When a loved one dies due to preventable medical errors in Tucson, Arizona law allows surviving family members to pursue a wrongful death claim under Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-611 and § 12-613, which establish who can file and what damages may be recovered when medical negligence proves fatal.
Losing a family member to medical malpractice represents one of the most devastating experiences imaginable. When you place your trust in healthcare professionals to provide competent care, the last thing you expect is for that trust to result in a preventable death. Medical malpractice wrongful death cases arise when doctors, nurses, hospitals, or other healthcare providers breach their duty of care through negligence, and that negligence directly causes a patient’s death. These cases require not only proof that medical errors occurred, but also that those errors fell below the accepted standard of care and were the proximate cause of death rather than the underlying medical condition.
If you’ve lost a loved one to suspected medical negligence in Tucson, Life Justice Law Group offers compassionate, experienced legal representation on a contingency fee basis, meaning families pay no fees unless we win. Our Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death lawyers provide free consultations to evaluate your case and explain your legal options. Contact us today at (480) 378-8088 or complete our online form to speak with an attorney who understands both the medical complexities and the emotional weight of these devastating losses.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death in Arizona
Medical malpractice wrongful death occurs when a healthcare provider’s negligence directly causes a patient’s death. Under Arizona law, this requires proving that the medical professional owed a duty of care to the patient, breached that duty through actions or omissions that fell below accepted medical standards, and that this breach was the direct and proximate cause of death. The distinction between a poor medical outcome and actionable malpractice lies in whether the care provided met or fell below what a reasonably competent healthcare provider would have done under similar circumstances.
Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-563 specifically addresses medical malpractice claims and requires expert testimony to establish the applicable standard of care except in cases where negligence is obvious to a layperson. This means that in most Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death cases, a qualified medical expert must review the case records and testify that the treatment provided deviated from accepted medical practices. The burden of proof rests with the family bringing the claim, making thorough case investigation and credible expert witnesses essential to success.
Common Types of Medical Errors Leading to Wrongful Death
Medical negligence can manifest in numerous ways throughout the healthcare system. Understanding the most common causes helps families recognize when a death may have been preventable and when legal action is warranted.
Surgical errors – Mistakes during operations including wrong-site surgery, anesthesia errors, leaving surgical instruments inside the body, or damaging organs or blood vessels during procedures can prove immediately fatal or lead to complications that cause death days or weeks later.
Medication errors – Prescribing the wrong medication, incorrect dosages, failing to check for dangerous drug interactions, or administering medications improperly kills thousands of patients annually and represents one of the most preventable forms of medical negligence.
Delayed or misdiagnosis – When doctors fail to recognize serious conditions like heart attacks, strokes, cancer, infections, or blood clots in time for effective treatment, patients lose their chance at survival due to diagnostic failures that fall below the standard of care.
Birth injuries – Negligence during pregnancy, labor, or delivery can result in maternal death from hemorrhage, infection, or pre-eclampsia, or infant death from oxygen deprivation, trauma, or untreated complications that proper monitoring would have detected.
Emergency room negligence – Overcrowded ERs, inadequate triage, failure to order necessary tests, or discharging patients with dangerous symptoms can send critically ill patients home to die from conditions that should have been diagnosed and treated immediately.
Nursing home neglect – Severe neglect including dehydration, malnutrition, untreated bedsores leading to sepsis, or failure to monitor and respond to medical emergencies constitutes medical malpractice when facility staff breach their duty of care.
Hospital-acquired infections – When healthcare facilities fail to follow proper sterilization protocols, hand hygiene, or infection control measures, patients can contract deadly infections like sepsis, MRSA, or C. difficile that would not have occurred with proper procedures.
Who Can File a Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim in Arizona
Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-612 strictly limits who has legal standing to bring a wrongful death lawsuit. The statute creates a specific hierarchy of priority that determines who can act as the personal representative of the deceased’s estate and file the claim on behalf of surviving family members.
The surviving spouse holds the first right to file if the deceased was married at the time of death. If no surviving spouse exists or if the spouse declines to pursue the claim, the right passes to adult children of the deceased. When no spouse or children survive the deceased, parents may file the wrongful death claim. If none of these family members exist or choose to file within the statute of limitations period, a personal representative appointed by the probate court may bring the action on behalf of the estate and any entitled beneficiaries.
