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Use experts wisely to enliven a death case: your experts are individuals with specialized knowledge, but they must work together as a team. When you facilitate cooperation, you reinforce your client's claim for compensation after the loss of a loved one.

Article Excerpt
Sally, a neatly dressed woman who looks about 40 years old, enters your office. She tells you that she misses her husband, Tom, who died recently at a job site where he was working as a crane operator for a local construction company.

He was a hard worker who always took care for his own safety and had been rewarded with promotion after promotion. A few weeks ago, Sally tells you, Tom was killed "instantly" when he was electrocuted after his crane struck an overhead power line.

Before Sally even finishes telling her story, yon can hear defense counsel's closing argument: "The defendants deeply regret this unfortunate accident, but they cannot be held liable for losses caused by the decedent's own actions." If you represent Sally in a wrongful death suit, you will have to contest the claim that Tom caused his own death by carelessly bringing his crane into contact with the power line.

You will also have to build a case that clearly conveys the extent of Tom's conscious pain and suffering. Even if there are witnesses to the death--and in many cases, there are none--the person who can most effectively describe Tom's suffering is, of course, Tom, who for obvious reasons cannot testify.

Also, Sally's statement that he was killed "instantly" reflects a common misconception of electrocution or any so-called quick death. You will have to overcome this misconception to fully characterize the extent of Tom's suffering. If you accept Sally's case, you will have to show the jury the horror of living for even a few seconds with thousands of volts of electricity burning your flesh.

In representing Sally in her wrongful death claim and the survival action she will bring on behalf of Tom's estate, you will rely heavily on expert testimony. You will need the following experts, among others:

* a burn surgeon to establish the physical nature of the injuries that Tom suffered

* a forensic pathologist who can testify to the extent of Tom's pain and suffering

* an economist to value both Tom's and his family's losses

* product-design, warnings, and human-factors professionals to establish how the crane's defectively designed controls and inadequate warnings, as well as limited visibility at the job site, were contributing causes of the incident

* a construction safety specialist to establish how the contractors at the construction site failed to fulfill their responsibility to ensure safety.

Creating synergy

Sally's case illustrates important principles for working with experts in any wrongful death litigation. The experts are important not only because of what they can contribute individually, but also because of what they can do...

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