When negligence causes a loved one’s death, Louisiana families deserve justice and financial recovery. Smiley Injury Law’s wrongful death attorneys represent New Orleans families in claims against negligent drivers, medical providers, employers, and property owners—recovering compensation for funeral expenses, medical bills, lost financial support, and the immeasurable loss of love, guidance, and companionship your family suffered.
Wrongful death occurs when someone dies due to another party’s negligence, recklessness, intentional misconduct, or defective products. Louisiana’s wrongful death statute provides surviving family members legal remedies to recover damages for both economic losses and the emotional devastation of losing a loved one.
Unlike criminal homicide prosecutions that punish wrongdoers, civil wrongful death lawsuits compensate families for their losses. These cases follow different legal standards—you need only prove negligence by a preponderance of evidence (more likely than not) rather than the beyond reasonable doubt standard in criminal cases. Families can pursue wrongful death claims regardless of whether criminal charges were filed or resulted in convictions.
At Smiley Injury Law, we understand no amount of money replaces your loved one. However, financial compensation helps families cope with sudden economic hardships, pay for funeral expenses, cover bills the deceased would have paid, and provide for children who lost a parent’s support and guidance. Our compassionate attorneys handle the legal complexities while you focus on grieving and supporting your family.
Wrongful death cases require immediate action. Louisiana’s strict one-year statute of limitations means families must file lawsuits quickly. Additionally, crucial evidence deteriorates, witnesses’ memories fade, and defendants sometimes destroy helpful documents as time passes. Early legal representation protects your family’s rights and preserves the strongest possible case.
Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents
Traffic collisions represent the leading cause of wrongful death claims in Louisiana. Drunk driving accidents, distracted driving crashes, speeding-related collisions, and reckless driving incidents kill hundreds of Louisiana residents annually. Commercial truck accidents, motorcycle crashes, and pedestrian fatalities often prove particularly devastating for surviving families.
Our attorneys investigate fatal accident causes through police reports, witness statements, accident reconstruction analysis, cell phone records showing distracted driving, toxicology reports proving intoxication, and vehicle data recorders. We identify all liable parties including negligent drivers, employers of commercial drivers, vehicle manufacturers with defective products, and government entities responsible for dangerous road conditions.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tracks fatal accident data, showing thousands of preventable traffic deaths occur nationwide annually. When negligent driving kills your loved one, Louisiana law allows recovery for all damages your family suffered.
Medical Malpractice and Healthcare Negligence
Medical errors cause thousands of preventable deaths in American hospitals and healthcare facilities each year. Surgical mistakes, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of serious conditions, medication errors, anesthesia complications, birth injuries causing infant or maternal death, and nursing home neglect all warrant wrongful death claims when they prove fatal.
Louisiana medical malpractice wrongful death cases require expert medical testimony establishing the applicable standard of care and how the defendant’s conduct fell below that standard, causing death. We work with respected physicians who review medical records, identify negligence, and testify about how proper care would have saved your loved one’s life.
These cases follow unique procedures including Louisiana Patient’s Compensation Fund requirements and medical review panel processes. Our experience with Louisiana’s medical malpractice system ensures your wrongful death claim meets all procedural requirements while building the strongest possible case for your family’s compensation.
Workplace Accidents and Industrial Deaths
Dangerous work environments in Louisiana’s industrial, construction, maritime, and oil and gas sectors cause fatal workplace accidents. Falls from heights, equipment malfunctions, electrocutions, confined space deaths, chemical exposures, and machinery accidents kill workers whose families depend on their income.
While workers’ compensation provides death benefits to surviving spouses and children, third-party wrongful death claims often allow significantly greater recovery when someone other than the employer caused the fatal accident. Equipment manufacturers, property owners, subcontractors, and other negligent parties face liability for workplace deaths they caused.
Maritime workers and offshore oil rig employees have special wrongful death rights under the Jones Act and general maritime law. These federal statutes provide different procedures and damage recoveries than Louisiana state wrongful death law. Our attorneys understand both state and federal wrongful death claims, ensuring your family pursues every available legal remedy.
Premises Liability Deaths
Property owners must maintain safe conditions for visitors. Fatal slip and falls, inadequate security leading to violent crimes, swimming pool drownings, fires caused by code violations, carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty equipment, and other preventable deaths on residential or commercial property create wrongful death liability.
