Caps on wrongful death amounts

Henry Gornbein: Don’t the caps heavily impact this area of the law now? And by caps I mean, I think a $250,000 cap for pain and suffering.

Howard Linden: Actually the cap now is, I think $367,000 or $378,000 because they add inflationary numbers. It’s still way below what is should be. And yes, the short answer is yes. It has diminished the ability of people to collect what they should collect for these type of horrific damages and death. But, you still are allowed a present value if a person dies wrongfully and that person has a job, is employed and is a younger person, in their 40’s or 50’s, for example. You are allowed to project present value of loss wages. The cap is on the conscious pain and suffering part.

Henry Gornbein: So, the big money is going to be in lost wages vs. the pain and suffering obviously.

Howard Linden: Unfortunately, today it is unless you can show gross negligence and then the cap is off, but that’s very difficult, as you know as an attorney, to show today.