What is the price of a human life? According to the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 it is £15,120. This is the amount which can be claimed as Bereavement Damages in cases where a loved one has died because of an accident, a defective product or clinical negligence. Sadly, in recent months, our personal injury and clinical negligence department has had to advise in a number of cases involving a death.

As well as Bereavement Damages, certain categories of Claimant are entitled to compensation for loss of financial dependency or services provided by the deceased, as well as funeral expenses and perhaps compensation for pain and suffering which the deceased endured before they died. Who and what can be claimed is not straightforward, and will be the topic of another blog at a later date.

What is surprising – shocking even – about Bereavement Damages is not only the relatively low amount that can be claimed, but also who can – and can’t – make a claim. The list of those who are entitled to bereavement damages includes spouses, cohabiting partners, and the parents of a child (or, if the parents were unmarried, the mother only). That means that children cannot claim Bereavement Damages if a parent dies, an unmarried father cannot claim Bereavement Damages if his child dies (although the mother can) and parents of adult children cannot claim if the child is killed. One of the hardest things a personal injury lawyer ever has to do to do is to tell a grieving family that the law does not consider that their bereavement should be compensated.

The contents of this post do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only.

The contents of this post do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only ■