We prove premises liability wrongful death claims by demonstrating property owners knew or should have known about dangerous conditions and failed to fix them or warn visitors. Evidence includes maintenance records, prior incident reports, safety inspection violations, surveillance footage, and expert testimony about property safety standards.
Apartment complexes, shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, construction sites, and private residences throughout New Orleans must provide reasonable safety. When property owner negligence causes fatal accidents, Louisiana law holds them accountable to surviving family members.
Defective Products and Consumer Deaths
Dangerous products kill consumers who trusted manufacturers to provide safe goods. Defective medical devices, dangerous pharmaceuticals, automotive defects causing fatal crashes, defective safety equipment, and other product failures warrant wrongful death claims against manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
Louisiana’s strict product liability law allows wrongful death recovery without proving manufacturer negligence—only that the product was defective and that defect caused death. We investigate product design, manufacturing processes, and warning inadequacies that made products unreasonably dangerous.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) track dangerous products and recalls, though many fatal defects aren’t discovered until after multiple deaths occur. Our attorneys hold product manufacturers accountable when their defective goods kill Louisiana consumers.
Criminal Acts and Inadequate Security
Property owners who fail to provide reasonable security may face wrongful death liability when violent crimes kill visitors. Inadequate lighting, broken locks, lack of security personnel, and failure to address known crime risks create liability when foreseeable criminal acts cause death.
These cases require proving the property owner knew about crime risks and failed to implement reasonable security measures. We gather police reports showing prior incidents, crime statistics for the area, security industry standards, and expert testimony about adequate security measures that would have prevented the fatal attack.
Bars, nightclubs, apartment complexes, parking garages, hotels, and businesses throughout New Orleans owe patrons reasonable protection from foreseeable violent crimes. When they prioritize cost savings over security, they must answer to families who lost loved ones in preventable attacks.
Surviving Spouse and Children
Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315.2 grants surviving spouses and children the first right to file wrongful death claims. These primary beneficiaries recover damages for their own losses—the spouse compensates for lost marital companionship and support while children recover for losing parental guidance, care, and financial support.
If your loved one was married with children, the surviving spouse and children share wrongful death recovery. Louisiana law doesn’t require dividing damages equally—juries consider each family member’s relationship with the deceased and their individual losses when awarding compensation.
Surviving spouses and children must file wrongful death lawsuits within one year from the death date. This strict deadline means immediate legal consultation is essential to protect your family’s rights.
Parents of Deceased Children
When a minor child or adult child without a spouse or children dies, the deceased’s parents can file wrongful death claims. Parents suffer profound grief losing a child regardless of the child’s age, and Louisiana law recognizes their right to compensation for this devastating loss.
Parental wrongful death claims recover for lost companionship, the emotional trauma of outliving your child, and sometimes future support parents would have received. While no compensation replaces a lost child, recovery helps families cope with unexpected funeral expenses and the financial impacts of their grief.
Siblings in Limited Circumstances
Louisiana law allows surviving siblings to file wrongful death claims only when the deceased left no surviving spouse, children, or parents. These cases are relatively rare but provide siblings compensation for their loss when they’re the deceased’s closest surviving relatives.
Sibling wrongful death claims follow the same one-year deadline as other family members. If you lost a sibling and believe you may have wrongful death rights, consult our attorneys immediately to determine your eligibility and protect any potential claims.
Unmarried Partners and Other Family Members
Louisiana wrongful death law doesn’t provide recovery rights to unmarried partners, fiancés, stepchildren without formal adoption, or extended family members beyond those specified in the statute. This limitation sometimes seems harsh when close relationships existed, but Louisiana’s wrongful death statute specifies exactly who can recover.
Some unmarried partners may have alternative legal claims including loss of consortium, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or bystander claims if they witnessed the death. While these don’t replace wrongful death recovery, our attorneys explore every possible legal remedy for families suffering devastating losses.
Survival Action vs. Wrongful Death Action
Louisiana law distinguishes between survival actions and wrongful death actions—both can be filed together but compensate different damages. Survival actions recover damages the deceased person could have claimed if they survived, including medical expenses before death, pre-death pain and suffering, and lost wages from injury to death.
