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Rest in Peace: The Most Famous Wrongful Death Cases on the Books

Rest in Peace: The Most Famous Wrongful Death Cases on the Books

By Trapp & Geller

Wrongful death cases are an unfortunate fact of life. The most common causes of wrongful death are misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, injuries at birth, wrong medication prescriptions, negligence, and surgical errors.

This is a terrifying and real problem that people are facing every day. Even some famous people haven’t been able to remove themselves from a situation that caused the wrongful death.

Famous Wrongful Death Cases

Wrongful death settlements are usually in the millions, no matter who you are. Celebrities don’t receive special treatment, but cases surrounding them do go down in the history books.

Venus Williams

In 2018, Venus Williams was in a car crash at a Palm Beach Gardens intersection where the passenger in the car that hit her passed away. His wife had been driving the car that hit Williams.

Jerome Barson died two weeks later. Barson’s family filed a wrongful death suit against Williams.

However, the surveillance footage of the intersection was reviewed, and Williams wasn’t in violation of any laws. The case was dismissed.

O.J. Simpson

In a case that almost everyone in the nation knows about, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty for the murder of his ex-wife.

The family members of his ex-wife sued Simpson for a wrongful death suit. They were awarded $33.5 million for the case, although it’s likely that they will never get the payout because Simpson simply doesn’t have the money to give.

Joan Rivers

In 2015, Melisa Rivers filed a lawsuit against Yorkville Endoscopy for the death of her mother, Joan Rivers.

At the time, Rivers had been undergoing a routine plastic surgery procedure but went into cardiac arrest. She went to the clinic for a laryngoscopy, where the doctors would look at her vocal cords.

According to one doctor, another doctor at the center took out their phone and took a picture of Rivers on the operating table at one point during the procedure.

It appeared that Rivers suffered from airway obstruction. A cricothyrotomy needed to be performed to open up her airway, but none of the doctors presents had the knowledge on how to perform the operation. 911 was called.

Seven days after the incident, Rivers died. The doctors accepted full responsibility for her death and agreed to reach a settlement for malpractice.

Michael Jackson

In another case that barely needs an introduction, AEG Live lawyers will not have to pay for the wrongful death of Michael Jackson.

AEG Live lawyers hired Dr. Conrad Murray to help him cope with the stress of the many concerts that he was performing in his final days. Murray treated Jackson for three years prior to this as their family physician.

Murray was using propofol to treat Jackson. Murray told lawyers that he was using the drug to help Jackson with his insomnia.

Murray was found to be competent, and it was thought that Jackson wanted him to help. He went to jail for two years on the account of involuntary manslaughter.

Brittany Murphy

Actress Brittany Murphy died in 2009 from anemia and pneumonia. But what made the case stranger was that her husband died from the same factors only a year later.

Toxic mold was later found in Murphy’s home. Murphy’s mother sued the building company. Unfortunately, she settled before she was aware of the full amount of legal action that she could take against the builders in her wrongful death claim.

Always know your whole range of options before you partake in any legal action when you call and get informed with lawyers that are going to be on your side.

Nancy Grace

Former CNN attorney and talk show host Nancy Grace found herself as the defendant in a wrongful death case after she interviewed Melinda Duckett on her show. The night of the show, Duckett committed suicide.

The interview was about Duckett’s missing son. Grace insinuated that Duckett had killed her son.

Duckett’s parents then sued both Grace and CNN for the wrongful death of their daughter. The case didn’t go to court, but outside of court, a $200,000 trust was dedicated to helping find Duckett’s missing son.

To this day, the son has not been found.

John Ritter

Actor John Ritter died in 2003, and his widow sued two of his doctors.

She said that the results of a body scan from 2001 were misinterpreted. In 2003, he died from an aortic ailment.

Ritter was not successful in her suit, and the defense claimed that he would have died no matter what the results of the scan were interpreted as.

It’s rumored that Ritter still received some sort of settlement from the hospital, some say to the tune of about ten million dollars.

David Carradine

Carradine’s widow, Anne Carradine, sued the company that David Carradine had been working for when he died in 2009.

David was found dead in his hotel in Thailand, from accidental asphyxiation. Anne claimed that the company had not provided David with the appropriate amount of assistance that had been agreed to in his contract. She stated that this was what led to his death.

In the lawsuit, it was said that the industry standard wasn’t given to David, and they didn’t give him proper assistance throughout the whole course of filming. She also was having problems collecting from the insurance policy that the film company was supposed to have laid out for him.

The lawsuit was settled out of court. There is no official number of just how much Anne received, but it is thought to be somewhere in the realm of $400,000.

Hire an Attorney

If you’re looking at wrongful death cases and realize that you might have one on your hands, it’s time to call an attorney.

During this time, the attorneys at Trapp & Geller know you can be feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and full of grief. Let them take the law into their hands so you can focus on being together with your loved ones.

They’ve been able to recover hundreds of millions of dollars for their clients, and there is no reason that they can’t do the same thing for you.

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