Wrongful Death and Catastrophic Injuries

Wrongful death cases and personal injury cases involving catastrophic injuries can have high financial stakes — permanent loss of income or reduced earning capacity, enormous medical bills and, possibly, the need for ongoing and expensive medical accommodation and treatment. If you or a loved one requires a lawyer in a wrongful death or serious personal injury claim, be sure your attorney has: 

• The experience needed to determine an accurate value of your claim 
• The litigation experience needed to obtain your highest-possible financial recovery 
• Access to a network of professionals, including investigators, medical experts, forensic engineers, accident reconstruction analysts, economists and human factors experts 
• A long track record of successfully obtaining large-value awards for clients injured or killed in serious accidents 

Our attorneys have obtained the following outcomes regarding wrongful death cases:  

Medical malpractice, wrongful death and the failure to diagnose cervical cancer: $1,775,000 settlement for the husband and three children of a 46-year-old woman who died as a result of her gynecologist’s failure to timely diagnose and treat cervical cancer. Smiley & Smiley was able to settle this case in less than one year after commencing the lawsuit. 

Medical malpractice, wrongful death and the failure to notify patient of biopsy results showing aggressive prostate cancer: $3,750,000 for the wife and six children of a 66-year-old man who passed away from prostate cancer. Although he underwent a prostate biopsy, the urologist failed to notify our client of the results which showed aggressive prostate cancer requiring immediate treatment. Our client did not learn that he had prostate cancer until two years after the biopsy. Unfortunately, as a result of the delay, our client was deprived of life-saving treatment. Smiley & Smiley was able to obtain this significant settlement for the client and his family just a few days before he passed away providing him with the knowledge that his family would be financially secure. 

Recent wrongful death cases we have handled have resulted in settlements and jury awards of $5.05 million, $1.6 million, $1.56 million, $1.5 million, $1.3 million and $1 million. At Smiley & Smiley, we are proud not only of our results, but of the individualized attention we are able to give to each and every client as well.