Wrongful death actions compensate surviving family members for their own losses—lost financial support, funeral expenses, loss of love and companionship, and mental anguish from losing their loved one. Most cases involve filing both actions together to recover full compensation for all economic and non-economic damages.
Understanding these distinctions ensures your family pursues every available damage category. Our attorneys handle both survival and wrongful death claims simultaneously, maximizing your total recovery.
Economic Damages
Economic damages in wrongful death cases compensate measurable financial losses. Funeral and burial expenses, medical bills from your loved one’s final illness or injury, lost financial support the deceased would have provided to family members, lost benefits including health insurance and retirement contributions, and the value of services the deceased performed for the family all qualify as economic damages.
Calculating lost financial support requires analyzing the deceased’s earnings, career trajectory, work life expectancy, and family financial contributions. Economic experts testify about present value calculations that convert future lost earnings into current compensation amounts.
These calculations consider Louisiana’s minimum wage laws, average earnings for the deceased’s occupation, and projected income growth. Our attorneys work with economists who provide detailed financial analysis maximizing economic damage awards.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages address the intangible, immeasurable aspects of losing a loved one. Loss of love, companionship, comfort, and society, mental anguish and emotional suffering from the death, loss of guidance and counsel for surviving children, loss of consortium for surviving spouses, and grief from losing someone who made your life meaningful all warrant non-economic compensation.
Louisiana doesn’t cap non-economic damages in wrongful death cases except medical malpractice claims. This allows juries to award compensation reflecting the true value of your loss. These damages often substantially exceed economic losses, particularly when young parents or spouses die leaving decades of lost companionship.
Our trial attorneys effectively communicate your family’s suffering to judges and juries, ensuring non-economic damage awards reflect the profound impact of your loss.
Punitive Damages
Louisiana generally doesn’t allow punitive damages in wrongful death cases except when specific statutes authorize them, such as deaths caused by drunk drivers. When available, punitive damages punish particularly egregious conduct and deter future wrongdoing.
Even without punitive damages, Louisiana juries award substantial wrongful death compensation when evidence demonstrates defendant negligence caused preventable deaths. Our aggressive litigation approach holds negligent parties fully accountable for the devastating harm they caused your family.
Immediate Steps After a Wrongful Death
The days following a wrongful death are emotionally overwhelming. While grieving, families must handle funeral arrangements, notify employers and creditors, manage the deceased’s affairs, and consider legal rights. Our attorneys handle legal complexities while you focus on your family and emotional healing.
Preserve all evidence related to the death including medical records, accident reports, photographs, witness contact information, and correspondence with insurance companies or responsible parties. Don’t give recorded statements to insurance adjusters or sign any documents before consulting our legal team—these actions could jeopardize your family’s compensation rights.
Contact Smiley Injury Law as soon as possible after a wrongful death. Early legal representation ensures crucial evidence is preserved, witnesses are interviewed while memories remain fresh, and your claim is filed before Louisiana’s strict one-year deadline expires.
Investigation and Evidence Gathering
Wrongful death investigations involve obtaining death certificates, medical records, autopsy reports, toxicology results, accident reports, employment records, financial documentation, and witness statements. We subpoena documents from hospitals, employers, insurance companies, and government agencies to build comprehensive evidence of negligence and damages.
Expert witnesses play crucial roles in wrongful death cases. Accident reconstruction specialists, medical experts, economic analysts, and industry safety professionals provide testimony proving negligence, establishing causation, and quantifying your family’s losses.
Our investigation timelines vary based on case complexity. Simple fatal accident cases with clear liability may take several months, while complex medical malpractice or product liability wrongful deaths require extensive investigation lasting a year or more.
Filing the Wrongful Death Lawsuit
After thorough investigation, we file wrongful death lawsuits in Louisiana state or federal court, depending on jurisdiction and case specifics. The lawsuit complaint details how defendant negligence caused your loved one’s death and specifies damages your family suffered.
Louisiana’s one-year wrongful death statute of limitations is strictly enforced. Filing even one day late typically means losing all rights to compensation. We ensure lawsuits are filed timely with comprehensive allegations supporting maximum damage recovery.
Some defendants immediately engage in settlement discussions after receiving lawsuit complaints, while others aggressively defend through discovery and trial. Our preparation for either scenario ensures we’re ready to negotiate fair settlements or try cases before juries when necessary.
