Many people in the country have lost their loved ones and left their families grieving and devastated due to drunk driving. The tragedy of losing a loved one way too soon is the last place you want to be. Losing someone through a preventable cause is a painful reminder for the surviving relatives.

Nothing can replace someone you love, but California law permits surviving family members to seek justice through bringing a wrongful death claim. If you lose your loved one in a drunk driving accident, you need to know your rights. A wrongful death claim compensates you for your loss, like medical bills, funeral costs, and loss of income. Bringing a claim also holds the responsible party accountable for their recklessness and negligence.

An Overview of Drunk Driving Accidents

Drunk driving means driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol impairs the drivers’ ability to drive. It also impairs your judgment of distance, reflexes, and coordination. Impairment makes you unable to react to sudden changes in traffic, road conditions, or unexpected obstacles. In California, the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) while driving is 0.08%.

Impact of Drunk Driving

Drunk driving affects the intoxicated motorist and the victims of their reckless and negligent actions. Even though alcohol can affect coordination, judgment, and reaction time, its broader social impact is overlooked. When a motorist drives under the influence, they risk many people’s lives, including their own, passengers, pedestrians, and other road users.

Every year, drunk drivers cause injuries and death to thousands of victims. These statistics make drunk driving a leading cause of catastrophic car accidents. Crashes involving alcohol are more severe and often disastrous, resulting in permanent disabilities, wrongful deaths, and more.

Impact of Drunk Driving Accidents

The result of drunk driving accidents is more than physical and emotional damage. Unfortunately, most of these accidents cause serious injuries, long-term disabilities, or deaths that leave the surviving family to rebuild their shattered lives.

These events are rippling waves of devastation that affect entire communities. Grieving families face financial burdens such as medical bills, funeral costs, and the loss of income if the deceased was the breadwinner.

Moreover, spouses, children, and parents experience loss and are left with an irreplaceable void left by their loved ones. Survivors also suffer trauma from the incident, leading to mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). You are left with the overwhelming task of seeking justice, often through wrongful death claims.

What is a Wrongful Death Claim?

A wrongful death claim is a lawsuit the surviving family brings against whoever was at fault for the person’s death. Such a claim allows the relatives of the dead to sue for any lost financial value and makes the responsible party responsible for the fatal incident. So, if the driver had been intoxicated from alcohol and his actions were, therefore, a direct cause of your loved one's death, then you may have a wrongful death case against them.

The purpose of a wrongful death claim is to pursue economic and non-economic compensation for the surviving relatives. Damages include funeral expenses, medical bills, loss of financial support, and emotional suffering from the loss of companionship and support.

Particular California laws set liability, damages, and time limit standards. These laws protect the rights of surviving family members through legal redress.

Elements Required to Establish a Drunk Drinking Wrongful Death Case

For a successful wrongful death claim following a drunk driving accident, your attorney must demonstrate certain elements. These are:

  1. Death of your loved one – Your loved one’s death occurred as a direct result of the defendant driving while intoxicated. The wrongful death claim will not stand unless it is shown that the intoxication was a substantial contributing factor to the accident.
  2. Causation – you must show a direct connection or obvious and unmistakable connection between what the defendant did and how the death of your loved one happened. You can use police reports, witness statements, or blood alcohol test results to show the linkage.
  3. There must be immediate family members or other legal beneficiaries who have suffered damages due to the death. Only spouses, children, or other dependents ('surviving persons') are typically allowed to bring a wrongful death lawsuit.

Establishing Intoxication in Wrongful Death Claims for Drunk Driving Incidents

Proving intoxication is a key element when pursuing a wrongful death claim after a drunk driving accident. It is recommended that you thoroughly research to demonstrate that the at-fault party was impaired at the time of the crash.

The first source of evidence is police reports. These show you what happened at the scene, what the defendant did, and if sobriety tests were performed. Witness statements of slurred speech, unsteady movements, or reckless driving are also things you can use to rely upon.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) tests are a definitive type of evidence to prove intoxication. Law enforcement administers these tests following an accident. If the at-fault party registers a BAC over the legal limit (typically 0.08%), the law considers them impaired.