Arizona law does not allow extended family members such as siblings, grandparents, or other relatives to file wrongful death claims directly unless they are appointed as the personal representative through probate court. The person who files the lawsuit acts on behalf of all eligible beneficiaries, and any damages recovered are distributed according to Arizona’s wrongful death statutes rather than being kept solely by the person who filed. This structure prevents multiple lawsuits over the same death while ensuring that all family members who suffered losses receive appropriate compensation through a single legal action.
Damages Available in Tucson Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Cases
Arizona law allows families to recover several categories of damages when medical negligence causes a loved one’s death. Understanding what compensation is available helps families evaluate potential claims and make informed decisions about pursuing legal action.
Economic damages compensate for measurable financial losses including all medical expenses incurred before death, funeral and burial costs, and the loss of the deceased’s expected future earnings and benefits. Arizona courts calculate lost earnings by considering the deceased’s age, health, life expectancy, earning capacity, and the financial support they provided to dependents. For young victims with decades of potential earnings ahead, these damages can be substantial.
Non-economic damages address intangible losses that deeply affect surviving family members. These include compensation for the loss of the deceased’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support. Courts recognize that spouses lose a life partner, children lose parental guidance and nurturing, and parents lose the irreplaceable relationship with their child. Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-613 specifically authorizes these damages, acknowledging that some losses cannot be measured in dollars but deserve meaningful compensation nonetheless.
Survival action damages represent a separate claim that belongs to the deceased’s estate rather than to surviving family members. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 14-3110, the estate can recover damages the deceased could have claimed if they had survived, including pain and suffering experienced between the time of injury and death, medical expenses, and lost wages during that period. When medical negligence causes a lingering death rather than immediate death, survival damages can add significantly to the overall compensation.
Arizona does not cap damages in medical malpractice cases following the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Watts v. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., which struck down previous damage caps as unconstitutional. This means that juries can award whatever they determine is fair and appropriate compensation without artificial limitations, though defendants often appeal large verdicts hoping to reduce them.
Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death in Arizona
Arizona imposes strict deadlines for filing medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuits. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-542, wrongful death claims must generally be filed within two years from the date of death. This deadline is absolute, and courts have no discretion to extend it except under very limited circumstances. Missing this deadline by even a single day typically results in permanent loss of the right to pursue compensation, regardless of how strong the case might be.
The statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims under Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-563 adds another layer of complexity. Medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years of the date the cause of action accrued or within two years of when the plaintiff knew or should have known about the injury through reasonable diligence. When death is not immediate, questions arise about which date controls, the date of the negligent act, the date of discovery, or the date of death.
Arizona courts apply the discovery rule carefully in medical malpractice cases. If a patient dies shortly after negligent treatment, the two-year clock typically starts on the date of death. However, when negligence is not immediately apparent and death occurs months or years later, the discovery rule may extend the filing deadline to two years from when family members reasonably should have discovered that medical negligence caused the death. This often requires investigating medical records and consulting with medical experts to establish when the connection between negligence and death became or should have become apparent.
Special rules apply to cases involving minors. When medical malpractice causes the death of a child, Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-502 extends the statute of limitations, but the extension is limited. Parents must generally file within two years of the child’s death or before the child would have turned their eighth birthday, whichever provides more time. These cases require immediate legal consultation because the windows for filing can close quickly despite the extensions.
Proving Medical Malpractice Caused the Death
Successfully establishing that medical negligence caused a loved one’s death requires meeting multiple legal standards and providing substantial evidence. Arizona law structures these requirements through specific elements that every medical malpractice wrongful death case must prove.
Establishing the Standard of Care
Every medical malpractice case begins with defining what level of care the healthcare provider should have provided. Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-563 requires plaintiffs to present expert testimony establishing the standard of care applicable to the healthcare provider’s specialty and circumstances. A qualified medical expert must explain what a reasonably competent healthcare provider with similar training would have done under the same circumstances.
