Expert witnesses in DC wrongful death cases play vital roles for the plaintiff and the defense. To understand expert witnesses’ crucial role, you must first understand DC death cases. A DC wrongful death claim is brought for the damages you suffer as a close relative of the decedent. You are not recovering the damages that the victim in the accident suffered. That is a survival action; although, the two actions can work conjointly. You need several things to qualify for a wrongful death claim.
First, we must be able to establish liability by the tortfeasor. Your testimony that a defendant caused the wrongful death is not always enough. We must be able to prove liability to a jury by a preponderance of the evidence. That means a jury must believe it is more likely than not that the allegations occurred. To show liability, we can prove that the defendant acted negligently or intentionally. If the defendant acted intentionally, while a higher burden of proof, intentional conduct may bring more compensation to the plaintiff through punitive damages.
An expert witness is not always needed for liability. Sometimes, liability is easily proven via security footage our attorneys can subpoena to obtain. On the other hand, proving damages likely requires expert witnesses in DC wrongful death cases. Much of a wrongful death claim requires proving that there was a financial dependency by the spouse or child. Then, we must extrapolate how long each party would have survived and take the shorter period of the two.
Expert witnesses perform several tasks in wrongful death cases in the District. Here, we discuss three in detail.
Many aspects of a case, particularly as complex as most wrongful death cases, require discussing technical details. For example, suppose we are discussing a product liability issue, and there is a mechanical engineering failure that killed your spouse or parents. In that case, the discussion of the complexities of the engineering failure may be lost on most laypeople on the jury. That is to no fault of the jurors. Rather, 99% of people do not fully understand mechanical engineering beyond an elementary level. However, to produce a fair verdict on a case and serve justice for the plaintiff, a jury needs to understand the relevant parts of engineering to make a fair assessment of the product. This is where expert witnesses in DC wrongful death cases come in.
Via direct examination, a wrongful death attorney can parse the relevant information to provide a jury with a basic understanding of engineering to make a favorable claim. The expert witness we hire will usually offer favorable testimony for our case. Meanwhile, the defense will hire an expert witness to testify that there was never an engineering failure based on his understanding as an expert.
Additionally, an expert witness in a DC wrongful death case can testify as an accident reconstructionist. This can provide clarity to a jury on the sequence of events leading up to the deadly incident.
Causation is a critical component of any personal injury or wrongful death claim. For example, in a negligence cause of action, we must prove that the breach of duty by the defendant was the proximate cause of your damages. Proximate causation is a foreseeability test. But what is foreseeable in the context of a drug addiction treatment facility? What is foreseeable as a nightclub owner? Without significant experience in a given scenario, it is difficult for a juror to know what is foreseeable and thus fit the bill as a proximate cause.
There are simpler versions of causation from an expert witness, too. For example, a surgeon who failed to perform life-saving surgery on your loved one might write in his records that the injuries he was being treated for were causally related to the fatal car accident. That doctor may have to testify at trial. On the other hand, specific scenarios do not require an expert witness to establish causation. For example, if your loved one was in a fatal head-on collision, most jurors understand driving cars on the road and can understand that scenario without an expert witness.
Calculating damages is complex and requires expert witnesses in a DC wrongful death case. Projecting lost wages, benefits, and other contributions the deceased would have made had they lived also requires expert testimony. Economic experts calculate this by considering the deceased’s age, career trajectory, earning history, and potential future earnings increases. An expert witness may account for the decedent’s age and consider promotions based on the comments from the decedent’s supervisors. This requires some speculation, as the decedent’s future will never reveal itself. We do the best we can with the information presented.
If you are making a wrongful death claim for the loss of your child, of course, there is no earning history to account for. Unfortunately, there is little to go off of. However, an expert will consider the child’s grades, socioeconomic status, and parents’ earnings. While far from perfect and certainly not fair, that is all that is available to go off of.
Medical experts are particularly pivotal in medical malpractice cases. For example, a forensic pathologist may perform an autopsy to testify as to the cause of death and provide crucial insights into how the death occurred and what could have been done to prevent it.
Accident reconstruction experts analyze the sequence of events leading up to the accident to determine contributing factors and liability. These expert witnesses play a critical role in DC wrongful death trials. In addition to reviewing all evidence, they will use principles of physics and engineering to reconstruct the accident scene. These witnesses then can explain it persuasively to a jury by answering our questions in a direct examination.
Economic experts are used most often in wrongful death cases. They are necessary to predict the damages due to financial dependency by a spouse, parent, or child. They may testify to loss of earnings and benefits, the value of household services if the decedent did not expressly generate income, and the long-term cost of counseling.
The psychological impact of losing a beloved family member may be compensable damage in a DC wrongful death claim. Proving this, however, is not easy and requires a skilled attorney’s assistance.
Safety and industry-standard experts may testify whether products were designed and manufactured according to safety standards. Moreover, even if a defendant acted according to safety standards, if there is a standard industry practice that is safer than the legal safety standard, that may place a legal duty on the defendant to act to that industry standard instead. This type of expert witness is thus vital in a wrongful death trial.
Vocational experts are employment experts. They may be able to testify to the decedent’s prospects of future job growth and income based on past performance. These experts are essential, particularly for younger decedents who are at the start of their careers. It is illogical to base lifetime earnings on a first job that may have been a stepping stone to a more meaningful career.
Contact our leading personal injury attorneys today to learn more about expert witnesses in DC wrongful death claims. Our consultations are always free.