Personal Injury Law

Value of Wrongful Death Cases in Maryland Where Victims Is 65 or Older

Lawyers handling wrongful death cases encounter an awful argument from defense lawyers in cases where the victim is 65 years-old and older: you have to discount the value of your claim because the victim was old, anyway. The argument is so callous no lawyer would directly make this argument to a jury, especially in a jurisdiction like Maryland where there is a meaningful cap on wrongful death and survival action damages.

The ?victim was old anyway? argument is offensive and cold?but not, relatively speaking, entirely untrue. And once you get past how awful it sounds, the differences do make sense. The money damages awarded in a wrongful death claim with a victim having 70 more years of expected life should be higher than with a victim having 20 more years of expected life because the victim?s family will be without them longer and the victim missed out on a lot more life.

The reason why the argument is so offensive is not the underlying premise ? older victims get less ? but the ?How big was the loss, really?? way in which it is pitched. The reality is that juries still place values on these losses. According to Metro Verdicts Monthly, juries have over the last 22 years awarded an average verdict in Maryland wrongful death cases of $1,337,824 involving victims 65 and older. Washington, D.C.?s average is slightly higher, $1,443,818. Incredibly, and this really underscores jurisdictional differences, Virginia?s average verdict in wrongful death cases involving victims 65 and over is an abysmal $685,535, less than half that of the District of Columbia.

Full post as published by Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on April 13, 2009 (boomark / email).