If a wrongful death lawsuit is filed with the assistance of an attorney, the family or plaintiff of the deceased may apply for pre-settlement funding from a litigation funding company.
In one such horrific wrongful death case, Travis Miller, 25, perished in an elevator shaft while working on the Florida State University (FSU) dorm construction site.
The elevator operator had noticed Miller in the window on his way up the outside of the building, and had made a mental note to tell him on the way down that he needed to move. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to warn Miller.
Miller was perched on the ledge of an open window talking to three of his co-workers when an elevator came down. It pulled him into a one-and-a-half inch space between the building and the elevator. The men yelled to the elevator operator to go back up, immediately.
By the time they pulled the young man back through the window, he was dead. An autopsy report confirmed crushing trauma to Miller’s torso. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is conducting an investigation.
Miller’s family is seeking a least $15 million in their wrongful death lawsuit, alleging the University had a duty to maintain a safe worksite that could have prevented Miller’s death. The suit further alleges that onsite workers were not properly supervised, and that because the site was dangerous, the FSU should have implemented extra safety precautions.
The evidence submitted with the statement of claim showed that the window where Miller sat, and several other windows in the building, had a wedge of plywood in it to avoid this very kind of tragedy. Someone removed those barriers a month prior to the accident, and never replaced them. Apparently the building superintendent was not aware that the plywood had been removed from the windows.
The family was left with the conundrum of how to pay for the extra expense of a funeral and burial, and how they would pay their bills while they waited for their case to go to court. One option they could have considered is applying for litigation funding. A lawsuit loan is fast cash that arrives within a plaintiff’s bank account within 48 hours of being approved for pre-settlement funding.
Once the litigation funding is in place, the family may pay all of their extraordinary expenses and keep their usual monthly financial obligations current. Lawsuit loans are not for everyone, but they are worth checking out to see if the funding they provide can help one hold the line until the case is settled, one way or the other. And, if the case doesn’t win in court? Then there is no need to repay pre-settlement funding, no strings attached.
Daren Monroe writes for Litigation Funding Corp. To learn more about lawsuit funding and litigation funding, visit http://www.litigationfundingcorp.com/.
