Fatal Accidents
Where an accident results in death there are two different types of claim to consider:
Under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions)Act 1934 a claim for pain and suffering endured in the period between the accident and the time of death can be made on behalf of the deceased's estate. For such a claim to arise it would need to be shown that there was some definite period of suffering.
Under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 dependents of the deceased can make their own fatal accident compensation claim for the loss of the support they would have received if the deceased had not died, based on the wrongful act which caused the death. In the past there used to be no recognition at all of what was harshly termed "sentimental damage" for the distress of the bereavement itself. That has at least been partially corrected now that statute provides for a set figure as a bereavement award, currently standing at £10,000. To those who suffer a bereavement, however, this figure can seem like little more than a token gesture to compensate them for their distress. However, the court is only really concerned with financial claims as opposed to moral claims. It should also be borne in mind that only a narrow band of people would qualify for this, only spouses or parents of minor children. The implications should be noted; unmarried partners cannot claim this bereavement award, and nor can a child claim it upon the death of a parent.
In broad terms, the court carries out a calculation of the deceased's income to see if it was being used for the benefit of others as opposed to his or her sole use. Then a further assessment is made of how long the dependent in question was going to be reliant on that source of income - factors such as the life expectancy of the dependant and the hypothetical life expectancy of the deceased are taken into account here as a dependency would rely upon both parties having continued to survive. Some analysis is carried out to see if there would have been any changes as time went by, for instance would the deceased have expected any rise in income, (or, indeed a fall) or would some dependent such as a child have ceased to be dependent at some point and thereafter become ineligible to benefit from a fatal accident compensation claim.
Advice should always be sought as to whether someone can qualify as a dependent, there is a much broader range of people who are entitled to claim that would be able to claim for a bereavement award. However, simply being one of the people who can qualify as a dependent does not automatically give rise to a claim, as it still remains for the dependency itself to be proved.
Where a claim has to be apportioned amongst several dependents, the general procedure is that a single claim is made to quantify the whole provision for all the dependents and then that sum is divided as appropriate. Again, advice should be sought as to how this apportionment is likely to be calculated where there are multiple dependents.
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