This standard varies depending on the provider’s specialty, the setting where care was provided, and the medical knowledge available at the time. An emergency room physician faces different expectations than a specialist performing an elective procedure, and rural providers may have different resource constraints than those in major medical centers. The expert must have current knowledge of accepted medical practices in the relevant specialty and be able to articulate those standards clearly to a jury.
Demonstrating the Breach
Once the standard of care is established, the plaintiff must prove that the healthcare provider’s actions fell below that standard. This requires detailed analysis of medical records, treatment decisions, and the circumstances surrounding the care provided. Expert witnesses review documentation, compare the actual treatment to accepted protocols, and identify specific ways the provider deviated from proper care.
Common breaches include failing to order appropriate diagnostic tests, misinterpreting test results, not considering differential diagnoses, ignoring patient symptoms or complaints, making surgical errors, prescribing contraindicated medications, or failing to monitor patients adequately. The breach must be clear and significant rather than a mere difference of medical opinion about treatment approaches that fall within the range of acceptable practice.
Proving Causation
Causation represents the most challenging element in many medical malpractice wrongful death cases. Arizona requires proof that the healthcare provider’s breach was both the actual cause and the proximate cause of death. Actual causation means the death would not have occurred but for the negligence. Proximate causation means the death was a foreseeable result of the negligent conduct rather than an intervening cause.
Medical malpractice defendants often argue that the patient’s underlying condition, not the provider’s negligence, caused the death. They may claim the patient was too sick to survive regardless of treatment or that other factors contributed more significantly to the fatal outcome. Overcoming these arguments requires strong expert testimony explaining how proper care would have prevented death or substantially extended life expectancy, even if the patient had serious health challenges.
Gathering and Preserving Evidence
Strong evidence forms the foundation of successful medical malpractice wrongful death cases. Complete medical records from all providers must be obtained and reviewed by qualified experts who can identify departures from the standard of care. Hospital policies, staff training records, maintenance logs for medical equipment, and staffing levels may all become relevant depending on the type of negligence alleged.
Witness testimony from family members who observed the patient’s care, nurses or other healthcare workers who witnessed the negligent acts, and experts who can recreate what happened based on the available evidence all contribute to building a compelling case. Time is critical because memories fade, staff members change jobs, and records can be lost or destroyed according to retention schedules.
The Role of Medical Expert Witnesses
Medical expert witnesses serve as the cornerstone of medical malpractice wrongful death cases in Arizona. These professionals bridge the gap between complex medical concepts and the legal standards a jury must apply to determine liability. Their testimony educates the court about medical procedures, acceptable practices, and whether the defendant’s care met professional standards.
Qualified experts must possess current knowledge and experience in the same or similar medical specialty as the defendant healthcare provider. Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-2604 sets specific requirements for expert qualifications, including active clinical practice or teaching in the relevant specialty within the past five years. An expert testifying about surgical negligence must be a surgeon familiar with the type of procedure involved, while an expert addressing emergency medicine standards must have emergency department experience. Courts carefully screen expert qualifications to ensure they can credibly speak to the relevant standard of care.
Expert witnesses perform multiple critical functions throughout a case. During the initial investigation, they review medical records to determine whether negligence occurred and whether it caused the death. If the case proceeds to litigation, experts provide written reports detailing their opinions and the basis for those conclusions. During depositions and trial, they explain complex medical issues in terms jurors can understand, establish what proper care should have been, identify how the defendant’s care fell short, and explain the causal connection between the negligence and the patient’s death. Effective experts combine strong credentials with the ability to communicate clearly and withstand cross-examination from defense attorneys who will challenge every aspect of their testimony.
Defending Against Common Insurance Company Tactics
Insurance companies defending medical malpractice wrongful death claims employ predictable strategies to minimize or deny compensation. Recognizing these tactics helps families understand what to expect and why experienced legal representation matters.
Blaming pre-existing conditions represents the most common defense strategy. Insurance adjusters and defense attorneys argue that the patient’s underlying health problems, not medical negligence, caused the death. They emphasize advanced age, chronic diseases, or high-risk medical conditions to suggest death was inevitable regardless of the care provided. Strong expert testimony distinguishing between expected disease progression and preventable death caused by negligence counters this defense effectively.
