Nothing can prepare a family for the sudden loss of a loved one, and filing a claim against a negligent party only adds to the strain. Few families have the resources to afford unexpected funeral expenses and end-of-life costs, such as medical bills.
Insurers are not focused on what you’ve lost; they instead look for ways to protect their bottom line. In North Carolina, the state’s “contributory negligence” law allows insurers to refuse any compensation if they can prove your late loved one contributed even 1% of the fault for their fatal accident.
They will try to assign blame to your loved one, claiming their actions contributed to the accident, or offer low settlements that don’t account for the true financial and emotional impact of your loss. At Auger & Auger Accident and Injury Lawyers, our wrongful death lawyers in Monroe know how to counter insurance company tactics and establish liability to protect your family’s case.
We investigate accidents, preserve critical evidence, and work with specialists such as accident reconstructionists to demonstrate another party’s negligence. With our A&A Zero Fee Guarantee™, our Monroe personal injury lawyers handle the entire claims process without charging anything up front.
Why Choose Our Monroe Attorneys to Handle Your Wrongful Death Case?
Insurance companies often attempt to avoid liability in wrongful death cases by shifting blame onto the victim, using narrowly constructed narratives to reduce or deny compensation. For example, in a fatal head-on collision, the insurance adjuster might argue that your loved one drifted out of their lane.
Under North Carolina’s contributory negligence laws, such strategies jeopardize your family’s claim. With decades of experience countering these tactics, our wrongful death attorneys protect families from losing the compensation they have a right to recover under the law.
Since 1995, we’ve won over $100 million for our clients and maintained a 99.5% success rate. Our Monroe fatal accident lawyers protect your family’s wrongful death claim by:
- Neutralizing insurer narratives with evidence: We address misrepresentations about negligence and liability when insurers attempt to shift blame for a fatal accident. For example, in a fatal rear-end collision, an insurer might blame your loved one for “sudden braking.” Our team would respond by reviewing black box data, skid marks, and video footage to prove that the other driver’s distracted or reckless behavior caused the crash.
- Independently investigate your loved one’s accident: We immediately begin investigating to get ahead of an insurer’s narrative. In cases involving speeding or lane merging disputes, we may work with accident reconstruction specialists so that insurance companies can’t rely on incomplete or biased evidence.
- Pursuing fair compensation: Insurers will try to downplay the emotional and financial losses your family faces. For instance, if a loved one dies in a hit-and-run crash, insurers will try to dispute ongoing losses, such as future financial contributions. We calculate the full extent of the loss to protect your claim.
Wrongful death cases are no exception to the bad-faith tactics insurers in North Carolina use. Our family-owned law firm handles every part of the claim, from gathering evidence to pushing back against lowball offers, so your family doesn’t have to face these tactics alone during such a difficult time.
How Insurance Companies Determine Fault to Deny Wrongful Death Claims
Insurance companies facing wrongful death claims take advantage of the fact that your loved one is not here to share their side of the story. In the absence of your loved one’s account, insurers often build a one-sided narrative that shifts blame onto them in an effort to deny your family compensation.
Insurance adjusters focus on details that cannot be easily explained without your loved one’s account. For example, they might argue that your loved one had the last chance to avoid an accident or that they weren’t following traffic laws. We work so that these tactics insurance companies rely on do not stand in the way of your family’s recovery.
Our team of Monroe wrongful death attorneys counters these insurer tactics by:
- Recreating the accident based on evidence gathered from the scene, including photographs, vehicle damage, and road conditions.
- Working with accident reconstruction specialists to determine how your loved one’s fatal injuries happened and counter arguments designed to unfairly place blame on your loved one.
- Examining and requesting the correction of police reports to address any inaccuracies or assumptions that insurers may use to shift liability.
- Developing a fact-based narrative that advocates for the representative of your loved one’s estate by establishing the negligence of the at-fault party.
Though no amount of compensation can truly set things right, your family’s recovery can go a long way to helping you honor the memory of your loved one and cope in their absence. Our lawyers fight to secure a verdict or settlement that fairly compensates surviving family members.
Hire a Monroe Wrongful Death Attorney at No Upfront Cost Under Our A&A Zero Fee Guarantee™
After the unexpected loss of a loved one, your family may already be facing overwhelming expenses, including medical bills, funeral costs, and the sudden loss of income. Understandably, many families worry about how they can afford an experienced attorney while trying to stay financially stable during such a difficult time.
Insurance companies press on this financial pain point by offering low settlements, hoping grieving families will feel they have no choice but to accept.
This can lead to families signing away their rights to fair compensation, simply because they feel they cannot afford to fight back. An insufficient settlement that fails to address the full extent of your family’s loss risks everything. Your family could struggle to cope with ongoing expenses like lost future income.
Our Attorneys Can Handle Your Claim From the Beginning at No Upfront Cost to Your Family
With the A&A Zero Fee Guarantee™, financial barriers will never prevent you from pursuing your claim. You pay nothing up front and owe nothing unless we recover compensation for your family. This works in your family’s favor since it allows you to hire a lawyer who can begin preserving and collecting evidence from the outset.
North Carolina law places strict limits on how long you can file a wrongful death claim. The statute of limitations for wrongful death is only two years from the date of death, as set forth in G.S. § 1-53(4). Waiting to start your claim could prevent your family from ever recovering the compensation you need.
Our Wrongful Death Lawyers in Monroe Can Fight for Your Family
After losing a loved one, the last thing your family should have to face alone is the legal process. Insurance companies may already be working to shift blame, undervalue your family’s loss, or create unnecessary delays, all while knowing how difficult it is for families to challenge their tactics alone.
If you delay or try to deal with insurers on your own, you risk missing critical deadlines, losing key evidence, and accepting a settlement that fails to cover the true cost of what you’ve lost. At Auger & Auger, our family-owned firm takes on the burden so your family doesn’t have to.
Our wrongful death attorneys in Monroe provide the experienced and compassionate legal representation that grieving families benefit from. Call us today for a free consultation.