Toddler Death Law Suit Update

[CruisingAlong4Now]

There is a Go Fund me page in the name of Chloe Wiegand asking for $1000 for funeral expenses.  it was started July 2019 and now has total donations of $0.  However, there are multiple websites asking for donations.  Another website, Fundly, organized by the South Bend police union, has a donated balance of more than $22k towards a goal of $50k.  This one specifies that it is asking for help with legal fees.  There may be other websites. 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

5 minutes ago, CruisingAlong4Now said:

There is a Go Fund me page in the name of Chloe Wiegand asking for $1000 for funeral expenses.  it was started July 2019 and now has total donations of $0.  However, there are multiple websites asking for donations.  Another website, Fundly, organized by the South Bend police union, has a donated balance of more than $22k towards a goal of $50k.  This one specifies that it is asking for help with legal fees.  There may be other websites. 

Those could be legal fees for the Anello's defense.  

[Cruiser_1977]

Knowing that Kim Wiegand is an attorney (as of 2018 she was a Deputy Prosecutor in St. Joseph County IN), I would assume she had the contract drawn up such that they wouldn't owe any fees. However, without seeing the agreement it's impossible to know.

[xpcdoojk]

I have absolutely no dog in this fight.... but am I the only one that thinks these funding internet sites are complete conman things?  I think originally and in some cases they serve a legitimate purpose, but... seems ripe for fraud.  I think people feel, and they exploit those feelings.

 

JMHO and YMMV

 

jc

[Germancruiser]

A fundraiser for the funeral expenses- really? I almost chocked on my first cup of tea while reading that nonsense! I rather would spend a 1000 Dollars for stray cats. They ( the poor little girls family ) seem well enough off to pay for the funeral!

 

[mugtech]

You can afford a cruise, you can afford a funeral.

[Bloodgem]

10 hours ago, JennyB1977 said:

Knowing that Kim Wiegand is an attorney (as of 2018 she was a Deputy Prosecutor in St. Joseph County IN), I would assume she had the contract drawn up such that they wouldn't owe any fees. However, without seeing the agreement it's impossible to know.

Kim would have been in mourning, so maybe she did not read the contract.

[Bloodgem]

3 hours ago, mugtech said:

You can afford a cruise, you can afford a funeral.

I have no problem with them struggling to pay for a funeral, as it has come as an unexpected expense.

 

My problem is with the apparent lack of insurance (either because they could not afford insurance or decided not to have insurance). 

I'm assuming that if they had insurance the cost of the funeral would have been covered or part covered by the insurance.

[vacationlover_mn]

8 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

I have absolutely no dog in this fight.... but am I the only one that thinks these funding internet sites are complete conman things?  I think originally and in some cases they serve a legitimate purpose, but... seems ripe for fraud.  I think people feel, and they exploit those feelings.

 

JMHO and YMMV

I completely agree!  I set up a legit go-fund-me, after my brother had his 2nd stroke, and his health insurance had expired (long story).  It was just a small one- like $1000, to cover essential bills while they got their finances in order.  Well... random internet people put comments on their linking to THEIR go fund me’s, and wow- some really seemed made up...  I researched one of the people, and it appears they had several funds set up, each saying they had something different wrong with them (the one they linked to mine said they had a stroke, a different one said cancer, etc etc)

[A&L_Ont]

27 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I completely agree!  I set up a legit go-fund-me, after my brother had his 2nd stroke, and his health insurance had expired (long story).  It was just a small one- like $1000, to cover essential bills while they got their finances in order.  Well... random internet people put comments on their linking to THEIR go fund me’s, and wow- some really seemed made up...  I researched one of the people, and it appears they had several funds set up, each saying they had something different wrong with them (the one they linked to mine said they had a stroke, a different one said cancer, etc etc)

Sounds like they should try their penmanship at writing novels.😉
 

I have become cynical with some aspects of life in regards to this type of thing.  It makes me wonder if in their spare time they work their local street corner for change, and then drive home. One can only hope that karma calls upon this type of individual. 

[mjkacmom]

5 hours ago, Bloodgem said:

I have no problem with them struggling to pay for a funeral, as it has come as an unexpected expense.

 

My problem is with the apparent lack of insurance (either because they could not afford insurance or decided not to have insurance). 

I'm assuming that if they had insurance the cost of the funeral would have been covered or part covered by the insurance.

Does travel insurance cover expenses related to death? Having buried two family members in the past 4 years, a simple burial (one wake, one church service, one cemetery service with prepaid plot) runs around $13,000.

[buddylover]

9 hours ago, mugtech said:

You can afford a cruise, you can afford a funeral.