Challenging causation allows defendants to acknowledge that mistakes occurred while denying responsibility for the death. They may argue that other factors contributed more significantly or that the patient would have died anyway despite proper treatment. These arguments require detailed medical testimony about how different treatment would have changed outcomes and what percentage of responsibility belongs to the negligence versus other factors.
Attacking expert qualifications aims to exclude plaintiff expert testimony and leave families without the evidence needed to meet their burden of proof. Defense lawyers file motions challenging whether experts have sufficient experience, whether their methodology is reliable, or whether their opinions have adequate foundation in the medical evidence. Selecting highly qualified experts who follow accepted medical literature and can articulate clear reasoning for their conclusions defeats these challenges.
Lowball settlement offers appear early in some cases, particularly when liability seems clear. Insurance companies hope that grieving families facing financial pressure will accept quick settlements for far less than claims are worth. These offers typically come before families understand the full value of their losses or have leverage through case preparation. Early settlement means giving up the right to recover appropriate compensation for decades of lost financial support, guidance, and companionship.
Delay tactics wear down families emotionally and financially. Defense lawyers file numerous motions, schedule depositions slowly, request extensions, and drag out discovery hoping families will abandon claims or accept unfavorable settlements. This strategy exploits the emotional toll of reliving a loved one’s death repeatedly through the litigation process and the financial strain of pursuing a complex case without immediate resolution.
Disputing damages concedes liability while fighting over how much compensation is appropriate. Defendants argue that economic projections overstate lost earnings, that non-economic losses should be valued lower, or that certain expenses should not be included. They present their own economic experts with conservative assumptions and methodologies designed to minimize calculated damages.
Choosing the Right Tucson Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Attorney
Selecting legal representation for a medical malpractice wrongful death case requires careful consideration of specific qualifications and experience. Not all personal injury lawyers have the specialized knowledge needed to handle these complex claims successfully.
Medical malpractice experience matters more than general personal injury experience. These cases require understanding medical procedures, reading and interpreting medical records, working with medical experts, and navigating technical healthcare regulations. Attorneys who regularly handle medical negligence claims have established relationships with qualified medical experts across specialties and understand how to present medical evidence effectively to juries who lack medical training.
Wrongful death case history demonstrates an attorney’s ability to handle the unique procedural and emotional aspects of death claims. Ask potential lawyers about their specific experience with medical malpractice wrongful death cases, how many they have handled, what results they achieved, and whether they took cases to trial or settled them before verdict. Actual trial experience matters because insurance companies offer better settlements when they know an attorney is prepared and capable of winning before a jury.
Resources and support enable thorough case investigation and preparation. Medical malpractice wrongful death cases require substantial investment in expert witnesses, medical record review, case research, and litigation costs that can exceed tens of thousands of dollars before trial. Law firms with sufficient resources can properly develop cases without cutting corners or rushing to settlement due to financial constraints.
Communication and compatibility affect your experience throughout the legal process. Wrongful death cases span months or years and require regular contact with your attorney. During initial consultations, assess whether the lawyer listens carefully to your concerns, explains legal concepts clearly without condescension, responds to questions thoroughly, and demonstrates genuine compassion for your loss. You should feel comfortable asking questions and confident that your attorney will keep you informed about case developments.
Fee structure transparency eliminates financial surprises. Most Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death lawyers work on contingency fee agreements, meaning they receive a percentage of any recovery rather than charging hourly rates. Standard contingency fees range from 33% to 40% depending on whether the case settles before trial or requires courtroom litigation. Ensure you understand what percentage applies at each stage, how case costs are handled, and what happens if the case is unsuccessful.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a medical malpractice wrongful death case typically take in Tucson?
Medical malpractice wrongful death cases in Tucson typically take between 18 months and three years from filing to resolution, though complex cases with multiple defendants or disputed liability may take longer. The timeline includes an initial investigation period of two to four months where attorneys gather medical records and have them reviewed by experts to confirm the case has merit before filing a lawsuit. Once filed, Arizona rules allow extensive discovery where both sides exchange information, take depositions, and prepare expert reports, which usually spans 12 to 18 months. Settlement negotiations often occur after discovery when both sides understand the strengths and weaknesses of the case, and many cases resolve at this stage. If settlement fails, trial preparation requires additional months, and the trial itself can last one to three weeks depending on case complexity. The process feels long when you are grieving, but thorough preparation is essential for achieving maximum compensation and holding negligent providers accountable.
