Losing someone to another person's carelessness leaves you handling grief and paperwork at the same time. Filing a wrongful death lawsuit in California starts with confirming you are one of the people the statute allows to sue. From there, you prove duty, breach, causation, and damages, then file a complaint in the correct superior court. You generally have two years from the date of death, and only six months if a government entity is involved.
Since 1996, Burg & Brock has handled more than 20,000 injury and wrongful death cases from ten offices across California. We handle complex cases ranging from rideshare claims to catastrophic injuries and have helped clients recover over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements. Call us for a free consultation, and we will tell you within one conversation whether you have a case worth filing.
This article explores the people eligible for filing a wrongful death claim, the requirements needed, and the steps to filing a wrongful death lawsuit.
California law does not let just anyone sue. Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 sets out a closed list, and if you are not on it, your claim ends before it begins.
The decedent’s surviving spouse or registered domestic partner comes first, together with the decedent’s children. Those surviving children have standing regardless of whether they depended on the decedent financially. If a child died earlier, that child’s own children may step in. Where no spouse, domestic partner, or descendant survives, the right passes through intestate succession. That usually means the decedent’s parents, and sometimes siblings.
A separate group qualifies through dependency rather than bloodline. Financial dependents may file as well. A stepchild, a putative spouse, or a parent who relied on the decedent for half their financial support can qualify. Being financially dependent is the test, not affection. A long-term partner who never registered a domestic partnership generally cannot file, no matter how close the relationship was.
The decedent’s personal representative may also file on behalf of the eligible family members. Immediate family members still take priority over everyone else. That is a procedural convenience, not a separate right, and it does not expand who shares in the recovery. A person cannot sue over his or her own death, which is why this claim belongs to the survivors.
One rule surprises almost every family. California treats this as a single action, so all surviving family members with standing must join one lawsuit. You cannot have three siblings filing three separate cases. Whoever files must name the others, either as plaintiffs or as nominal defendants, so the court can resolve everything at once.
Cameron Yadidi Brock, our founding attorney, sees the consequence of that rule constantly. “Families come to us six weeks in with two heirs already filed and a third nobody told. Now we are unwinding a case instead of building one. Get every name on the list before anything is filed.”
Four elements must be established in a wrongful death claim, and a weakness in any one of them is where the defense will push. Duty is usually the first. You must show the defendant owed your loved one reasonable care. Drivers owe that to everyone on the road. Property owners owe it to lawful visitors in premises liability cases. Physicians owe patients the skill of a competent practitioner.
Breach is the second element, meaning the defendant fell short of that standard through negligence, a wrongful act, or intentional misconduct. Intentional acts such as an assault belong in this category too. A driver who ran a red light breached. So did a property owner who knew about a broken stair rail for months and did nothing.
Causation is the third, and it is where cases are won or lost. You have to connect the defendant’s breach to the decedent’s death, not merely to the incident. If someone else’s negligence caused a collision but your mother died weeks later from an unrelated illness, the chain breaks. Causation in medical malpractice is harder still, because the patient was already ill. Your attorney must show the negligence, not the illness, caused the death. This is how juries determine liability.
Damages complete the set. The court needs proof that your loved one’s death produced real financial and emotional losses. Those losses are measured against the survivors rather than the decedent.
The deadline is set in California Code section 335.1, which allows 2 years from the date of death. Note that it runs from the death, not the injury. If your husband was hurt in one of thousands of California car accidents in March and died in November, your clock starts in November.
Several situations change that. Medical malpractice runs on section 340.5, giving you one year from discovering the negligence or three years from the death, whichever comes first. Claims against a government entity require a written claim within six months under Government Code section 911.2, before you may file suit. That rule catches families in pedestrian accidents involving public vehicles or dangerous road conditions. Minors generally have the period tolled until they turn eighteen. The discovery rule can delay accrual where the true cause of death was genuinely concealed.
| Feature | Criminal homicide case | Civil wrongful death lawsuit |
|---|---|---|
| Who brings it | The District Attorney, on behalf of the state | Eligible family members or the decedent’s personal representative |
| Burden of proof | Beyond a reasonable doubt | More likely than not, a far lower bar |
| Possible outcome | Prison, probation, fines paid to the state | Financial compensation paid to the survivors |
| Your control | None, the prosecutor decides everything | You decide whether to file, settle, or try the case |
| If the other ends badly | An acquittal does not block your civil case | A civil verdict does not create a criminal conviction |
There is one more trap worth knowing. If your family member signed an arbitration agreement with a medical provider, the heirs can be bound by it. In Ruiz v. Podolsky, the California Supreme Court held that a patient’s arbitration agreement bound his wife and four adult children. Their wrongful death action went to arbitration because the agreement said it covered heirs. Check for a signed agreement before you assume a jury will hear your case.
Families often assume a criminal prosecution takes care of everything. It does not, and the two proceedings answer different questions. A criminal case asks whether the state can punish someone. Your civil wrongful death action asks whether a responsible party must pay you.
That fourth row matters most. A drunk driver may be acquitted and still be held liable to you. The jury in your case only has to find it more likely than not that he caused the victim’s death. Families who want to seek justice after an acquittal still have this route. Those who wait for the criminal case to finish sometimes find that the two-year deadline has expired by the time they finish waiting.
Two categories of wrongful death damages exist, and they behave differently. Economic damages are the calculable losses. They cover the financial support the decedent would have provided, the value of lost household services, funeral expenses, and burial expenses. An economist projects lost income across the working life the decedent would have had. Lost benefits are added, personal consumption is subtracted, and the total is reduced to present value. Household services surprise families. Childcare, cooking, repairs, and elder care all carry market rates, and a stay-at-home parent’s contribution frequently exceeds forty thousand dollars a year.
