Wrongful death cases

How I approach these cases

Families in these cases need two different things from a lawyer at once: relentlessness toward the defendant, and gentleness toward the family. You will not be pushed to make decisions on the defense's timeline. And you will never get sunshine instead of the truth — about what happened, what the case can achieve, and how long it will take.

What California law provides

• Who can bring the claim. Wrongful death claims belong to specific family members by statute — typically the spouse or domestic partner and children, and in some circumstances parents and other dependents. Sorting out the proper parties early prevents painful conflicts later, and all heirs' interests must be accounted for.
• The wrongful death claim compensates the family's own losses: the financial support the loved one would have provided, and the loss of their love, companionship, guidance, and protection — which California juries are instructed to value seriously, because it is usually the largest part of the harm.
• The survival claim belongs to the estate and covers the losses the loved one suffered before death. Which of those losses can be recovered depends on the statute in force when the case is filed, and that statute has changed in recent years. It travels alongside the wrongful death claim and is often overlooked.
• Deadlines. Generally two years, but government-entity involvement (a public roadway design case, a county vehicle) compresses the timeline to a six-month claim requirement. In a death case, assume the clock is short until a lawyer confirms otherwise.

The investigation the family deserves

Death cases justify the full apparatus: reconstruction experts, human-factors and biomechanical analysis, corporate discovery into the defendant's conduct, and economic experts to prove decades of lost support. Where the death arose from a crash, a defective product, or a dangerous property, that investigation frequently reveals institutional failures the family never suspected — and those failures are what move a case from an insurance transaction to real accountability.

A word about timing

Families are often contacted by insurers within days, while arrangements are still being made. You owe them nothing on their schedule. But evidence does decay — vehicles get salvaged, scenes change, video gets overwritten — so having someone act on preservation, even while the family isn't ready to think about a case, protects choices you may want later.

Common questions

We can't afford litigation while grieving. How does payment work?

Like all my injury work: contingency fee, nothing up front, no attorney's fee unless there's a recovery, costs advanced and explained in writing. If there is no recovery, you are not asked to repay the case costs the firm advanced, as long as the written agreement’s conditions are met (among them, following the firm’s advice and staying with the firm to the end of the case); if they are not met, you may owe those costs. Money should never be why a family can't pursue accountability.

The district attorney is prosecuting the driver. Do we still need a civil case?

The criminal case punishes; it does not compensate the family. The civil case is separate, runs on its own timeline, and can proceed regardless of the criminal outcome — a conviction helps, but even an acquittal doesn't end the civil claim, which has a lower burden of proof.

Our loved one was partly at fault. Is there still a case?

Often yes. California's comparative fault rules reduce rather than bar recovery, and early fault narratives — especially from police reports written in an afternoon — frequently change under expert scrutiny.