My mother died due to negligence of a nursing home. What lawyer do I call.

Question

My brother said he will use his own lawyer and my siblings and I will use the same lawyer . Can two separate party’s sue for the same reason. My brother said he wants to sue by himself without his siblings. So we decided to get our own lawyer.

Benjamin Z. Katz · Answer

Any action must be brought on behalf of your mother’s estate. Someone must petition the Surrogate’s Court to be appointed Administrator or, if there is a Will, Executor. If she was married at the time of her death, her spouse has first priority to petition. If not, all natural born or adopted children have equal right to do so.

Michael David Siegel · Answer

The right to sue belongs to the estate.  Someone needs to be named administrator.  There can only be one case.  There are specialists in this area who do only nursing home negligence cases.  It is contingency fee work.

Peter J. Weinman · Answer

The representative of your mother's estate is the only one able to bring an action.  Is one of you the executor or administrator of her estate?

Jonathan R. Ratchik · Answer

So sorry for your loss.  As my colleagues correctly advised, any lawsuit on your mother's behalf can only be brought by the duly appointed representative of her estate (either the Executor if she had a will, or an Administrator if she did not).  And any recovery will be determined by the Surrogate's Court in accordance with New York's Estates Powers & Trusts Law.  You can find many excellent attorneys who handle wrongful death cases by using the Find a Lawyer tab on the JUSTIA homepage.

Q: My mother died due to negligence of a nursing home. What lawyer do I call.