Can I file a claim if my loved one signed a consent form before the procedure that caused their death?
Yes, signing a consent form before a medical procedure does not prevent you from filing a medical malpractice wrongful death claim when negligence causes death. Consent forms acknowledge that patients understand the risks of a procedure and agree to proceed despite those risks, but they do not give healthcare providers permission to perform the procedure negligently or below the accepted standard of care. If a known risk of a procedure materializes despite competent care, that is not malpractice even if the outcome is tragic. However, if the healthcare provider’s negligence during the procedure causes death, the consent form provides no legal protection. For example, if a consent form warns that bleeding is a possible surgical risk, the surgeon cannot escape liability if they negligently cut an artery they should have avoided or if they failed to recognize and address bleeding promptly when it occurred. Courts distinguish between informed consent to proceed with a procedure and legal responsibility for negligent performance of that procedure, and consent forms do not waive malpractice liability in Arizona.
What if the medical provider claims my loved one’s death was due to their underlying medical condition rather than negligence?
Healthcare providers and their insurance companies routinely claim that underlying medical conditions rather than negligence caused a patient’s death, but this defense often fails when strong evidence shows proper care would have prevented or significantly delayed death. Medical malpractice wrongful death cases almost always involve patients who had some health problem requiring medical treatment, so the existence of an underlying condition does not automatically defeat a claim. The critical question is whether the healthcare provider’s negligence made the condition worse, caused complications that led to death, or failed to treat the condition properly when timely intervention would have saved the patient’s life. Expert medical testimony establishes what would have happened with proper care compared to what actually happened due to negligent care, demonstrating that negligence was the proximate cause of death even if the patient had serious health challenges. Arizona law requires proof that negligence was a substantial factor in causing death, not necessarily the only factor, so cases can succeed even when underlying conditions contributed to the patient’s vulnerability as long as proper care would have resulted in survival or substantially extended life.
How much is a medical malpractice wrongful death case worth in Arizona?
The value of a medical malpractice wrongful death case in Arizona depends on multiple factors specific to each case, including the deceased’s age, earning capacity, life expectancy, the financial dependency of survivors, the nature and strength of the family relationships, and the egregiousness of the negligence that caused death. Economic damages for lost future earnings can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars when young victims with high earning potential die due to medical negligence, while elderly retirees may have limited economic losses but substantial non-economic damages for loss of companionship. Non-economic damages compensating for the loss of love, comfort, companionship, and guidance vary based on the quality of family relationships and how significantly the death impacts survivors’ lives. Arizona does not cap damages in medical malpractice cases, so juries have complete discretion to award what they determine is fair and appropriate compensation. Cases involving particularly egregious negligence, such as obvious errors that any reasonably competent provider would have avoided, or cases where providers attempted to cover up their mistakes, may result in higher verdicts due to jury anger at the conduct. Average settlements and verdicts provide limited guidance because every case is unique, making individual case evaluation with an experienced Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death lawyer essential to understanding the potential value of your specific claim.
Do I need to prove that the medical provider intentionally caused my loved one’s death?
No, medical malpractice wrongful death cases require proof of negligence, not intentional harm, which is a much lower standard and reflects how most preventable medical deaths occur. Negligence means the healthcare provider failed to exercise the degree of care that a reasonably competent provider in the same specialty would have used under similar circumstances, whether through action or inaction. This could include making a diagnostic error by missing obvious symptoms, committing a surgical mistake by cutting the wrong structure, prescribing the wrong medication due to failure to check the patient’s medication list, or failing to monitor a patient whose condition was deteriorating. Intentional conduct would require proof that the provider deliberately harmed the patient or acted with knowledge that their conduct would likely cause death, which rarely occurs and would constitute criminal conduct rather than civil negligence. The focus in medical malpractice cases is on whether care fell below professional standards and whether that substandard care caused death, not on the provider’s intent or state of mind. Even well-intentioned healthcare providers who care about their patients can commit negligence through carelessness, distraction, fatigue, or failure to follow established protocols, and they bear legal responsibility for deaths that result from their negligent care regardless of their intentions.
