Dallas Cowboy Player Charged In Car Wreck Is on Sidelines

Dallas Cowboy Player Charged in Car Wreck is on Sidelines

CBS News reports that Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent was on the sidelines a week after a car accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown on December 8, 2012. Brent is currently on reserve/nonfootball illness, according to the report. He has been charged with intoxication manslaughter in regard to the accident.
Whether or not the charges end up sticking remains to be seen. There are many instances every year, however, where people are killed because of drunk drivers. Sometimes they are killed while driving in the same vehicle as the drunk driver and sometimes they are killed as pedestrians or in their own vehicles, when the drunk driver crashes into them.

The Criminal Charges

Drunk driving is punishable by very severe legal sanctions in Texas. Imprisonment oftentimes results when people get convicted of drunk driving too many times. Even on a first conviction, a driver may be facing jail time, depending upon the circumstances of the incident.
Aside from criminal charges, the families of victims of drunk drivers sometimes seek a wrongful death compensation lawyer to help them with the financial fallout of losing a family member. These lawsuits are not about getting rich. In fact, many of these lawsuits are simply about getting by. When a family loses a member, there is a significant amount of financial fallout that follows in the wake of the death. This is what wrongful death attorneys help families with.

Damages and Civil Cases

In a civil case, an attorney will argue that their client was somehow injured due to the negligence of another individual. In drunk driving claims, that negligence is obviously the negligence that the driver exhibited when they decided to get behind the wheel drunk. Whether or not the driver actually ends up getting charged in criminal court has no bearing on whether or not the family can proceed with a civil action against them.
Deciding to file a wrongful death lawsuit is always a big decision. It's painful, it's confusing and, too often, families decide that they don't have any legal standing to do so and they end up paying for the entire cost of someone else's negligence. Adding financial hardship to the tremendous emotional hardship involved with losing a family member is not necessary in all these cases. Consulting with an attorney may reveal you do have a good case and that it is well worth your while to go ahead and try to have it argued in court.