Discovery and Depositions
Discovery allows both sides to gather evidence through document requests, interrogatories (written questions), and depositions (recorded testimony under oath). We depose defendants, witnesses, and experts while defending your deposition if required.
This process reveals defendant explanations and defense strategies. We use discovery to obtain internal communications, safety records, training materials, and prior complaint histories demonstrating negligence patterns. Strong discovery evidence frequently motivates settlement discussions.
Discovery can be emotionally difficult for grieving families, particularly when defense attorneys question your relationship with the deceased or suggest contributing fault. Our attorneys prepare you thoroughly and protect you from inappropriate questioning during depositions.
Settlement Negotiations
Most wrongful death cases settle before trial. After completing discovery, we negotiate with defendants and their insurance companies, presenting evidence of liability and substantial damages your family suffered. Our aggressive negotiation approach seeks maximum compensation without prolonged litigation when defendants make fair offers.
We never pressure families to accept inadequate settlements. Every settlement offer receives our honest assessment about adequacy compared to potential trial outcomes. The final decision about accepting settlements or proceeding to trial always remains yours.
Some defendants refuse fair settlements, gambling that juries won’t award substantial damages or hoping families won’t pursue expensive trials. When this occurs, we’re fully prepared to take wrongful death cases to verdict.
Trial
Wrongful death trials are emotionally challenging but sometimes necessary for justice. Our trial attorneys have extensive courtroom experience presenting wrongful death cases to Louisiana juries. We use compelling evidence, expert testimony, and emotional appeals that help jurors understand your family’s devastating loss.
Louisiana juries consistently award substantial verdicts in wrongful death cases when evidence clearly demonstrates defendant negligence caused preventable deaths. Our trial preparation ensures we’re ready to fight for maximum compensation when trial becomes necessary.
Trials typically last several days to several weeks depending on case complexity. Throughout the process, we keep you informed, prepare you for testimony if needed, and ensure you understand trial proceedings as they unfold.
Compassionate Representation During Difficult Times
Losing a loved one creates emotional devastation that affects every aspect of your life. Our attorneys understand the grief you’re experiencing and provide compassionate legal representation that respects your emotional state while aggressively pursuing justice.
We handle all legal aspects of wrongful death claims, allowing you to focus on healing and supporting your family. You’ll have direct access to your attorney for questions and concerns throughout the process. We communicate regularly about case developments without overwhelming you during this difficult time.
Extensive Wrongful Death Experience
Wrongful death cases involve complex legal issues including Louisiana’s unique survival and wrongful death statutes, damage calculation methods, expert witness coordination, and sensitive family dynamics. Our attorneys have handled numerous wrongful death claims across all case types throughout New Orleans and Louisiana.
This experience allows us to efficiently investigate cases, identify all liable parties, calculate maximum damages your family deserves, anticipate defense strategies, and build compelling cases that achieve substantial compensation through settlement or trial.
Resources to Build Strong Cases
Winning wrongful death cases against well-funded corporate defendants requires substantial resources. We advance all case expenses including expert witness fees, investigation costs, medical record expenses, deposition costs, and trial preparation—you never pay anything out of pocket.
Our established relationships with medical experts, accident reconstruction specialists, economic analysts, and other professionals ensure we can prove every aspect of your wrongful death claim. These resources level the playing field against insurance company defense teams.
Proven Track Record
Our wrongful death attorneys have secured substantial settlements and verdicts for Louisiana families who lost loved ones to negligence. While past results don’t guarantee future outcomes, our track record demonstrates our capability to hold negligent parties accountable and win the compensation grieving families deserve.
Insurance companies and corporate defendants know our reputation for thorough preparation and courtroom success. This reputation often motivates better settlement offers than attorneys without proven trial capabilities might achieve.
No Fees Unless We Win
Smiley Injury Law handles wrongful death cases on contingency—you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for your family. Our fee comes from the settlement or verdict, never from your pocket beforehand.
This arrangement allows families access to experienced legal representation during financial hardship caused by losing a loved one’s income. You can pursue justice against negligent parties without any financial risk or upfront costs.
RECENTLY ASKED TOPICS
A recall after your injury strengthens your case by demonstrating the manufacturer acknowledged the defect, making liability easier to prove. Recalls often follow multiple injury reports and provide evidence the manufacturer knew or should have known about the danger. You can check for recalls through the CPSC recall database, FDA recall listings, or NHTSA vehicle recalls. However, you can still win product liability cases even without recalls, and recalls don’t automatically guarantee compensation—you must still prove the defect caused your specific injuries and damages.
