In a wrongful death action, In a wrongful death action, the dead person’s estate is entitled to receive damages for the person’s death including: entitled to receive damages for the person's death including:

• Reimbursement for medical and hospital expenses;
  
• Reimbursement for funeral and burial expenses;
  
• Reimbursement for past and future loss of earnings;
  
• Reimbursement for inconvenience and loss of companionship to the decedent’s family;
  
• Money damages for any pain and suffering endured by the dead person from the time of injury until the moment of death, even if the time between injury and death was only a few moments.

Who receives monies

Damages awarded in a Wrongful Death case are paid to the estate. The law requires the estate to distribute the money to the dead person’s dependents based on what a Court determines to be fair amount, given the individual circumstances of the dependents.

• For example, a young child with a medical condition whose parent is killed might be given more money from the damage award than another child who is healthy.
  
• Likewise, an adult child whose parent is killed may receive less of a share of the damages than a minor child who still has to finish school.