The loss of the family wage earner can be devastating,
both emotionally and financially.
This video goes into greater detail about the various elements of the "Economic Damages"
that are allowed under Florida law for a wrongful death claim.
These types of damages can be measured with the help of experts
such as accountants and economists.
To learn about the emotional loss damages,
please watch my other videos where I discuss these types of losses
and the hedonic damages that are sought in a wrongful death case.
One of the first and most basic economic losses allowed under Florida law
is the loss of Support and Services.
Let me recite the exact law for you:
"Each survivor may recover the value of lost support and services from the date
of the decedent’s injury to his or her death, with interest,
and future loss of support and services from the date of death and reduced to present value.
In evaluating loss of support and services, the survivor’s relationship to the decedent,
the amount of the decedent’s probable net income available
for distribution to the particular survivor,
and the replacement value of the decedent’s services to the survivor may be considered.
In computing the duration of future losses,
the joint life expectancies of the survivor and the decedent and the period of minority,
in the case of healthy minor children, may be considered."
To make this law easier to understand, lets break this down into individual parts
Starting with the Loss of Support and Services
from the date of the decedent's injury until death.
Loss of support is talking about earnings that the decedent would have earned
had they not been injured, up until the time of their death.
For example,
if a person was in a serious motor vehicle crash, and they were killed instantly,
then there would be no past loss of support.
But if the injured victim was in a coma for ten months before dying,
then the past loss of support would have been their lost wages
they would have earned if they were not injured up until the date of their death.
The loss of earnings ends upon their death,
because that is the beginning of the next type of recovery
which is called the Future loss of support.
So, why does the law say that past loss of support with Interest?
Well, the way the law looks at this claim, this would be a "Liquidated" damage claim.
In other words,
since it can be calculated to an exact amount, it is therefore liquidated,
and the loss is what it is.
There is no discretion on the past loss wages.
So therefore you are entitled to interest on the money.
But in comparison with what are called unliquidated damages,
you cannot collect interest for the unliquidated damages.
Unliquidated essentially means To be Determined.
Now back to the loss of Support.
Support in the past is the lost wages.
And loss of support in the future is really the future earning capacity of the decedent.
This is calculated most often by looking at past earnings,
and our experts attempt to estimate the number of years
our client would have kept gainful employment.
Then an economic estimate or prediction is made regarding how much money
the decedent would have earned if they had not died and worked a full career.
Now, let's talk about Services.
Services are the things that people do for their family but are not paid for doing them.
For example,
a decedent who was a husband and father that had a full time job,
still does things around the house to give the family services,
such as taking care of the cars, mowing the grass,
doing simple home repairs and spending time with his children to help them grow and mature.
Under our laws,
the family should be compensated for the value of his missing services
that he would have otherwise provided to his family.
Or another example might be a mother and spouse,
who does not work outside of the home, but provides valuable services to her family.
What our experts do in these situations is they interview the family,
and find out what kind of services the decedent gave to the family,
and
they determine what could have been expected of them
to provide to their family in the future if they had not died.
Then
our expert economist adds up these services,
calculates the real cost as though the family had to pay someone to perform each of these services.
They then give us a dollar figure which represents the value of the services provided to the family.
Often times it is quite surprising to see how expensive it is to replace the services
that our family members provide to each other.
Let me quote one sentence from the law regarding calculation of the lost services:
It says:
" In evaluating loss of support and services, the survivor’s relationship to the decedent"
shall be considered.
What this means is that when we are determining the Support and services loss in any case,
it is important to consider the age, character and condition of the decedent,
and his or her earning capacity, their life expectancy, health, intelligence, education and life style.
Therefore if my client is 35 years of age, in great health,
who lives with his wife and three children in a nice home, has a good full time job,
invests money in some sort of real estate, gives a lot of his time to his church and family,
then his lifestyle will increase the value of his loss of services.
Contrast this possibly with a person who has a harder time maintaining a job,
does not have a strong family life,
and is not home as many hours due to alchoholism or drug addictions
then the value of this person's loss of support and services may be lower than the previous example.
It is also important to consider the circumstances of each of the survivors.
For example,
the services a spouse provides to his wife may be for many years,
depending on the normal life expectancy of each of them.
However,
the amount of support and services may be far less between a father
and his teen age son who is about to move out of the home and go to college.
There are many variables that need to be considered,
and no two cases are exactly alike.
That is why hiring a great economist is one of the most important expert witnesses
that will be selected by your attorney.
When they are handling a wrongful death claim they are going to be very careful about who the economist is.
Now what about a person's wealth or financial status before their untimely death?
How does this affect the claim?
Under Florida law,
we look to what is called "Net Accumulations"
This is a way of measuring the decedent's probable accumulation of wealth.
We estimate the amount of money that if they had lived a full life,
they would have left this wealth to the family.
Florida law defines “Net accumulations”
as the part of the decedent’s expected net or take home,
business or salary income including pension benefits,
that the decedent probably would have kept as savings
and left as part of his or her estate if the decedent had lived their normal life expectancy.
“Net business or salary income”
is the part of the decedent’s probable gross income after taxes,
excluding income from investments continuing beyond death,
that remains after deducting the decedent’s personal expenses and support of survivors,
excluding contributions in kind.
To calculate the "Net Accumulations" in a case,
we look at the person's earnings,
and expected earnings.
For example,
a person who has worked a salary job for 35 years
and is about 5 years away from retirement is probably close to the top of their earning capacity
and we can pretty accurately calculate the lost income and the amount of savings
they would have made if their life was not cut short.
Compare this to a calculation of a younger worker, say age twenty five,
who has recently graduated from college and has his first job.
Obviously,
the younger person has many opportunities to grow, advance,
and earn a wide range of income which is harder to calculate
than a person at the end of their work life.
To estimate their future savings may be difficult.
Once again,
it is going to be an important calculation that our economist must measure
to help us accurately prove this financial loss for the case.
After we have an estimate of the amount of money the decedent
would take home to spend on his family,
we have to deduct from that number the amount
that we would expect the decedent to have spent on himself if he had not died.
This is because his personal expenses are no longer going to happen,
and that amount therefore must be deducted from what the survivors are entitled to.
If you would like more information about the law as it concerns a wrongful death claim,
please watch my other videos about this topic.
I discuss in detail the specific elements of each type of claim,
the types of evidence we can use to help prove the losses caused by the death,
the defenses to a wrongful death claim,
and the emotional impact and losses suffered by people who have gone through this type of loss.
Also,
you are welcome to call me if you have any more questions
about any serious personal injury or wrongful death claim.