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Lawmakers in New York are seeking to expand the state's wrongful death statute to allow compensation for things like grief or loss of love and companionship in this year's legislative session.

The state's current laws only allow individuals to seek compensation based on the amount of potential income lost from the death of a loved one, which can often place limits on litigation.

They can also seek damages for pain and suffering, but the legislation before lawmakers in New York would expand the list of compensable factors to include items not currently considered by a jury when evaluating a case.

It's sponsored by Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, and state Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Courts only consider the economic importance of the deceased through lost income potential," Hoylman said. "Essentially, our legal system values the life of wealthy individuals more than a child or a senior, or a person with a disability."

The legislation would allow individuals to seek compensation for loss of love, society, protection, comfort, companionship and consortium resulting from the death of a loved one, according to the bill text. It would also allow damages for grief or anguish caused by the death.

That would be on top of any pecuniary damages that would result from the death, like loss of potential income, support or any diminishment of inheritance.

The bill also lists other factors that would be valid for seeking compensation under the wrongful death statute, like loss of nurture, guidance, counsel, advice, training and education. Essentially, the legislation would allow compensation for emotional loss.

"New York is one of only nine states that doesn't allow surviving family members to recover non-economic damages as part of a wrongful death suit," Hoylman said.

That means, as Hoylman said, that loved ones can often go uncompensated when someone is killed, but has no tangible economic value. When a child or aging parent dies, for example, someone can't seek damages for emotional loss from the person or entity responsible.

The idea has been a priority in recent years of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, which is known to be a powerful advocacy force on legal issues.

Judith Livingston, a senior partner with Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore and executive committee member of the Trial Lawyers Association, said the state's current wrongful death statute isn't fair to indigent individuals.

"New York's outdated wrongful death statute inherently favors the wealthy at the expense of working families, stay-at-home parents, retired or disabled individuals and children," Livingston said. "The value of one's life is far more than their salary or wages for those that are working, especially when someone is deemed responsible for their death by a court of law."

For areas like loss of income, it can be easy to imagine how attorneys would quantify such an amount. For other factors, like loss of love, such a calculation can be less clear for individuals who don't practice law. There's no formula for doing so in the legislation.

David Perecman, a personal injury attorney from New York City, said that decision is left up to the jury, or judge, with some help from attorneys.

"The answer is that you go in a room, talk to your fellow jurors, sometimes listen to suggestions from attorneys, and you come up with a number," Percman said. "Those numbers will ultimately be subject to review by the court. If people give crazy numbers, the court will knock them down."

Percman said his clients are often perplexed when he tells them New York law doesn't allow compensation in a wrongful death suit outside of pecuniary damages and pain and suffering. Parents who've lost their children are particularly stunned, he said.

"They don't believe you at times. Many of them are shocked," Percman said. "I've had cases that involve the death of children, and that is a case where our current archaic wrongful death law has its worst toll because children don't make money."

The bill from Hoylman and Weinstein would change that. Anyone would be able to bring a wrongful death suit against a person or entity for damages and compensation related to emotional value. Parents who lose their children could seek compensation, for example.

It's far from the first time the idea has been proposed. The bill has been floated for more than two decades, with little appetite from lawmakers.

Hoylman first took it on last year after Democrats gained a majority in the State Senate for the first time in nearly a decade. Weinstein's had the legislation longer. It's failed to pass either chamber in recent years, but lawmakers are making another go at it this year.

It's currently in the Codes Committee in the state Assembly and the Judiciary Committee in the state Senate. With Hoylman at the helm of the latter committee, the legislation is likely to move, but a majority of lawmakers have yet to make a firm commitment on the measure.

This year's legislative session runs through early June.

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