Wrongful Death Claims: Who Can Sue, Deadlines and Damages by State

When someone dies because of another person’s or company’s negligence or misconduct, state law lets certain family members, or the estate’s representative, bring a civil claim for what the death took from them. Who can sue, what they can recover and how long they have are all set by each state’s wrongful death statute, and the differences between states are larger here than in almost any other kind of injury case.

This guide explains how these claims are structured, using California, New York, Texas and Florida as examples. If you’re dealing with a recent loss, the most time-sensitive part is the filing deadline, covered below.

Deadline to sue2 yearsIn CA, NY and TX, with exceptions

Who filesFamily or estateSet by each state’s statute

Grief damages in New YorkNot allowedRecovery limited to financial losses

Two different claims: wrongful death and survival

Most states recognize two separate claims after a fatal injury, and families are often surprised to learn they’re not the same thing.

A wrongful death claim belongs to the survivors. It compensates them for their own losses: the income and support the person would have provided, the household services they performed, and in many states the loss of their companionship and guidance.

A survival claim belongs to the person who died. It’s the injury claim they would have had if they had lived, which “survives” their death and passes to their estate. It typically covers medical bills from the injury, wages lost between the injury and death, and in some states the pain the person suffered before dying. Money from a survival claim goes through the estate, which means it can be reached by the estate’s creditors and passes under the will or the state’s inheritance rules.

Texas spells out both in one chapter of its civil code. The wrongful death action is for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children and parents, while a separate provision says the injured person’s own claim passes to their heirs, legal representatives and estate. In practice, lawyers usually file both claims together in the same lawsuit.

Who can bring a wrongful death claim

States answer this in two main ways. Some name the family members who can sue directly. Others require the estate’s personal representative (the executor named in a will, or an administrator appointed by the probate court) to file on behalf of the family.

State	Who files	Who benefits
California	The heirs named in the statute, or the personal representative on their behalf	Spouse, registered domestic partner, children and grandchildren of deceased children; if none, whoever would inherit. Also certain dependents, and a minor who lived in the household for the prior 180 days and got at least half their support from the person who died.
New York	The personal representative	The person’s distributees (close family who inherit under state law)
Texas	Spouse, children or parents, one for all; if none files within three months, the executor or administrator must, unless all of them ask not to	Spouse, children and parents only
Florida	The personal representative	Spouse, children, parents, and blood relatives or adoptive siblings who depended on the person for support or services

Notice who is often left out. Siblings, unmarried partners and grandparents may have no claim at all unless they were dependents or no closer relatives survive. In Texas, a brother or sister can’t be a wrongful death beneficiary under the statute, no matter how close they were.

Where a personal representative has to file, someone first has to be appointed by the probate court if no estate has been opened yet. That can take weeks, and it eats into the filing deadline. Our probate guide explains how an estate gets opened.

How long you have to file

Two years is common, but where the clock starts and what pauses it differ. In California, the general two-year limit covers actions for a death caused by someone’s wrongful act or neglect. New York requires a wrongful death action to be started within two years of the death. Texas also allows two years, counted from the death rather than the original injury, which matters when someone lingers for months after an accident. A Texas survival claim follows the deadline for the underlying injury instead, so the two claims can run out on different dates.

Deaths involving a government agency or employee (a city bus, a public hospital, a police vehicle) usually have a much shorter first step. In California, a written claim for a death or personal injury must be presented to the public entity within six months before a lawsuit is allowed. Medical malpractice deaths can carry their own notice rules and deadlines as well. Talk to a lawyer well before any of these deadlines.

A criminal case doesn’t automatically stop the civil clock, though some states give families extra time. New York, for example, gives the personal representative at least one year after a criminal case against the same defendant over the same event ends, even if the usual two years would otherwise have run out.

What a wrongful death claim can recover

The financial losses are the core of almost every claim: the income the person would have earned and shared with the family, the value of services like child care or home repairs, and medical and funeral expenses. Calculating future lost support often takes an economist, who looks at the person’s age, earnings history, work-life expectancy and what share of their income went to the family.

Beyond that, states split sharply on emotional loss.

Florida spells it out by relationship. A surviving spouse can recover for loss of companionship and protection and for mental pain and suffering. Minor children can recover for lost parental companionship, instruction and guidance, and for their own mental pain. Florida defines “minor children” for this purpose as children under 25, regardless of the age of majority. Parents of a minor child can recover for their mental pain and suffering. Survivors can also recover medical or funeral expenses they paid.

