Busy Tulsa routes like I-244 and the Gilcrease Expressway carry a lot of careless drivers who can put the motorcyclists around them at risk. Collisions occur far too often, and, in the most tragic cases, a vulnerable rider’s life can be claimed.
The victim’s family members will face a difficult grieving process, and they can also find themselves in difficult financial times. The bills that come out of a sudden death, paired with the potential loss of income the victim may have always provided, can bankrupt families quickly.
Ylla|Gosney Attorneys at Law is here to make sure those consequences become the worry of an at-fault driver’s insurance company, and not close loved ones. We stand by Tulsa families to help them seek justice and earn wrongful death support during such a difficult time. Families can contact us for a free and confidential case consultation to go over their best options after a tragic accident.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim after a Motorcycle Fatality?
A wrongful death claim is a type of civil lawsuit. It is filed when someone is hurt by the negligence, recklessness, or intentional act of another. The at-fault party may be a driver who was looking at a cell phone and rammed a motorcyclist from behind.
Since the victim was killed, someone has to file this claim on behalf of the motorcyclist. In Oklahoma, the personal representative named in the deceased’s will would usually file a wrongful death claim on behalf of other family members.
Those who could be considered beneficiaries include:
- Spouse of the victim
- Children of the victim
- Parents of the Victim
Others in the family could receive support if they were financially dependent on the victim.
A wrongful death lawyer can help a representative file a wrongful death claim on behalf of the entire family and make sure every benefit is secured. A skilled lawyer can often win families much more than they could by handling a lawsuit themselves.
There are many other services a lawyer can provide a family in mourning, including granting them time to grieve in peace without having to be in contact with frustrating insurance adjusters.
How Can a Motorcycle Accident Wrongful Death Lawyer Help My Family Secure More in Support?
Your lawyer should provide your family with two major protections. Your lawyer should prevent any attempt to try to blame a motorcycle accident victim.
Insurance companies like to blame riders for every accident, simply to save on having to pay benefits. It often works, too. They twist the facts of the accident to point the finger of blame at an innocent victim who has passed on. Your Tulsa Motorcycle Accident Lawyer backs your wrongful death claim with evidence to block this shady tactic.
Your lawyer should also help your family earn the most possible in a settlement agreement or in a judgment awarded by the court. This is a critical point because those left behind won’t always be able to predict the financial troubles that lie ahead. Without the guidance and financial support of a loved one who’s been lost, the consequences can spiral quickly.
Your wrongful death lawyer provides these safeguards:
- Fully investigating your loved one’s accident
- Collecting evidence in case an insurer tries to blame the motorcyclist for what happened
- A lawyer can help families calculate the true cost of their damages now and in the years ahead
- Demands this amount in an accident claim on behalf of your family
- Going over a settlement offer to see if it meets your family’s needs
- Rejecting a settlement offer if it doesn’t and negotiating for more
- Preparing your family’s wrongful death case for court if a car insurance provider refuses to accept blame
- Helping navigate emotionally challenging disagreements between family members
- Making sure a personal representative acts in the best interest of every beneficiary
What Kinds of Things Earn Support for Family Members After a Fatal Tulsa Motorcycle Accident
Your attorney would be working hard to create a full list of every financial and non-financial hardship the family had faced. Anything left off this list when submitted in a claim is damage that can be ignored by insurance companies. In other words, they can end up as a cost the family would have to pay if they aren’t mentioned in a claim.
Your attorney would make sure everything was included in your claim, and ask for support for some hardships you may not have known could earn additional support:
- Money to pay funeral and burial expenses
- Support for the emotional trauma that family members must cope with
- Support for the loss of guidance and love that the family can no longer draw from in the future
- Support for a spouse’s loss of consortium (the loss of intimacy with a spouse)
- Support for the loss of companionship for the children and parents of the victim
- The loss of financial support that the deceased’s income would have provided in the years to come
- Financial compensation to repair or replace the motorcycle that was damaged
A “survival action” is a civil claim that families can also file. It seeks the types of support motorcyclists would have sought if they had survived. The damages that are compensated are those built up before death.
This includes the medical costs accrued if the victim didn’t die immediately. The physical pain and emotional trauma victims went through while alive in the hospital could also earn additional support. Any settlement won would go to the victim’s estate, and then could be divided among beneficiaries.
Contact a Tulsa Wrongful Death Lawyer After a Fatal Motorcycle Accident
Families are granted up to two years after a motorcycle accident (or after the victim’s death if the motorcyclist didn’t pass on immediately) to file a wrongful death claim.
We have an extensive background in safeguarding Tulsa families after terrible accidents. Ylla | Gosney Attorneys At Law offers a free, no-obligation case review to all family members to get questions answered.
If you need our help, you don’t have to worry about finding the money to pay a wrongful death lawyer. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the support that a car insurance company is forced to provide to your family.