No, Louisiana’s strict product liability law allows recovery without proving negligence—you only need to show the product was defective and caused your injuries. This means manufacturers can be liable even if they exercised reasonable care in designing and making the product. You must prove the product was unreasonably dangerous in construction, design, or warning, but you don’t need to establish that the manufacturer breached a duty of care like in traditional negligence claims.
Yes—while workers’ compensation provides death benefits, families can also file wrongful death lawsuits against third parties whose negligence caused workplace deaths, allowing significantly greater recovery than workers’ compensation alone. Workers’ compensation covers limited damages without including pain and suffering or full lost wages. Third-party claims against equipment manufacturers, property owners, subcontractors, or other negligent parties provide additional compensation. Maritime and offshore workers have special federal wrongful death rights under the Jones Act and general maritime law with different procedures and damages than state claims.
Yes—wrongful death cases involve complex legal procedures, strict deadlines, aggressive insurance companies, and substantial damages requiring experienced legal representation to maximize your family’s compensation. Insurance companies employ teams of attorneys and adjusters working to minimize payouts. Families without attorneys typically recover far less than those with experienced wrongful death representation, even after paying attorney fees. Louisiana’s unique survival and wrongful death statutes, damage calculation methods, and procedural requirements make professional legal help essential. We handle all legal complexities while you focus on grieving and healing.
Wrongful death case values vary dramatically from tens of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the deceased’s age, income, life expectancy, number of dependents, circumstances of death, and strength of negligence evidence. Young parents with high earning potential and dependent children typically warrant the highest compensation. Cases involving elderly retirees with no dependents generally result in lower awards. Non-economic damages for grief and loss of companionship also significantly impact case value. Each case requires individual evaluation based on specific circumstances and Louisiana wrongful death law.
Yes—wrongful death civil lawsuits are completely separate from criminal prosecutions, use different legal standards, and allow families to pursue compensation regardless of criminal case outcomes. Criminal cases require proof beyond reasonable doubt and result in punishment, while civil wrongful death cases require proof by preponderance of evidence (more likely than not) and result in monetary compensation. You can file wrongful death claims even if prosecutors declined criminal charges or defendants were acquitted at criminal trial. Civil and criminal cases proceed independently on different timelines.
Louisiana wrongful death damages include funeral and burial expenses, medical bills before death, lost financial support the deceased would have provided, loss of love and companionship, mental anguish from the loss, and loss of guidance for surviving children. Economic damages compensate measurable financial losses with specific dollar amounts. Non-economic damages address intangible harms like grief, loss of companionship, and emotional suffering—juries determine appropriate compensation based on your relationship with the deceased and the impact on your life. Louisiana doesn’t cap most wrongful death damages, allowing full compensation for your family’s losses.
Louisiana’s wrongful death statute of limitations requires filing lawsuits within two years from the date of death, with very limited exceptions—missing this strict deadline typically means losing all rights to compensation. This one-year period applies regardless of when you discovered the negligence caused death or how long it took to investigate the claim. Some exceptional circumstances may extend this deadline, such as when defendants fraudulently concealed their negligence, but relying on exceptions is risky. Contact an attorney immediately after a wrongful death to protect your family’s legal rights and preserve evidence.
Louisiana law grants surviving spouses and children the primary right to file wrongful death lawsuits, followed by parents if no spouse or children survive, and siblings only when no spouse, children, or parents survive. These designated family members must file within one year from the death date. Louisiana’s wrongful death statute specifically defines who has standing to sue—unmarried partners, stepchildren without formal adoption, and extended family generally cannot file wrongful death claims. Consult an attorney immediately to determine your eligibility and protect your rights under Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315.2.
Seth Smiley – New Orleans Wrongful Death Lawyer
Taking legal action for your loved one’s death can be difficult when you’re simultaneously trying to grieve. Our team at Smiley Injury Law, LLC is here to guide you through the legal process and obtain a settlement on your behalf.
If you’re ready to speak with a New Orleans wrongful death lawyer about your case, fill out the contact form or call 504-894-9653 to schedule a free consultation.
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New Orleans LA, 70170
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