What happens if the hospital or doctor declares bankruptcy or goes out of business before my case concludes?
When a hospital, medical practice, or individual physician declares bankruptcy or ceases operations during a pending medical malpractice wrongful death case, the outcome depends on the insurance coverage in place at the time the negligence occurred. Nearly all Arizona hospitals and physicians carry medical malpractice insurance specifically designed to cover these claims, and insurance policies typically remain in effect to cover claims arising from incidents that occurred during the policy period regardless of what happens to the insured party afterward. The insurance company has an independent obligation to defend the claim and pay any settlement or judgment up to the policy limits, so bankruptcy of the healthcare provider does not eliminate your ability to recover compensation. Your attorney will identify all applicable insurance policies and name the insurance companies as real parties in interest to ensure they remain responsible for the claim. However, if no insurance existed or if damages exceed policy limits, recovering compensation beyond insurance coverage becomes challenging when the responsible party has no assets, making verification of adequate insurance coverage an important early step in case evaluation.
Can I pursue a claim if my loved one’s death occurred during surgery that was elective rather than medically necessary?
Yes, you can pursue a medical malpractice wrongful death claim when negligence causes death during an elective procedure, and the fact that the surgery was not medically necessary may actually strengthen your case. Elective procedures must meet the same standard of care as medically necessary surgeries, meaning surgeons must use the same skill, care, and judgment regardless of whether the procedure addresses a life-threatening condition or provides cosmetic or quality-of-life improvements. When a patient who was healthy enough to undergo elective surgery dies due to surgical errors, anesthesia mistakes, or inadequate post-operative monitoring, the preventable nature of the death becomes particularly clear because the patient would have continued living had they not undergone the procedure. The elective nature of the surgery may factor into damages because it emphasizes that the death was entirely preventable and would not have occurred but for the negligent care, potentially influencing jury sympathy and verdict amounts. However, the legal analysis remains focused on whether the care provided met professional standards and whether negligence caused death, making these cases no different procedurally from claims involving medically necessary procedures.
What if I signed away my rights by accepting a payment from the hospital or doctor after my loved one died?
Accepting a payment from a hospital or doctor after your loved one’s death does not necessarily bar a wrongful death claim, but it requires immediate legal review to determine what rights you may have waived. Some healthcare providers offer to pay funeral expenses or return medical costs as humanitarian gestures without requiring families to sign releases, and these payments do not affect legal rights. However, other providers or their insurance companies may offer payments in exchange for signing release agreements that waive the right to pursue further legal action. If you signed a release document in exchange for payment, an attorney must review the exact language to determine whether it was a full release of all claims, a partial release, or potentially invalid due to lack of consideration, unconscionability, or being signed under duress before you understood your rights. Arizona law protects families from some unfair release agreements, and courts may refuse to enforce releases that are grossly one-sided, were signed immediately after death when families were in shock, or did not provide adequate compensation given the actual value of the claim. Never sign any documents or accept payments from healthcare providers or insurance companies after a suspected medical malpractice death without first consulting an experienced Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death attorney, because once you sign a valid release, recovering additional compensation becomes extremely difficult or impossible.
Contact a Tucson Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Lawyer Today
Losing a loved one to medical negligence demands justice and accountability from those responsible. Life Justice Law Group provides comprehensive legal representation for families pursuing medical malpractice wrongful death claims in Tucson, combining detailed medical knowledge with proven courtroom experience. Our attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for your family. We handle all case costs upfront, allowing you to focus on grieving and healing while we fight for the accountability and compensation you deserve. Contact Life Justice Law Group at (480) 378-8088 or complete our online consultation form to speak with a Tucson medical malpractice wrongful death lawyer who will evaluate your case, explain your legal options, and help you understand the path forward. Time limits apply to these claims, so reaching out today protects your family’s rights and ensures critical evidence is preserved before it disappears.