Everyone dies, and if you can accept that, you will probably get along easier in life. Some people fear death, but it’s also inevitable. Most people don’t like thinking about it, but it is always at the end of the road.

If someone dies when they are 95 and they’ve lived a full life, then that’s sad, but it’s also expected. You will probably feel that this individual got the most out of life that they could and went to a well-deserved reward.

However, if someone dies and you feel someone else caused it, you may feel differently about that. Navigating wrongful death claims in Laredo, Texas, can challenge even the toughest-minded of individuals.

In this article, we’ll talk about how a wrongful death can devastate a family. If you’re going through this experience, you might find that you’re never the same afterward, and you may say the same about your family unit.

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What Does the Term “Wrongful Death” Mean?

Let’s start by defining the term “wrongful death,” so you will know exactly what we mean when we use it. The court system considers a wrongful death one where you can point to a person or company and tie them directly to someone dying.

In other words, if a company makes a product that malfunctions and kills one of your family members, you can consider that a wrongful death. If someone decides they’re going to drive drunk and they plow into a family member’s car, killing them, that’s a wrongful death as well.

If anything like this happens, then you can usually bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the person or business entity that you feel caused the accident, incident, or illness that claimed your family member’s life. While you might get some money if the defendant settles or the lawsuit goes to a jury’s verdict, you’re probably thinking about other things besides the money at this difficult time. 

It Might Happen Very Suddenly

If someone dies at 95, and they battled cancer for months beforehand, then you can say that you expected it. Again, it’s sad, but it’s not like you couldn’t prepare yourself mentally and psychologically beforehand.

It’s often different when you have a wrongful death situation. If a drunk driver killed a family member, a faulty product killed them, or a doctor botched a routine operation, then you had no mental or psychological preparation beforehand. Maybe in your darkest moments you thought about what might happen if a family member died suddenly, but when the abstract becomes the reality, it can hit you like a veritable thunderbolt out of the blue.

That’s part of what can damage a family so badly if this happens. It’s a shock, liking jumping into a freezing swimming pool. You might all feel emotions so powerful that you don’t even know how to process them. You may never imagine such a pain could exist before you’re feeling it.

Maybe This Individual Tied the Family Together Emotionally

You might have a situation where the person who died tied the family together emotionally. For instance, maybe you have a spouse die, and they were also your coparent.

Now, you must mourn for your spouse at the same time the kids mourn their parent. That’s indescribably challenging.

As the adult, you must remain strong for your kids while they try to process what happened. You’re doing the same thing, but you can’t break down because you will still have those dependents in your life who need you.

A sudden death of a child, sibling, or grandparent can damage a family just as profoundly. You never know what it’s like till it happens. Suddenly, you’re adrift and trying to find solid ground, but it might seem impossible in the dark days afterward. 

You Might Miss Their Income as Well

You might also miss this person’s income contribution. That may sound callous, but you need to think about that as well, particularly if this person provided most or all of the family’s funds.

Maybe you’re the remaining parent, and you didn’t work, or you did very little work that brought in any income. With the lion’s share of the money suddenly gone, you might immediately struggle to make ends meet.

Some families have life insurance that will kick in, but not all of them do. Others might have a nest egg they can use for a while, but again, plenty do not. A staggering percentage of American families live check to check, so a sudden wrongful death can cause financial havoc for a family in the space of a moment.

Can You Find a Way to Rebuild in the Aftermath?

Maybe you can find a way to rebuild the shattered family in the aftermath. Many find a way to do it, but it’s seldom easy.

If you sue the individual or entity that caused your loved one’s death, then you might get money from them that you can use instead of the person’s income stream who died. This process may take months or even years, though.

Seldom does the responsible party just admit their wrongdoing. More times than not, they will try to fight you in court instead.

During this intense mourning period, you must find and hire a lawyer. You must wait while they gather evidence. Meanwhile, the defendant might try to gather evidence that proves their innocence.

At the same time, you’re mourning this person’s loss, and others in the family feel just as bad. You might feel pulled in many directions at once. You may feel like you’re breaking down mentally every day.

Hopefully, you will have relatives, friends, neighbors, or coworkers who can help you. They can keep you moving forward until you can finally resolve the legal situation.

In time, you might find a new normal, and your other family members may as well. However, you know, just like they do, that you will never get back to exactly the dynamic you had before.