English 
Spanish 
A California wrongful death claim allows eligible relatives to seek compensation when another person’s wrongful conduct causes a death. The claim addresses the family’s losses, including financial support, household services and companionship. It is different from a survival action, which addresses certain losses the person suffered before death. Keeping those two claims separate helps a family understand which records matter and what the law actually permits.
No legal process replaces a loved one. This guide explains who may bring a claim, how damages are documented and what happens during an investigation. State Law Firm’s Los Angeles wrongful death lawyers can review the circumstances and applicable deadlines without assuming that every tragic loss creates the same legal claim.
What makes a death legally wrongful?
A claim requires more than proof that someone died. Depending on the underlying legal theory, the family must establish actionable conduct, a connection between that conduct and the death, and legally recoverable losses. In a negligence case, that ordinarily means examining a duty of care, a failure to meet it and causation.
Possible settings include a fatal vehicle collision, dangerous property, a defective product or intentional violence. Medical-negligence and workplace deaths can involve additional rules, defendants or benefit systems. A criminal prosecution and a civil claim also serve different purposes; the existence or absence of criminal charges does not answer every civil-liability question.
An investigation should test the explanation against the available evidence. A collision report, for example, may identify witnesses and observations without resolving a disputed mechanical defect or the medical cause of death.
Who can file a wrongful death claim in California?
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 identifies the eligible claimants. Surviving spouses, registered domestic partners, children and descendants of deceased children are among the principal categories. If there is no surviving issue, people entitled to inherit through intestate succession may qualify.
The statute also provides routes for certain dependent relatives and other specified people, including some stepchildren, parents, putative spouses and minors who lived in the household and received qualifying support. Legal guardians qualify only under particular statutory conditions. Being close to the person, paying expenses or being named in a will does not by itself settle eligibility.
Give the reviewing attorney a complete family picture, including deceased children, dependents and any uncertainty about relationships. Eligible heirs’ claims ordinarily need coordinated handling rather than competing lawsuits. Section 377.61 also addresses how the court determines claimants’ respective rights in an award. Do not assume the relative handling arrangements is automatically the only person entitled to participate.
What damages can the family recover?
California’s official civil jury instructions, CACI 3921, distinguish economic and noneconomic losses following an adult’s death. The evidence must support the claimed losses; there is no universal payout, salary multiplier or price for a relationship.
Financial support, services and expenses
Economic losses can include the support the person would have contributed, expected gifts or benefits, funeral and burial expenses, and the reasonable value of household services. A salary figure is a starting point, not the family’s entire loss calculation. The analysis considers contributions, relevant life expectancies and supported assumptions about the future.
| Loss being evaluated | Records that may help |
|---|---|
| Financial support | Tax returns, pay records, benefit statements and evidence of contributions to household expenses |
| Household services | Specific childcare, transportation, maintenance or caregiving tasks and how regularly they were provided |
| Expected gifts or benefits | Consistent past practices and records supporting a reasonable expectation |
| Funeral and burial expenses | Itemized invoices, receipts and information identifying who paid or owes the charges |
Keep originals and describe the family’s actual routine. Do not inflate hours, estimate expenses from unrelated online settlements or present uncertain future earnings as established facts. Economic analysis may be needed for long-term support and present-value questions.
Companionship and guidance are different from grief
Noneconomic damages may address lost love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, moral support and, where applicable, training, guidance or the marital relationship. Testimony about shared routines and the relationship can explain these losses without reducing them to a formula.
Ordinary wrongful death damages do not include a separate award for the survivor’s grief, sorrow or mental anguish. That limitation does not minimize the loss. It identifies the categories California permits in this particular claim. Nor does this claim compensate the deceased person’s own pain and suffering. Separate legal theories require their own analysis.
How is a survival action different?
A survival action continues a claim that belonged to the person before death. It may involve injury-related medical expenses, lost earnings before death and other legally available damages. It is generally pursued by the estate’s personal representative or an authorized successor in interest, not simply by whichever relative brings the wrongful death claim.
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.34 requires particular care for pain-and-suffering questions. Its exception for specified survival actions includes a filing window beginning January 1, 2022 and ending before January 1, 2026, along with a separate qualifying-preference provision. A newly filed 2026 survival case does not automatically receive that exception. Other statutes, including certain elder-abuse provisions, require separate review.
The practical step is to keep two sets of questions: what did the family lose because of the death, and what did the person lose before death? Related claims may proceed together, but the same expense should not be counted twice. Punitive damages are not an ordinary wrongful-death damages category; any claimed exception or survival remedy needs specific legal support.
What happens during the claim process?
- Identify claimants and deadlines. Confirm relationships, estate authority, potential defendants and any public-agency involvement.
- Preserve the underlying evidence. Seek relevant reports, medical records, video, photographs, witness information and physical evidence before it disappears.
- Investigate responsibility and causation. An attorney may obtain records and appropriate expert opinions to test competing explanations.
- Document the family’s losses. Assemble financial records, expense documentation and specific accounts of services and relationships.
- Evaluate resolution options. Negotiations may occur, but a timely lawsuit may be needed. Litigation can include document requests, depositions, expert analysis, mediation and trial.
Not every case follows the same schedule, and a settlement is not guaranteed. Insurance availability, disputed fault, multiple defendants and the evidence all affect the path. A preservation request also does not mean every requested record will be produced immediately. Our explanation of evidence preservation and spoliation describes why identifying records early matters.
What deadlines should a family check first?
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 generally provides two years for wrongful death actions, commonly measured from the death. That is not a safe deadline to apply to every situation. Medical-negligence claims, public-entity claims and other circumstances can involve different rules.
When a public entity may be responsible, Government Code section 911.2 generally requires a claim to be presented within six months after accrual, before a lawsuit can proceed. The later lawsuit deadline is a separate issue. Do not assume that an insurer’s investigation, a criminal case or family discussions stop the clock.
Questions families often ask
Can a parent file if the person who died was an adult?
Possibly. Eligibility depends on the statutory family and dependency rules, including who survived the person. A parent should not assume either automatic eligibility or automatic exclusion based only on the child’s age.
Are the final hospital bills part of wrongful death damages?
They are generally analyzed as losses incurred before death in a survival claim, rather than simply added to the family’s wrongful death award. Who incurred the expense and which claim is being pursued matter.
Can the family bring a claim without a criminal conviction?
A civil wrongful death case does not generally depend on obtaining a criminal conviction first. The civil theory, evidence and burden of proof must be evaluated independently. Do not wait for criminal proceedings before checking civil deadlines.
What should we bring to an initial consultation?
Bring available reports, insurance correspondence, a family relationship summary and basic expense or support records. Explain what you do not yet have. You do not need to construct a damages calculation or obtain every record before asking about deadlines.
Get a clear review of the family’s options
State Law Firm can assess potential responsibility, eligible claimants and the records needed to evaluate a wrongful death matter. Families dealing with a fatal incident in San Bernardino can also review our San Bernardino wrongful death representation page. The first goal is a clear understanding of the available legal paths, not a promised settlement amount.
This article provides general California legal information, not legal advice for a particular family. Claims, deadlines and available damages depend on the facts and current law. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
