A Wrongful Death case has two parts. The first part is who caused the injury or the liability and the second part is what did the person lose because of the injury or the damages.

Liability

To be successful in a wrongful death case, you must prove that someone was negligent. Negligence is the "failure to use ordinary care." This means that the person who caused the death did something that ordinary person would not have done. It can also mean that the person who caused the death, did not act when they had a duty to do so and that this lack of action caused the death.

For example, in an automobile case, you must prove the other driver was at fault because he or she did not follow the rules of the road, he ran a stop sign, or he came in to your lane.

In addition to proving that the other person caused the collision to occur, you must also show that the deceased person did not do something that contributed to causing the collision. Virginia is one of three states that has this strict rule of Contributory Negligence. That means that if the decedent contributed to the cause of the collision, a beneficiary will not make a recovery for his death. For example, if another person pulled out in front of the decedent but the decedent was driving 20 miles over the speed limit, the decedent's action could be found to have contributed to the collision and the beneficiaries would be barred from making a recovery.

Damages

If the liability can be proved then the beneficiaries may be entitle to the following damages:

• Sorrow, mental anguish and loss of solace
• Reasonably expected loss of income from the decedent
• Reasonably expected loss of services, protection, care, and assistance the decedent provided to the beneficiaries
• Any expenses for care, treatment, and hospitalization of the decedent from the injuries resulting in his death
• Reasonable funeral expenses