New Brunswick Fatal Injury Lawyers

When someone’s carelessness causes a death in New Brunswick, two claims exist at once. The family claims under the Fatal Accidents Act. The estate claims under the Survival of Actions Act. A New Brunswick fatal injury lawyer brings both in one action, and the two-year clock runs from the date of death.

The Fatal Accidents Act and the Survival of Actions Act Are Pleaded in One Action

The Fatal Accidents Act, RSNB 1973, c F-7 gives a spouse, child, parent and certain other dependants a claim for what the death took from them. That means the financial support the deceased would have provided, the value of the housekeeping and care they gave, and the loss of guidance, care and companionship. The Survival of Actions Act keeps the deceased’s own claim alive for the estate. That claim covers the pain they suffered before death, expenses incurred, and funeral costs where nobody else paid them. The executor or administrator sues in the estate’s name. The family members are named as plaintiffs in their own right.

The Two-Year Limit Runs From the Date of Death

The Limitation of Actions Act, SNB 2009, c L-8.5 applies its two years from discovery, which after a death is the date of death or the date the cause became known. A coroner’s investigation or a criminal charge does not pause it. Families who wait for the criminal trial to finish have run out of time before, and the court did not extend it.

How a New Brunswick Death Claim Is Valued

The largest head is usually dependency. That is the share of the deceased’s future earnings the household would have received, projected to retirement, with contingencies for what might have happened either way. An economist and, where the deceased was young, a vocational expert give the evidence. Loss of guidance and companionship is a conventional sum per claimant. Where the death followed a vehicle collision, the Section B death and funeral benefits under the Insurance Act are paid by the vehicle’s insurer regardless of fault and do not reduce the claim against the at-fault driver by their full amount.

The Claim Is Filed in the Court of King’s Bench After Probate

The action is filed in the Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick, Trial Division. Estate documents come first. Someone needs probate or letters of administration before they have authority to sue. Then the liability evidence, which in a road death includes the RCMP collision reconstruction and in a workplace death the WorkSafeNB investigation. WorkSafeNB itself bars a claim against the employer where the deceased was a covered worker, but not against a third party.

The Moncton office has run New Brunswick fatal claims for decades. Michael Murphy, K.C. and Aodhan Murphy handle them themselves.

Who Can Bring the Claim?

The personal representative of the estate brings the survival claim. Under the Fatal Accidents Act the spouse, children, parents and, in defined cases, siblings and grandparents claim for their own losses. A common-law partner qualifies under the Act’s definition of spouse.

The Driver Was Charged. Should We Wait for the Trial?

No. The criminal case and the civil claim are separate. A conviction helps, but the two-year limit does not pause for it, and the civil case has a lower standard of proof.

Is There a Cap on a Death Claim?

No. The minor injury cap has no application to a fatal claim. Dependency losses are calculated in full.

What Does a New Brunswick Fatal Injury Lawyer Cost After a Death?

Nothing up front. The fee is a percentage of what is recovered, and disbursements for experts are carried by the firm.

Read what happens to a lawsuit when the plaintiff dies and the firm’s fatal accident guide. Reported decisions are on the results page. Other claim types are under injury law areas.