Grief expert aids wrongful death

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Complex grief can manifest itself in a variety of ways that may seem strange to outsiders — from a mother who is furious at her daughter for dying to a husband and wife who blame each other for their son’s death.

Hall, a partner at Hall, Sickel, Frie & Mims, a nine-lawyer firm in Reston, Va., works closely with grief therapist Mila Tecala to better understand his clients’ grief and convey their pain and suffering to juries.

He and Tecala, a therapist in private practice in the Washington, D.C. area, have co-authored a book on the use of grief therapists in wrongful death cases. “Grief and Loss: A Guide for Attorneys and Therapists,” is expected to be published this fall.

Most jurisdictions, except for New Jersey and the District of Columbia, allow recovery for non-economic damages in wrongful death suits. Statutory language varies, with some states allowing damages for anything from grief and mental anguish to loss of consortium and solace.

But it all boils down to the same sense of loss, Hall said.

He refers clients to Tecala as early in a case as possible. Initially, her role is to comfort them as a therapist.

She meets with family members for a full day and examines how the death has affected their lives and relationships. Tecala, who has the family’s permission to share her findings, then writes a report for the attorney.

Roger Creager, a solo personal injury lawyer in Richmond, Va., has worked with Tecala on a number of cases that settled before trial. A grief expert, he said, can strengthen the plaintiff’s case and expedite a settlement.

“If you have a grief expert, and [the defense] knows they’re going to face a good, strong witness at trial who will convey in a powerful way the grief and suffering of these people, that will add to the settlement value of the case,” he said.

‘A death of the family’

Tecala views her role as helping attorneys and jurors understand the impact of a death on a family.

“I teach them what grief is, what the ramifications of grief are,” she said.

Hall said he used to think of deaths in wrongful death cases as “vertical losses,” and would ask a wife, for example, to discuss how the loss of her husband affected her personally.

He now thinks of such tragedies as “horizontal losses” that change the entire dynamic of a family.

“A death in a family is a death of the family,” he commented.

For example, he said, one of his cases involved a 16-year-old boy who was killed when his car was rear-ended by a truck on a highway when he ran out of gas. The mother blamed the father for not giving the son a bigger allowance so he would have had enough gas money.

The parents’ fighting became so severe that the boy’s sister felt abandoned by both parents.
Defense lawyers typically object to the admission of Tecala as an expert witness, arguing that a jury doesn’t need an expert to talk about grief.

“In qualifying her as an expert it’s very important that we lay out why [grief] isn’t understood by many, including other people in the mental health profession,” Hall said.

In cases where non-economic loss is recoverable, Tecala’s testimony has been admitted nine times out of 10, Hall said.

Tecala estimated that in the past 23 years she has testified in about 20 trials, and given depositions in about 10 other cases that settled prior to trial.

She said she often recommends the family seek treatment because mourning is affecting the family’s functioning.

Recently, for example, Tecala met with a mother whose daughter was killed in an accident.

The mother cried frequently, was unable to sleep and had lost a great deal of weight.

“I said to her, ‘You are severely depressed, you need to be evaluated for medication,’” recalled Tecala, who referred her to a psychiatrist.

Teaching compassion

Tecala also helps clients integrate their feelings about the legal process.

Sometimes, Hall explained, families — especially siblings — may be reluctant to get involved in litigation, viewing it as an unsavory attempt to get money from a loved one’s death. Or clients may tie their emotions so closely to the case that if the damages are lower than expected, the beneficiaries may feel that they don’t deserve more because they failed to save the loved one from death.

“Once they’ve retained counsel, the lawyer becomes part of the grieving process,” Hall noted.

“We have to be sensitive to what [clients’] expectations are and help them come out the other end with some sense of resolution.”

A grief counselor “serves to make what we do have a little more compassion associated with it,” he said.