Even though a wrongful death claim and a personal injury claim are different, the plaintiff will have to prove that the same basic set of circumstances exist. One must prove four factors: duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Duty means that the person or entity named as the defendant had some sort of duty to provide an element of reasonable safety to the person who died. The exact definition of this duty will vary depending on the circumstances of the case, but it means that the defendant should have either done something or refrained from doing something in order to keep others safe. Breach of duty, quite simply, means that the other party did not do what they should have. In a car accident, for example, one could say that the other driver was texting or looking at their phone and not paying attention to the road, thereby breaching their duty to act in a responsible manner while driving. Causation means that the plaintiff will have to prove that the decedent died as a result of that breach of duty by the defendant. Damages will be presumed because it is obvious that someone died in a wrongful death case. As a plaintiff, you may be able to ask for damages based on loss of income, services, protection, care, assistance, society, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel, and advice of the decedent, as well as funeral and burial expenses, among other things.