Stamford Wrongful Death Lawyer: Getting Justice When Your Family Needs It Most

When Maria Santos lost her husband in a construction accident on Broad Street, she didn’t know where to turn. The bills kept coming, her kids asked when Daddy was coming home, and the company that employed him stopped returning her calls. Three months later, she walked into our Stamford office barely holding it together. Today, her family has the financial security they deserves, and the construction company has changed its safety policies to prevent another tragedy.

Losing someone because of another person’s negligence breaks families apart. You’re dealing with grief while trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage. The insurance companies send forms written in legal language you can’t understand. Meanwhile, evidence disappears and witnesses forget details. Every day that passes makes your case harder to prove.

We handle wrongful death cases in Stamford, and we know the hospitals, the courts, and the tactics insurance companies use to deny claims. Our office is two blocks from the Stamford courthouse, where we’ve fought these cases for over 20 years. We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t when families need compensation for a death that should never have happened.

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Wrongful Death Attorney in Stamford

A wrongful death claim in Connecticut gives families the right to sue when someone dies because of negligence, recklessness, or intentional harm. You can file this lawsuit even if criminal charges were never filed. The person or company responsible doesn’t need to go to jail for you to recover damages.

Connecticut law says only the executor of the deceased person’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit. If there’s no will, the probate court appoints an estate representative. This person files on behalf of the surviving family members who actually receive the compensation.

The damages you can recover include medical bills from treatment before death, funeral and burial costs, lost wages your family member would have earned, loss of benefits like health insurance or pension, and compensation for the loss of companionship and guidance. If the death involved extreme recklessness, punitive damages may apply to punish the wrongdoer.

You have two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Connecticut. Miss this deadline, and you lose your right to compensation forever. Insurance companies know this and often delay settlement talks, hoping you’ll run out of time.

Car Accident Wrongful Death Claims

How Our Wrongful Death Attorneys in Stamford Can Help FamiliesVehicle crashes kill more people in Stamford than any other type of accident. Drunk drivers hit pedestrians on Summer Street. Distracted drivers run red lights at the I-95 exits. Speeding causes fatal crashes on the Merritt Parkway during rush hour.

After a fatal car accident, the police investigate and write a report. This report matters for your case, but it’s not the whole story. We hire accident reconstruction experts who visit the crash scene, review skid marks, analyze vehicle damage, and determine exactly what happened. Sometimes the police report gets it wrong.

Connecticut follows a modified comparative negligence rule. If your family member was partially at fault for the accident, you can still recover damages as long as they were less than 51% responsible.

The compensation gets reduced by their percentage of fault. Insurance companies jump on this and try to blame the victim to reduce what they have to pay.

We investigate every detail. We pull phone records to prove the other driver was texting. We check bar tabs to show they were drunk. We examine maintenance records to prove their brakes were faulty. The insurance company has lawyers working to deny your claim from day one. You need someone fighting just as hard for your family.

Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death

Stamford Hospital and the other medical facilities in our area provide excellent care most of the time. But doctors are human. They make mistakes. When those mistakes kill someone, families deserve answers and accountability.

Medical malpractice wrongful death cases happen when a healthcare provider’s negligence causes a patient’s death. This includes surgical errors, medication mistakes, misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, birth injuries, anesthesia errors, and failure to treat a serious condition.

These cases are complicated. Connecticut requires you to obtain a written opinion from a similar medical specialist who confirms the doctor’s care fell below accepted standards. You can’t just sue because the outcome was bad. You have to prove the doctor did something wrong that directly caused the death.

We work with top medical experts across the country who review the records and testify about what the doctor should have done differently. The hospital’s lawyers will bring their own experts who say everything was fine. The jury has to decide who to believe based on the evidence and testimony.

Medical malpractice cases take longer and cost more to pursue than other wrongful death claims. The hospitals have massive legal teams and fight these cases aggressively. But when a doctor’s negligence kills your mother, father, spouse, or child, you can’t let them get away with it.

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Workplace Accident Wrongful Death

Construction sites in downtown Stamford have safety rules for a reason. When companies ignore those rules to save time or money, workers die. Last year, a laborer fell from scaffolding at a Broad Street development project because the contractor didn’t install proper fall protection. His widow and three kids now have compensation, and that contractor faces fines and criminal charges.

Workers’ compensation usually prevents employees from suing their employer for workplace injuries or death. But wrongful death claims allow families to sue third parties whose negligence contributed to the death. This includes property owners, general contractors, equipment manufacturers, and subcontractors.

Connecticut construction sites must follow OSHA safety regulations. When companies violate these rules and someone dies, we use those violations as evidence of negligence. We also investigate whether the company provided proper training, maintained equipment correctly, and enforced safety protocols.