New York sits at the other end. Its statute limits recovery to “fair and just compensation for the pecuniary injuries” from the death, meaning financial loss. Grief and loss of companionship aren’t recoverable. The legislature has repeatedly passed the Grieving Families Act, which would let families seek compensation for grief and anguish, and Governor Kathy Hochul has vetoed it each time. The most recent veto, her fourth, was on December 5, 2025.

Texas leaves the amount to the jury, which may award damages “proportionate to the injury resulting from the death” and then divide them among the spouse, children and parents. If the death came from a willful act or omission or from gross negligence, Texas also allows exemplary (punitive) damages on top of actual damages.

Florida’s medical malpractice exception

One Florida rule deserves its own mention because it catches families off guard. In wrongful death cases based on medical negligence, adult children (25 and older) can’t recover for lost companionship or their own pain and suffering, and parents of an adult child can’t recover for their mental pain. If an unmarried adult with no minor children dies because of a doctor’s error, there may be no one who can recover non-economic damages at all. The legislature voted in 2025 to repeal that provision, and Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill on May 29, 2025. A second attempt in 2026 (Senate Bill 1700 and its House companion) died in committee in March 2026, so the rule remains in effect.

California’s change for survival claims

California is a good example of how quickly these rules move. For many years, a California survival claim couldn’t include the pain and suffering the person went through before dying. A 2022 law (SB 447) temporarily allowed it for cases filed from January 1, 2022 through the end of 2025. That window has closed. For survival claims filed on or after January 1, 2026, California is back to the older rule limiting them to economic losses, with punitive damages available in limited situations. The family’s own wrongful death claim is a separate matter and isn’t affected by this change.

Common situations behind these claims

Common sources include traffic crashes, medical errors, defective products, unsafe property, nursing home neglect, and violent crime where a business failed to provide reasonable security. Each brings its own rules on top of the wrongful death statute: malpractice caps and expert affidavits, product liability standards, or insurance coverage questions.

Deaths at work are different. If the person was killed on the job, their dependents usually receive death benefits through workers’ compensation, and that system generally bars a lawsuit against the employer. A wrongful death claim may still be possible against someone else involved, like the driver of another vehicle or the maker of a defective machine. Our workers’ compensation guide covers how that works.

When there’s also a criminal case

A civil wrongful death claim and a criminal prosecution are separate cases with different goals and different standards of proof. The criminal case is brought by prosecutors and asks whether the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil case is brought by the family and asks whether the defendant is more likely than not responsible, which is a lower bar. A defendant can be acquitted in criminal court and still be found liable in a civil case. A conviction, on the other hand, can make the civil case much easier.

The practical problem is collecting. Liability insurance often excludes intentional acts, so a civil judgment against an uninsured individual may be hard to turn into money. Lawyers in these cases look for other parties with insurance, such as a property owner, employer or business that should have prevented the harm.

How the money gets divided

This depends on the state and on whether the money comes from the wrongful death or survival claim. In Texas, the jury divides wrongful death damages among the eligible family members in its verdict. In other states, a court approves how a settlement is split, sometimes with a hearing. If any beneficiary is a minor, many states require a court to approve the settlement, and the court may require the child’s share to be held in a restricted account or structured payments until adulthood.

Family disagreements over the split are common, especially in blended families. When one relative files on behalf of all, the others have a stake in the outcome even if they never hired the lawyer, so it’s worth getting everyone on the same page early.

Choosing a wrongful death lawyer

Most wrongful death lawyers work on contingency, taking a percentage of the recovery and nothing if there’s none. Our personal injury guide walks through how those fees and case costs are calculated. Some questions are specific to death cases:

Does an estate need to be opened first, and who should be the personal representative?
Which deadline applies, including any government claim or malpractice notice requirement?
Will you bring both a wrongful death claim and a survival claim?
Who are the legal beneficiaries in this state, and how will a recovery be divided among them?
Have you handled cases against this kind of defendant (a hospital, a trucking company, a manufacturer)?

Your state bar can confirm a lawyer’s license and disciplinary record, and most state and local bars run lawyer referral services.

Things that help any lawyer evaluate the claim quickly: the death certificate, any police or incident report, medical records from the final illness or injury, the person’s recent tax returns or pay stubs, and any insurance policies that might apply. You don’t need all of them before a first consultation.