{"id":2132,"date":"2021-12-14T17:16:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/laws-filing-wrongful-death-child-dies\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:23:10","slug":"laws-filing-wrongful-death-child-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/laws-filing-wrongful-death-child-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the Laws for Filing Wrongful Death When a Child Dies?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s parenting situations are more challenging than those of traditionally married couples.\u00a0 With more children being born out of wedlock, paternity suits may be necessary to establish parentage.\u00a0 Couples frequently separate and even more often than separating, they divorce.\u00a0 So, the question arises \u2014 which parent can file a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranfirmatlanta.com\/wrongful-death-lawyers\/\">wrongful death lawsuit<\/a> when a child dies?\u00a0 And how do compensation awards work?<\/p>\n<p>Georgia law considers homicide as <em>all cases in which the death of a human being results from a crime, from criminal or other negligence, or from property which has been defectively manufactured, whether or not as the result of negligence<\/em>.\u00a0 Surviving family members have the legal right to recover damages in homicide cases.\u00a0 Under Georgia Annotated Code \u00a7 19-7-1, until children reach the age of 18, they are under their parent\u2019s control.\u00a0 Even so, the parents are not the only parties who can recover for a child\u2019s wrongful death.\u00a0 In a child homicide, the order of priority for damage recovery includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The deceased child's spouse (if there is one)<\/li>\n<li>The deceased child's child (if there is one)<\/li>\n<li>The deceased child's parent or parents \u2014\n<ul>\n<li>Jointly if the parents live together and are not divorced<\/li>\n<li>If divorced, the judge adjudicates how the award is divided between parents through a hearing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A child born out-of-wedlock does not bar recovery for parents.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia law gives juries considerable latitude in determining wrongful death awards.\u00a0 Consequently, your lawyer's skills play an important role when presenting the case to the jury.\u00a0 Gather important information and thoughtfully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranfirmatlanta.com\/attorneys\/\">choose the right lawyer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Cochran Firm Atlanta brings excellent credentials and experience to the table when protecting our clients\u2019 rights to compensation.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to file an Injury &amp; accident claim, contact our Accident Lawyers, who have expertise in <a href=\"\/atlanta\/auto-accident-lawyers\/\">Auto Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/car-accidents\/\">Car Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/brain-injury-lawyers\/\">Brain Injury<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/personal-injury-lawyers\/\">Personal Injury<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/premises-liability-lawyers\/\">Premises Liability<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"\/atlanta\/trucking-accident-lawyers\/\">Truck Accident<\/a>, <a href=\"\/atlanta\/personal-injury-lawyers\/police-misconduct\/\">Police Misconduct<\/a> and <a href=\"\/atlanta\/practice-areas\/\">other areas of practice<\/a>. Call The Cochran Firm Atlanta toll-free at <a href=\"tel:4042229922\">(404) 222-9922<\/a>, or send us your queries using this\u00a0<a href=\"\/atlanta\/contact\/\">inquiry form<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s parenting situations are more challenging than those of traditionally married couples.\u00a0 With more children being born out of wedlock, paternity suits may be necessary to establish parentage.\u00a0 Couples frequently separate and even more often than separating, they divorce.\u00a0 So, the question arises \u2014 which parent can file a wrongful death lawsuit when a child [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Child Wrongful Death Laws: A Legal Guide","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,77],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-wrongful-death","tag-local"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11843,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/11843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}