Being a party to a wrongful death lawsuit can be an emotional life event, especially when it is your relative or loved one who was killed in a car, truck or motorcycle accident on a Maryland roadway. With emotions running high, there are more than a few good reasons to lean heavily on the skills and experience of a qualified personal injury attorney. As a legal advocate for the bereaved family members, an injury attorney can address the situation from a legal point of view with a professional detachment that is needed to maintain perspective and do what is required for his or her clients.
For experienced Maryland auto injury attorneys, compassion for their clients’ circumstances is paramount, as is acting in the victim’s and family’s best interests. As mentioned previously, a wrongful death suit is something that requires discipline to help the victim and his or her family to legally recover the losses that resulted from a negligent act on the part of another party or parties.
Here in the Baltimore area, as well as Columbia, Glen Burnie and Washington, D.C., our goal is to help the plaintiff become whole. And while there are no guarantees, just as in life, we aim to provide as much assistance as possible to victims of traffic accidents, commercial trucking crashes and pedestrian mishaps. What may be the hardest of all is to look into the eyes of our clients and feel, first-hand, their pain and deep sorrow at the loss of a loved one.
Fatal car wrecks could be one of the worst types of wrongful death cases. While serious injury cases, including long-term disability caused by closed-head trauma or spinal cord damage, may be difficult for all involved, but even in such cases the victim is still alive. Fatal car collisions take the life of a loved one forever, which leaves the family to imagine what might have been had the incident never occurred. It’s a hard time for everyone, especially since most traffic wrecks likely could have been avoided if not for the negligence of possibly one individual.
Take, for instance, the sad case of an Anne Arundel County teen who pled guilty a while back to the deaths of several friends in a fatal Ellicott City traffic accident about one year ago. According to news reports, 19-year-old Dale Audet was driving with several friends back in November 2011 when he lost control of his vehicle, which was reportedly traveling close to 70mph in a 20mph speed zone along a stretch of Lawyer’s Hill Rd. The car went off the roadway and crashed into a nearby tree, killing two of his passengers, 18-year-old Jonathon Deckman and 19-year-old Jeffery Giles.
Based on court records, as a result of Audet’s plea arrangement the teenager pled guilty to two counts of criminally negligent manslaughter, in return for which the State of Maryland was expected to request a six-year jail term with all but 18 months suspended; plus, six months of home detention following the defendant’s release and then a five-year supervised probationary period.
Based on news articles, the prosecuting attorneys for the state dropped several more serious charges in exchange for the man’s guilty plea. Audet’s sentencing date is scheduled for mid-December, when a Howard County circuit court judge will decide on the young man’s fate.
Teen pleads guilty to killing friends, CapitalGazette.com, September 26, 2012
Teen pleads guilty in death of friends, ABC2News.com, September 24, 2012http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/crime_checker/howard_county_crime/teen-pleads-guilty-in-death-of-friends