Kind of harsh......have you paid for a funeral recently????  WAYYYY more than the cost of a cruise!

[Cruiser_1977]

What about Life Insurance? Do folks not carry that as a matter of routine? I make sure that my coverage is enough to payoff anything outstanding and about $20K for funeral costs. Currently my minimum payout is way more than I would need but that is just how it's set up (I can't choose less LOL)

Edited February 20, 2020 by JennyB1977

[suesnake2002]

Never thought I'd be posting to this thread. But here it goes.

When you have a tragedy in life, it is your family,church,friends who come to your aid. Whether it be spiritual,moral support, or financial. People you know and love and who love you back will set up fundraisers. Whether it is as simple as a bake sale or a big blow out dinner and chinese auction. 

The fact that you have to ask strangers for money says you lack these people in your life. And I'm sorry it also says something about you. If you don't give of yourself to others, chances are no one is gonna give to you. 

[jenf22]

1 hour ago, JennyB1977 said:

What about Life Insurance? Do folks not carry that as a matter of routine? I make sure that my coverage is enough to payoff anything outstanding and about $20K for funeral costs. Currently my minimum payout is way more than I would need but that is just how it's set up (I can't choose less LOL)

I'm not totally sure, but I don't think our work policies or the supplemental policy we have would cover the funeral of our child.  I think we couldn't bring ourselves to have one for him.  It just doesn't seem right to think about the death of your baby.  It's actually hard to just type those words.  But I could be wrong.  It's possible the supplemental policy has something in there for children.

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, JennyB1977 said:

What about Life Insurance? Do folks not carry that as a matter of routine? I make sure that my coverage is enough to payoff anything outstanding and about $20K for funeral costs. Currently my minimum payout is way more than I would need but that is just how it's set up (I can't choose less LOL)

Do you have life insurance on your children? The policy through DH’s work will cover our funerals, plus we have term, $500,000 for me, a million on him, purchased it when our children were born to cover loss of income/childcare/mortgage. We don’t have life insurance policies on our children, God forbid anything happens we can afford a funeral. My DH is a CPF and says that in most cases, life insurance for children doesn’t make financial sense.

[mjkacmom]

49 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

Never thought I'd be posting to this thread. But here it goes.

When you have a tragedy in life, it is your family,church,friends who come to your aid. Whether it be spiritual,moral support, or financial. People you know and love and who love you back will set up fundraisers. Whether it is as simple as a bake sale or a big blow out dinner and chinese auction. 

The fact that you have to ask strangers for money says you lack these people in your life. And I'm sorry it also says something about you. If you don't give of yourself to others, chances are no one is gonna give to you. 

The police department that the father worked for set up the funding page, looks like they’ve collected over $22,000. A mother and child died in a fire in their home here recently, a friend set up a go fund me page (raised $35,000 in 3 days). The majority of the time, for legitimate funding pages, the recipient isn’t the one who set it up, it’s usually friends of family members, like this case. In the case of our local fire, there were other local fundraisers as well. Do you know Chloe’s community? I’d be very surprised if there weren’t fundraisers.

[BeachChik]

18 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Do you have life insurance on your children? The policy through DH’s work will cover our funerals, plus we have term, $500,000 for me, a million on him, purchased it when our children were born to cover loss of income/childcare/mortgage. We don’t have life insurance policies on our children, God forbid anything happens we can afford a funeral. My DH is a CPF and says that in most cases, life insurance for children doesn’t make financial sense.

 

My job offers coverage for children. Costs about $2 a month for $10,000 in coverage

[Cruiser_1977]

@jenf22 @mjkacmom I don't have kiddos. The policy here at work states "Your children 14 days to 6 months: $250 Six Months & Older: $10,000 to the lesser of the Employee Life Amount or $10,000. Child age limit is 26 years old." I just asked co-worker with kids and he said it's less the $5/month for his kids/spouse. Doesn't specifically cover funerals it's one-time payout. I guess you could use it for whatever.

 

If folks don't have the savings/credit to cover a $10,000 funeral then I think it's cost effective. However, I am not a CFP and did not stay at a Holiday Inn last night. That is simply my opinion. I'd rather take out Life Insurance than beg for $$ on the internet...

Edited February 20, 2020 by JennyB1977

[vacationlover_mn]

1 hour ago, suesnake2002 said:

Never thought I'd be posting to this thread. But here it goes.

When you have a tragedy in life, it is your family,church,friends who come to your aid. Whether it be spiritual,moral support, or financial. People you know and love and who love you back will set up fundraisers. Whether it is as simple as a bake sale or a big blow out dinner and chinese auction. 

The fact that you have to ask strangers for money says you lack these people in your life. And I'm sorry it also says something about you. If you don't give of yourself to others, chances are no one is gonna give to you. 

