What Damages Can My Family Recover in a Nebraska Wrongful Death Claim?
Losing a family member because of someone else’s negligence can create both emotional and financial consequences. Medical bills may remain unpaid, funeral expenses arrive quickly, and a household may suddenly lose income, services, and support it depended on.
Nebraska law allows certain damages to be recovered through a wrongful death claim. However, these cases do not compensate families for every consequence of a death, and Nebraska’s rules concerning damages differ from those in many other states.
Understanding what compensation may be available is an important first step for families considering a wrongful death claim.
How Does a Nebraska Wrongful Death Claim Work?
Nebraska’s wrongful death law applies when a person’s death is caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or default under circumstances that would have allowed the deceased person to pursue a claim if they had survived.
The wrongful death action is generally brought by the deceased person’s personal representative for the benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin.
This distinction matters. Individual relatives do not necessarily each file separate wrongful death lawsuits. Instead, the personal representative brings the statutory claim for the people entitled to benefit from it.
Potential cases can arise from car and truck crashes, dangerous property conditions, defective products, and other incidents involving actionable negligence or wrongdoing.
What Damages Can Be Recovered?
The purpose of wrongful death damages is to compensate surviving family members for losses recognized under Nebraska law.
Depending on the circumstances, recoverable damages may include losses involving:
- Financial support
- Services
- Loss of society and companionship
- Medical and related expenses
- Funeral and burial expenses
The damages available in any particular case depend on the deceased person’s circumstances and the losses suffered by the statutory beneficiaries.
Can a Family Recover for Grief and Emotional Distress?
This is an important limitation in Nebraska wrongful death cases.
Nebraska courts distinguish the loss of a loved one’s society, comfort, and companionship from damages based purely on the survivors’ grief, sorrow, or mental suffering.
In other words, wrongful death compensation is not calculated by attempting to place a dollar value on how devastated a family feels.
That does not mean the relationship between the deceased and surviving relatives is irrelevant. Quite the opposite. Evidence concerning the relationship can be important when establishing the loss of companionship and society.
The legal focus, however, is on the loss of what the deceased person provided through that relationship rather than compensation simply for the emotional pain of mourning.
What If the Deceased Person Was Partly Responsible for the Accident?
Nebraska follows a modified comparative negligence system.
If the deceased person’s own negligence contributed to the incident, that can affect the family’s recovery. Generally, damages can be reduced according to the percentage of negligence attributed to the deceased person.
If the deceased person’s negligence reaches the level that bars recovery under Nebraska’s comparative-negligence rules, the wrongful death claim may be unsuccessful.
This makes evidence concerning how the underlying accident occurred extremely important. In a fatal truck or automobile crash, for example, photographs, witness accounts, vehicle data, police records, and other evidence may help determine responsibility.
How Long Does a Family Have to File a Nebraska Wrongful Death Claim?
Nebraska’s wrongful death statute generally requires the action to be filed within two years after the person’s death.
Families should not treat two years as a reason to wait.
Evidence can disappear much sooner. Surveillance footage may be overwritten, vehicles can be repaired or destroyed, witnesses can become difficult to locate, and important records may be lost.
Why Legal Guidance Matters
Wrongful death cases involve more than proving that another party caused a fatal accident. The family must also identify the proper claimant and establish the full extent of legally recoverable losses.
Shasteen, Morris & Ockander can help Nebraska families investigate the circumstances of a fatal accident, identify potentially responsible parties, document recoverable losses, and understand how Nebraska’s wrongful death laws apply to their situation.