Witness evidence becomes useful When BAC tests are unavailable or do not give a precise result. Those who were present and saw what the accused did moments before and after the accident may be instrumental in determining the level of their intoxication. For example, if someone saw the defendant consuming alcohol and then later driving carelessly, such evidence could be crucial.

Surveillance footage from CCTV cameras around the scene could also reveal moments before the crash. Footages obtained from nearby bars, restaurants, or traffic lights are especially important. Moreover, anything said by the at-fault party admitting guilt, such as consuming alcohol before the accident, can also serve as highly persuasive proof.

The presence of witness statements helps when there are doubts about BAC results or any other physical evidence. Professionals such as toxicologists or road accident experts can deal with this issue by studying whether alcohol had any impact on the accused person's driving skills. However, it would have been clearer if they shared how they could not perform optimally.

Medical records might show if the defendant received treatment after the accident. These documents can reveal possible BAC levels that indicate the use of alcohol or drugs. Additionally, ensure that blood and urine specimens are in proper custody.

Compensation Available in Wrongful Death Cases

Damages in a wrongful death claim are economic and non-economic damages, each relating to a different form of loss. Once you know these categories, you can see what you might be entitled to after such a tragedy.

Economic Damages

Economic damages consist of those financial losses directly resulting from the victim’s death. These tangible losses are calculated with relative certainty, so they compensate surviving family members for their financial hardships. They include:

  • Medical expenses – If your loved one died and was receiving medical treatment before their death, you are entitled to claim the costs of that medical treatment. This covers hospital stay charges, emergency room care, surgeries, and other medical services.
  • Funeral and burial costs
  • Lost earnings – This is the income the deceased would have earned if they had lived, especially if they were the primary breadwinner.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages compensate for the emotional and intangible losses you suffer due to the wrongful death. These losses are more subjective and difficult to quantify. Examples are:

  • Pain and Suffering—This form of compensation takes into consideration the pain, both physical and emotional, that the deceased experience in their last days.
  • Loss of Companionship – The loss of companionship is an emotional toll that could affect your life. This type of compensation fills the emotional gap left by the deceased spouse, especially when the surviving partner, kids, or relatives lose the deceased’s love, care, warmth, and advice.
  • Loss of Consortium – This refers to the emotional damages that a surviving spouse goes through following the death of their partner. It compensates for losing all the emotional and financial help that was there between two people as husband and wife.
  • Emotional Distress – One may undergo severe psychological problems because of grief, such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic disorders. These damages aim at compensating for the emotional torture experienced by surviving family members due to the tragic, sudden passing away of their loved one.

Punitive Damages

There are cases where punitive damages can be awarded. Punitive damages are different from the other types of compensation mentioned above because they punish the responsible party for their egregious actions, such as drunk driving. By awarding punitive damages on top of compensatory ones, the hope is not only to punish the defendant but also to prevent similar negligent acts in the future.

Legal Process for Wrongful Death Claims

A wrongful death claim involves a lengthy process that must be well crafted to build a solid case and receive fair compensation.

Consultation With an Attorney

Your wrongful death claim starts with consulting an experienced personal injury attorney. When discussing your case, your attorney will review it and ascertain if it can stick. If so, they will explain your legal options and what those options will mean for your case. Seeking legal counsel lays the groundwork for your case and ensures you know your case’s progress.

Investigation

After discussing your options, your personal injury attorney begins a full investigation to collect evidence to strengthen the wrongful death claim. This could involve obtaining accident reports, witness statements, medical records, and available surveillance footage. The advantage of hiring an attorney is that you mourn your loss without the headache of pursuing the claim.

Also, your lawyer can collaborate with various experts to build a strong case and shed light on the circumstances leading to your loved one’s death.

Filing a Lawsuit

If you cannot reach a satisfactory settlement in negotiations with the responsible party or their insurance representatives, your attorney will file a wrongful death lawsuit. This action begins the legal process formally and is a notice to the defendant that you are seeking justice for your loss.

Discovery Phase

At this stage, you and the defendant exchange relevant information and evidence. This phase involves depositions, interrogatories, and requests for documents. However, both sides need to discover the process so that they can prepare their cases and reveal each side's strengths and weaknesses.

Negotiations and Settlement Attempts

The talks could continue throughout the legal process. Your insurance company or that of the defendant might offer to settle the expenses you incurred by making them pay you some money so you do not have to go to trial. Your attorney will guide you on whether you should accept or reject these offers so that you can make informed decisions that best serve your interests.

