Calculating the damages awarded for a wrongful death includes several different factors and can be very complicated. The damages are based around several concrete amounts, such as the total medical and funeral expenses incurred by the deceased, the amount of expenses incurred in the time between the accident and death (particularly when death is delayed for some time), and the amount of money that the deceased was making annually.
The potential future earning of the individual is looked at which considers factors such as education and prior work history. This is a trickier calculation when the deceased in a child, but can hinge on expert testimony detailing the average expected earning of a child within demographic sets (geography or socioeconomic status, for example).
There is also a subjective value added to the life of an individual for things like being in and raising a family, enjoying hobbies, and all of the things that bring a person pleasure that has now been taken from the individual who is deceased. These numbers add together to what is called the “full value of life of an individual.”
An Atlanta wrongful death attorney can provide more information about calculating damages.