So, note, the only reason I did a go fund me for my brother, is because our family is scattered everywhere, and this was the best way to reach them...  strangers weren’t my target audience...  my family was 🙂

[carib1]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

Do you have life insurance on your children? The policy through DH’s work will cover our funerals, plus we have term, $500,000 for me, a million on him, purchased it when our children were born to cover loss of income/childcare/mortgage. We don’t have life insurance policies on our children, God forbid anything happens we can afford a funeral. My DH is a CPF and says that in most cases, life insurance for children doesn’t make financial sense.

I have life insurance on all my children.  Why would i not?  We have lost a child to an auto accident--the funeral was $17,000, plus time off to grieve and counseling for us and our other children ran well into the thousands.  Not only that, but if your child develops a medical condition like diabetes, they will forever be ineligible for life insurance.  Currently there are over 800,000 go fund me pages for funeral funds, a significant amount of those are for children.  You have to think beyond just funeral cost with a death of a child.

[jenf22]

47 minutes ago, JennyB1977 said:

@jenf22 @mjkacmom I don't have kiddos. The policy here at work states "Your children 14 days to 6 months: $250 Six Months & Older: $10,000 to the lesser of the Employee Life Amount or $10,000. Child age limit is 26 years old." I just asked co-worker with kids and he said it's less the $5/month for his kids/spouse. Doesn't specifically cover funerals it's one-time payout. I guess you could use it for whatever.

 

If folks don't have the savings/credit to cover a $10,000 funeral then I think it's cost effective. However, I am not a CFP and did not stay at a Holiday Inn last night. That is simply my opinion. I'd rather take out Life Insurance than beg for $$ on the internet...

I just pulled up my employee health profile and I have no life insurance for my spouse or dependent.   We used to have that included but now you can only get that if you purchase supplemental for yourself.  I looked into that this year and to get just a tiny bit more you have to go through the whole medical testing thing.  They called on a particularly bad day and I said "never mind" and just cancelled the extra life.  I probably should have just done it.  I think I was mad that they took this benefit away.  I work for a GIANT company and our benefits get worse and worse every year.

 

I'll have to check our supplemental plan and see if our kiddo is included in that.  We should add him if he's not.  @carib1 raises some very valid points. 

 

This whole situation makes me so sad... and then so mad.  My cousin is on a Royal cruise right now and just posted a picture of 2 of her kids up against the glass on the ground looking out to sea.  They're touching the glass... 

[not-enough-cruising]

3 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

Do you have life insurance on your children? The policy through DH’s work will cover our funerals, plus we have term, $500,000 for me, a million on him, purchased it when our children were born to cover loss of income/childcare/mortgage. We don’t have life insurance policies on our children, God forbid anything happens we can afford a funeral. My DH is a CPF and says that in most cases, life insurance for children doesn’t make financial sense.

Bought $50,000 life policies on all my children within a month or so of their birth, (Covering then until age 21 I believe) it cost next to nothing; thank God we never had to use those policies; however I do know people

that have had to and they were VERY thankful they had the financial support. 

[acpalmer]

22 hours ago, JennyB1977 said:

2) The firm (Winkleman) hired to go after RCCL. That firm is Lipcon, Margulies, Alsina & Winkleman, P.A. From their website "If you are struggling with the aftermath of a complicated offshore injury, death or accident, let us give you a free case evaluation to determine if you may be entitled to compensation for your medical care, pain, suffering and more. We work exclusively on a contingency fee basis. This means you never pay us a penny unless we make a successful recovery on your behalf." - https://www.lipcon.com/admiralty-maritime-lawyer/

What I wonder about this, though, is if the client drops the case, then are they responsible for fees for work done up to that point?  By dropping the case, the client has effectively denied the law firm the ability to "make a successful recovery on your behalf" and so would the client owe the firm?  It seems like they would--it's only if they actually go through with the case and are unsuccessful in court that they wouldn't owe, I would think.  Or if the lawyer ultimately says, "Yeah, this is going no where--we should cut our losses and drop it now."

 

I truly don't know, as I'm not a lawyer, it just seems that would eliminate the incentive to drop it--wouldn't you at least have to let the lawyer try if the lawyer wants to in order to truly say they were unsuccessful?

 

Don't get me wrong, I think this case is without merit, but I'm not an ambulance chaser and Winkleman, I think, sees it differently.

[tinkertwo]

Did anyone notice that Gofund me page was set up by someone in Charlotte, NC?  Do they have family there?  I wonder if it is in fact not a legit funding page.  Sad if someone would use this for personal gain.  

Edited February 20, 2020 by tinkertwo