Many workplace deaths involve defective equipment or machinery. If a faulty tool or machine killed your family member, you can sue the manufacturer for product liability. These cases often settle for significant amounts because companies don’t want juries hearing how they sold dangerous equipment.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Deaths

Compensation in a Connecticut Wrongful Death ClaimYour parents worked their whole lives. They deserve dignity and proper care in their final years. When nursing homes in Stamford neglect residents or allow abuse, and that neglect causes death, we hold them responsible.

Nursing home wrongful death cases involve severe bedsores that become infected, malnutrition and dehydration, medication errors, falls due to lack of supervision, physical abuse by staff, and failure to provide necessary medical care. These deaths are preventable when facilities follow basic care standards.

Connecticut requires nursing homes to maintain detailed records of resident care. We subpoena those records and often find that they falsified documents to hide neglect. Staffing logs show they didn’t have enough nurses on duty. Medical records reveal they ignored obvious symptoms of serious illness.

Many families feel guilty about considering a lawsuit against the nursing home where their parent lived. Remember this: holding bad facilities accountable protects other residents. When nursing homes face lawsuits for wrongful death, they change their policies and improve care. Your case might save someone else’s parent.

Premises Liability Wrongful Death

Property owners have a legal duty to keep their premises safe for visitors. When they fail and someone dies because of a dangerous condition, families can file wrongful death claims for premises liability.

These cases include fatal slip and fall accidents, inadequate security leading to violent crime, swimming pool drownings, fires caused by code violations, carbon monoxide poisoning, and deaths from falling objects or structural collapses. The property owner knew or should have known about the danger and failed to fix it or warn visitors.

Stamford has old buildings with old infrastructure. Landlords who skip maintenance to maximize profit create deadly hazards. We’ve handled cases involving collapsed ceilings, faulty wiring that caused fires, broken stairways, and heating systems that leaked carbon monoxide.

The key question is whether the property owner had reasonable knowledge of the danger. A sudden pipe burst that floods a store isn’t the owner’s fault. But if that pipe was leaking for months and the owner ignored tenant complaints, they’re liable when someone slips on the water and hits their head.

Product Liability Wrongful Death

Defective products kill people. Airbags that don’t deploy. Medications with undisclosed side effects. Children’s toys that pose choking hazards. Power tools are missing safety guards. When a dangerous product causes a death, the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer can all be held liable.

Product liability wrongful death cases fall into three categories. Design defects mean the product was inherently dangerous from the start. Manufacturing defects happen when something goes wrong during production. Marketing defects involve inadequate warnings or instructions about known dangers.

You don’t have to prove the company was negligent in a product liability case. Connecticut follows strict liability rules for defective products. If the product was defective and that defect caused the death, the company is liable regardless of how careful they were during design or manufacturing.

These cases often become class actions when a product kills multiple people. The company recalls the product, but that doesn’t help families who have already lost someone. We fight to get full compensation, not the minimal settlement offered in class action notices that arrive in the mail.

How Much Is a Wrongful Death Case Worth?

Every family asks this question. Nobody wants to put a price on their loved one’s life, but you need money to survive. The value depends on several factors, including the deceased person’s age and earning capacity, the financial dependency of survivors, the circumstances of the death, the amount of pain and suffering before death, and the level of negligence or recklessness involved.

Connecticut juries awarded wrongful death verdicts ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. A young parent with decades of future earnings generates higher compensation than a retiree. A death involving extreme recklessness brings punitive damages on top of regular compensation.

Insurance companies make lowball offers, hoping desperate families will accept fast money. They count on you not knowing what your case is really worth. We evaluate the full value of your claim and won’t settle for less than what your family deserves.

Most wrongful death lawyers work on contingency, meaning we only get paid if we win your case. Our fee comes from the settlement or verdict, so you don’t pay anything up front. This levels the playing field against corporations with unlimited legal budgets.

Why Choose Our Stamford Wrongful Death Law Firm

We’ve practiced law in Stamford for over 20 years. We know the judges, the court staff, and the insurance defense lawyers you’ll face. We’ve handled wrongful death cases involving car accidents, medical malpractice, workplace deaths, and nursing home negligence throughout Fairfield County.

Other lawyers talk big but settle cases cheaply to churn through more clients. We take fewer cases and fight harder for each one. We prepare every case for trial, even when we expect to settle. Insurance companies know we’ll go to court, and they negotiate accordingly.

You’re grieving and overwhelmed. We handle the legal fight while you focus on your family. We deal with the insurance companies, gather evidence, hire experts, and build the strongest case possible. You’ll know what’s happening at every stage, and you’ll make all the important decisions.

Time matters in wrongful death cases. Evidence disappears, witnesses move away, and memories fade. Call us today for a free consultation. We’ll review your case, explain your options, and answer your questions. You’ve already lost someone you love. Don’t lose your chance at justice, too.

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