Non-economic damages cover what has no receipt. California juries are asked to value the loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, affection, society, and moral support. These are usually the larger figure, and there is no formula. Age, health, and the closeness of each relationship all shape the number.
Punitive damages are not available in the wrongful death claim itself. They can be recovered through a survival action brought by the decedent’s estate, where the conduct involved malice, oppression, or fraud. The survival action also captures the medical bills and lost wages your family member incurred between the injury and death. For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, section 377.34 no longer allows recovery of the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering. That change reduced the value of many wrongful death claims overnight.
Filing a wrongful death lawsuit involves several important steps, from determining who can file the claim to gathering evidence and meeting legal deadlines. Understanding the process can help families protect their rights and pursue the compensation they may be entitled to. Below are some key steps to take.
Wrongful death lawyers who take a case early can preserve what would otherwise disappear. Meet with an experienced attorney while evidence still exists. An experienced wrongful death attorney will send preservation letters the same week. Dash camera footage is overwritten on a rolling schedule; surveillance video is often kept for 30 days; and witnesses move. A preservation letter sent in week one is worth more than a subpoena sent in month six.
Before anything is filed, build the complete list of eligible family members. Missing one creates the procedural mess described above, and disputes among heirs are common in blended families.
If a public entity, employee, or dangerous public property contributed, present a written government claim within six months. This step is not optional, and it is not a lawsuit. Skipping it bars the case entirely.
Gather the traffic collision report, the coroner’s report, medical records and medical expenses, employment and tax records, and photographs. Retain the experts the case needs, whether an accident reconstructionist, a treating physician, or a forensic economist.
Your attorney files in the superior court for the county where the defendant lives or where the incident happened. Each defendant is then served with a summons. The complaint names the plaintiffs, identifies the responsible party, states the facts, and lists the causes of action.
Both sides exchange written questions, documents, and requests for admission, then take depositions. Discovery in a serious case often runs a year, and it is where most files are actually decided.
Most cases resolve at mediation or a settlement conference once discovery shows both sides what a jury would see. If the insurance company will not offer fair value, the case goes to trial.
Very few of these cases reach a jury, and the numbers are worth seeing. The Judicial Council of California’s 2026 Court Statistics Report covers fiscal year 2024 to 2025. California superior courts disposed of roughly 65,975 unlimited civil cases in the personal injury, property damage, and wrongful death category. Just 414 of them were resolved by jury trial.
That is well under one percent. It does not mean filing is pointless. It means the opposite, because a defendant who believes a case will actually be tried makes a serious offer. Families who seek compensation get it because the file is ready, not because they asked. The legal process rewards preparation, and trial is the threat standing behind every settlement.
The procedural rules on this page are not technicalities, because each one can end a valid case before anyone examines the merits. Evidence disappears in weeks, and the list of who may sue is fixed by statute. Nothing undoes such a loss. What a wrongful death lawsuit can do is force the responsible party to answer and steady your family’s finances.
At Burg & Brock, we work on contingency, so you owe nothing unless we recover, and we advance every investigation and expert cost ourselves. Our team deals with the coroner’s office, the insurance company, and the defense lawyers so your family does not have to. Contact us today to know the next steps to take.
Below are answers to common questions about how to file a wrongful death lawsuit in California.
You must be an eligible party under section 377.60, and you must prove duty, breach, causation, and damages. You also have to file within the statute of limitations, which is generally two years from the person’s death. If a government entity is involved, a written claim must come first within six months. Cases missing any one of these fail regardless of how sympathetic the facts are.
Two years from the date of death in most cases, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Medical malpractice is one year from discovery or three years from the death, whichever is earlier. Government claims require written notice within six months. The shortest of these can expire before probate even opens. Treat the date of death as day one rather than waiting for the estate to be sorted out.
A death claim in California is limited to a statutory list. The decedent’s surviving spouse, registered domestic partner, and children come first, followed by the children of deceased children. If none survive, the right passes through intestate succession, usually to the decedent’s parents. Stepchildren, a putative spouse, and others who were financially dependent may also qualify. The decedent’s personal representative can file on behalf of the legal heirs, and everyone eligible must join one action.
Funeral costs and burial expenses, loss of financial support, and the value of lost household services make up the economic side. The non-economic side covers loss of love, companionship, and moral support. A companion survival action brought by the deceased’s estate can recover compensation for medical bills and lost wages incurred before the victim’s death. It can also recover punitive damages where the conduct was malicious.
An attorney investigates, preserves evidence, and identifies every defendant and every heir of the deceased person. Any government claim goes first. Then comes the complaint, filed in the correct superior court and served on each defendant. Discovery, mediation, and trial follow if no fair resolution comes. Expect twelve to twenty-four months for a case that settles, and longer for one that does not.
Yes. The single-action rule requires all eligible heirs in one case. Comparative fault reduces the award by the decedent’s share of responsibility. An arbitration agreement your family member signed may bind you. Where the death happened on the job, a workers’ compensation claim and a third-party wrongful death action can run alongside each other. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 419 fatal work injuries in California in 2024, with transportation incidents causing 114 and construction 81. Getting that sequence right affects what your family keeps.
egal disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with the Law Offices of Burg & Brock. California wrongful death law changes, and every outcome depends on the specific facts of the case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Consult a licensed California attorney about your situation.
Cameron Brock is a recognized personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles with extensive experience and success representing individuals and families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases.
Cameron’s established track record of helping those who have been harmed by wrongful conduct, violations of safety rules, and defective products has focused on claims involving automotive product defect, tire product defect, commercial truck accidents, trash truck accidents, airplane and helicopter crashes, train disaster, government liability for dangerous condition of public property, and general negligence.
Read more about Cameron BrockWe turn your pain into payouts. No stress, no upfront fees, just real results when you need them most.
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