to every client.
We handle all no-fault insurance communications and paperwork for you free of charge.
We have over two decades of experience litigating car accident cases on Long Island.
We have obtained numerous million dollar verdicts and settlements for our clients.

About Our Firm

Palermo Law was founded in 1994 as a general practice. In 1997, Steven Palermo joined the firm and by the early 2000’s the law firm shifted it’s primary focus to personal injury law. Steven Palermo focuses his entire practice on Personal injury law, with a large majority of those cases being Suffolk County car accidents. He personally oversees every car accident case that the firm handles. He brings to each case over twenty years of experience, numerous successful trial verdicts and a passion for helping Suffolk County car accident victims in their fight for justice against large insurance companies.

Our firm has over two hundred positive reviews from former clients on various websites such as Google, Lawyers.com, Avvo and Facebook. Palermo Law takes particular pride in the fact that they have some of the best reviews in Suffolk County. If you would like to set up an appointment for a free initial no obligation consultation with an experienced Suffolk County car accident attorney, feel free to call today.

Trial Ready Strategy

Most personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court at some point before a trial. Many personal injury law firms on Long Island don’t fully prepare their cases for trial when anticipating a settlement. This weakens their position when it comes time to negotiating a settlement. At Palermo Law, we always fully prepare every case as if it is going to trial. This level of preparation gives us the leverage to negotiate the highest possible compensation for our clients and puts us in a strong position should a trial become necessary.

Focused on Helping the Injured

We realize that being really well versed in any one area of law takes focus. Personal injury law is no exception. That’s why our Long Island personal injury lawyers only handle personal injury cases. Steven Palermo, our managing partner, has been exclusively handling personal injury cases for the last two decades. We handle all types of personal injury cases for the injured, including car accidents, slip and falls and work related accidents. We have never represented an insurance company and never will. We do what we do because we love helping people.

Free Consultation

We offer every potential personal injury client a free, no obligation consultation at any of our five locations throughout Long Island. During the consultation, we will discuss your case in detail and give you our opinion on the chances of success. We will also discuss our potential strategy and our process for handling your case. If after fully discussing your case we feel it is a good fit for our Long Island Personal Injury law firm, we will discuss our fees and give you the option of moving forward with us as your lawyers.

Additional Resources

Reach Out to a Long Island Wrongful Death Attorney

We have litigated hundreds of accident cases over the last two decades. As a result, we’ve become very proficient in handling all aspects of accident litigation including no-fault and property damage claims. We know all the ins and outs of Long Island Wrongful Death claims and will use our experience to make sure you receive full compensation. We handle all Suffolk county accident cases on a contingency basis. This means we never charge an upfront fee and only get paid if we win your case.