Trial

If negotiations do not work, the case goes to trial. Your attorney and the defendant present evidence, witnesses, and arguments in court. The jury reviews the available evidence and listens to both sides before giving a final order.

Judgment and Compensation

If the court decides in your favor, a judgment will be issued that the at-fault party pays you or the deceased’s estate and surviving family members a certain compensation amount. This could be economic and non-economic damages accrued from loss.

Appeals (if applicable)

Either party (you or the defendant) can appeal the judge’s decision if you feel trial legal errors occurred. In the appellate process, either party presents arguments to a higher court. The court reviews and decides whether to reinstate or overturn an earlier ruling.

Distribution of Compensation

After the court passes the final judgment, it is time for the liable party to pay your compensation. Among other things, your attorney will make sure the distribution is in line with legal requirements (if there is an estate and surviving relatives).

Challenges in Drunk Driving Wrongful Death Cases

When a wrongful death claim involves a drunk driving incident, there are unique challenges to pursuing the claim, including:

Evidence Collection. Proving the intoxication of the responsible party and tying it straight to the fatal incident is a difficult thing to prove. For example, obtaining BAC, police, and doctor’s reports, video surveillance footage, and gathering witnesses.

Insurance Company tactics. Often, insurers deploy a repertoire of strategies to lower their liability or propose settlements that do not cover the whole of your losses.

Defenses and Legal Strategies. During the trial, you must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s drunk driving act caused your loved one’s death. As mentioned above, gathering evidence is hard. The other party’s attorney could challenge the reliability of BAC tests, question the credibility of witnesses, or argue that other factors contributed to the accident. These tactics can create obstacles as you work to establish clear liability.

Emotional Impact. A wrongful death causes an emotional toll on the surviving relatives. If the grief and trauma overcome you, pursuing a claim becomes difficult.

Criminal Proceedings. Legal processes are interconnected. Therefore, if someone is criminally charged with DUI or vehicular manslaughter, the results of that criminal case can affect your civil wrongful death case directly. For example, if the court acquits the defendant, it could cause issues in proving liability in your civil claim.

Multiple Defendants. Proving liability becomes difficult when there are multiple defendants. During the investigation phase, assigning responsibilities to various parties requires lengthy investigation and complicated legal processes.

Witness Cooperation. The biggest hurdle, apart from even securing cooperation from witnesses, is the risk of witnesses facing legal reprisals or, indeed, a personal relationship with the guilty party themselves. This reluctance to testify or to provide statements can leave holes in your case that make it harder to make a strong case.

Expert Testimony. Presenting expert testimony is complicated by potential opposing expert witnesses who will try to discredit your evidence or interpretations and make you look unqualified to present your evidence or theories.

Compensation Limits. Other jurisdictions permit limited compensation, which can significantly impede your ability to recover all losses suffered. In cases of egregious negligence, California places caps on the amount of damages that can be awarded in wrongful death cases.

Statute of Limitations for Wrongful Death Cases

The statute of limitations limits how much time you have to file your claim after your loved one’s death. In a wrongful death case, the clock does not start ticking until the victim dies—that date, not the date of the accident.

In California, the statute of limitations for wrongful death cases is usually two years. However, there are exceptions to this timeline. For example, if you are dealing with a government agency, the responsible party, you may have up to six months to file a notice of claim after the incident.

These timelines can be confusing, emotionally excruciating, and complicated, especially when grieving the loss of a loved one amidst legal proceedings.

Furthermore, the statute of limitations has exceptions that stretch out the time for you to file, giving you additional time to pursue your claim. For example, if the defendant might have left the state, the statute of limitations is tolled until they return to California. Also, if the surviving family members are minors, the limitation period begins counting on their 18th birthday.

Find a Wrongful Death Attorney Near Me

After a tragic loss of your loved one’s life due to a drunk driver, it can feel overwhelming. Maneuvering the justice system and seeking compensation has several challenges, like gathering evidence and negotiating with insurance companies. You need a personal injury attorney’s guidance to understand your rights and available legal options.

At Orange County Personal Injury Attorney, we help families like yours seek justice and hold at-fault parties responsible. To schedule a consultation, contact us today at 714-876-1959