Los Angeles
Wrongful Death Lawyer

Who can bring the claim

California's wrongful death statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60, sets out exactly who may sue. It is not everyone who loved the person; it is a defined list.

Always

The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the children, and, if a child has died before the parent, that child's children.

If there is no surviving spouse, partner, or child

Whoever would inherit under California's intestacy rules, which usually means the parents, and then siblings.

If they were financially dependent on the person

A putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the deceased if the parents are deceased.

California requires all eligible family members to be brought into one action, so that the defendant faces a single case and the recovery is divided among the family rather than litigated piecemeal. Part of my early work is identifying everyone with a claim and making sure they are included or have knowingly declined.

What the family can recover

The law separates what the family lost into economic and non-economic losses. Both are real, and the second is usually larger.

Economic losses

• The financial support the person would have contributed to the family over their expected lifetime.
• The reasonable value of household services the person would have provided.
• Funeral and burial expenses.
• Gifts or benefits the family would have expected to receive.

Non-economic losses

• The loss of the person's love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support.
• For a spouse or partner, the loss of the intimate relationship.
• For a child, the loss of a parent's training and guidance.

Two things California does not allow the family to recover in a wrongful death claim: their own grief and sorrow, and the person's pain before death. The second belongs to the survival claim below. Juries are instructed on this distinction, and a claim presented honestly within it is stronger than one that is not.

The survival claim

Separate from the family's wrongful death claim, the person who died had their own claim against whoever hurt them, and that claim survives their death. It is brought by the estate's personal representative or successor in interest under Code of Civil Procedure section 377.30, and it covers the person's own losses before death: medical expenses, lost earnings between the injury and death, and property damage. Punitive damages, where the conduct justifies them, are recoverable in the survival claim but not in the wrongful death claim.

The rules on whether the estate can recover for the person's own pain and suffering before death have changed in recent years and depend on when the case is filed. I will tell you where they stand for your dates.

In most cases the wrongful death and survival claims are filed together, and coordinating who is the estate's representative is one of the first procedural steps.

Common causes

• Car accidents, including drunk driving and hit and run.
• Truck and commercial vehicle collisions.
• Motorcycle collisions.
• Pedestrian and bicycle collisions, where Los Angeles's numbers are among the worst in the country.
• Dangerous property conditions and inadequate security.
• Workplace incidents involving a third party other than the employer, which may proceed alongside a workers' compensation death benefit claim.

Deaths caused by medical negligence are also wrongful death claims, but they are governed by separate rules, shorter deadlines, and statutory limits on non-economic damages. If that is your situation, call, and I will either handle it or make sure you are with someone who focuses on it.

How the case proceeds

1. Preservation and investigation. The vehicle, the scene, the video, the phone records, the police and coroner's reports. Evidence in a death case is preserved with the seriousness the case deserves, immediately.
2. Identifying every responsible party and every policy. The at-fault driver's policy, employer coverage, umbrella coverage, and the family's own underinsured motorist coverage, which often applies. Death cases frequently exceed the at-fault party's policy, so finding every layer matters.
3. Identifying every heir and the estate representative. So the case is complete and the recovery can be distributed.
4. Building the damages case. Economic losses are often calculated by an economist. The non-economic case is built from the family's own account of who the person was.
5. Resolution. Most cases settle. Where minors are among the heirs, the court must approve their share. Where the heirs do not agree on division, the court decides.

Deadlines

Wrongful death

Two years from the date of death, which may be later than the date of the injury.

Survival claim

Generally the later of two years from the injury or six months after death, with the specific rule depending on the facts.

Government entity

Six months from the death to file a written government claim. Applies to public vehicles, public employees, and dangerous public roads.

Medical negligence

Shorter and more complicated: generally one year from discovery, with a three-year outer limit. Do not wait.

How I handle a wrongful death case

With care, and directly. You will not be handed to a case manager. I will explain each step before it happens, I will not push a family toward a decision on the defendant's timetable, and I will be honest about what the case is and is not. The consultation is free, there is no attorney fee unless there is a recovery, and there is no obligation to decide anything on the first call.

• I build the file for trial even though most cases settle, because the defendant prices settlement against what it expects in court. When a case needs a courtroom, it gets one.
• The fee and case costs are written down before any work begins, in plain language.

More about my background.

Wrongful death questions

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