Jury Selection in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit Began in Hartford

Although nothing can replace a loved one who is taken away suddenly or violently due to the negligence of another person, a wrongful death lawsuit award can help to offset the financial loss experienced by remaining family members. When an individual is killed in a crash, surviving family members can choose to sue the responsible party for damages, even if legal charges were never filed against them.

Jury selection in a wrongful death lawsuit began in Hartford recently. The case involves a 2009 wrong-way crash that killed a 20-year-old pre-medical student, who was on her way to the airport to fly on a humanitarian mission to Africa.

The defendants in the suit are the owners and the backers of a nightclub where a Navy sailor had been drinking prior to driving his car the wrong way out of a parking garage and onto Interstate 395 in the wrong direction. He subsequently collided with a van that was en route to Boston’s Logan International Airport. The suit alleges negligence on behalf of the nightclub and its employees in serving alcohol to the sailor when he was already intoxicated. The sailor is serving a prison term of 75 months after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter and other charges.

Although the damages sought in this particular wrongful death suit are not yet known, it is possible that surviving family members may ask for compensation for loss of companionship, mental anguish and more. Close survivors are within their rights to seek out monetary awards in tragic cases such as this.

Source: Theday.com, “Jury selection starts in civil lawsuit over wrong-way crash that killed Conn College student,” Karen Florin, Jan. 15, 2013