California Wrongful Death Lawyer

• A California wrongful death claim compensates the family for its own losses; a separate survival action recovers what the person who died lost before death (Code Civ. Proc. §§377.60, 377.30).
• Only certain people can file: the surviving spouse or domestic partner, children, and, if none, the people who would inherit under intestate succession, plus certain financially dependent relatives (§377.60).
• The deadline is generally two years from the date of death (§335.1), but only six months to present a claim if a public entity is involved (Gov. Code §911.2), and medical negligence has its own clock (§340.5).
• Families can recover lost financial support, household services, and the loss of love, companionship and guidance. Grief itself is not compensable, and pre-death pain and suffering is no longer recoverable in survival actions filed after Jan 1, 2026.
• If the person who died was partly at fault, the recovery is reduced, not barred, under California's pure comparative negligence rule.

Sources: Code Civ. Proc. §§335.1, 340.5, 377.30, 377.34, 377.60, 377.61 · Gov. Code §911.2 · Civ. Code §§1431.2, 3333.2 · Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804

Wilshire Law Firm is an award-winning, nationally recognized team that has helped grieving families across California hold negligent parties accountable, including wrongful death recoveries of $12.8 million, $10.3 million and $4 million. Wrongful death cases are different from injury cases in three ways that shape how we work. First, standing matters: California's one-action rule means every heir should be identified and joined in a single case, and we handle that from the start so no family member is left out or barred later. Second, evidence disappears: autopsy findings, police and CHP reports, vehicle data, surveillance footage and employer records must be requested in the first weeks. Third, the loss has to be proved in numbers: we work with economists and life-care planners to document the financial support, benefits and household services your family has lost over a lifetime, not only the funeral bill. You will have a legal professional available 24/7, and there are no fees unless you get paid.

A wrongful death claim is a civil action brought by surviving family members when a person dies because of another party's negligence or wrongful act (Code Civ. Proc. §377.60). It is separate from any criminal case: the prosecutor seeks punishment; the family seeks compensation for what it lost. A wrongful death claim can follow almost any fatal event caused by someone else's carelessness, including car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian and bicycle collisions, drunk-driving crashes, dangerous property conditions, defective products, workplace incidents and medical negligence. The claim belongs to the family, and the damages are measured by the family's losses. A second, related claim, the survival action, belongs to the estate and is explained below. A legal professional can review the circumstances during a free case review and tell you which claims your family has.

California limits who may bring a wrongful death claim, and the list is set by statute (Code Civ. Proc. §377.60):

• The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the children, and the issue of any deceased children (grandchildren) always have standing.
• If there is no surviving spouse, partner or issue, the people who would inherit under California's intestate succession law may file, which usually means the parents, and if there are no parents, siblings (Prob. Code §6402).
• Regardless of the above, a putative spouse, the children of a putative spouse, stepchildren, parents, or the legal guardians of the deceased may file if they were financially dependent on the person who died.
• A minor who lived in the household for the 180 days before the death and depended on the decedent for at least half of their support may also file.

The decedent's personal representative may bring the action on behalf of everyone entitled to recover. Because California allows only one wrongful death action per death, and all heirs should be joined in it (Cross v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (1964) 60 Cal.2d 690), confirming who has standing is the first legal step. See our detailed guide to who can file a wrongful death claim in California.

Most fatal-injury cases involve two separate claims. The wrongful death claim (Code Civ. Proc. §377.60) belongs to the family and compensates the family's own losses. The survival action (§377.30) belongs to the estate and recovers the losses the person who died suffered before death, such as their medical bills and lost wages between the injury and death, and any punitive damages the defendant's conduct warrants (§377.34(a)). It is brought by the personal representative or, if there is none, by a successor in interest who files a declaration with a certified death certificate (§377.32). The two claims can be joined or tried together (§377.62).

One rule changed on January 1, 2026. Between 2022 and 2025, California temporarily allowed survival actions to recover the decedent's own pain, suffering and disfigurement (§377.34(b)). That window closed for actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, after the bill to extend it stalled. Survival actions filed today recover economic losses and punitive damages, and the family's non-economic losses are recovered through the wrongful death claim.

Anyone whose negligence or wrongful act caused the death can be liable, and in most cases more than one party is. California's baseline rule is that everyone is responsible for injury caused by their want of ordinary care (Civ. Code §1714(a)). Depending on how the death happened, defendants may include an at-fault driver and their employer, a trucking company and its broker, a property owner, a product manufacturer, a bar or restaurant in limited circumstances, a hospital or physician, or a public entity responsible for a dangerous road or a government vehicle. Identifying every liable party matters for a practical reason: each defendant's share of non-economic damages is several, not joint (Civ. Code §1431.2), so a missing defendant can mean an uncollected share. If the person who died was partly at fault, the family's recovery is reduced by that percentage but not eliminated (Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804).

California lets the court award the damages that "under all the circumstances of the case, may be just" (Code Civ. Proc. §377.61), which in practice means two categories:

• Economic damages: the financial support the person who died would have contributed over their expected life, the loss of gifts or benefits the family would have received, funeral and burial expenses, and the reasonable value of household services they would have provided.
• Non-economic damages: the loss of the decedent's love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support, and, for a spouse, the loss of intimacy.

Two limits apply. Families cannot recover for their own grief or sorrow as such, and the wrongful death claim does not include punitive damages, which belong to the survival action. California puts no cap on non-economic damages in ordinary negligence cases. Medical negligence is the exception: MICRA caps non-economic damages in a wrongful death case at $650,000 in 2026, rising $50,000 each January until it reaches $1 million (Civ. Code §3333.2(c)). Because these numbers depend on the decedent's age, earnings and family, a free case review with a legal professional is the only way to understand what your family's claim may include.

In most cases, two years from the date of death (Code Civ. Proc. §335.1). Three situations shorten or change that clock:

• A public entity is involved (a city bus, a county vehicle, a dangerous public road): a written government claim must be presented within six months of the death (Gov. Code §911.2) before any lawsuit can be filed.
• Medical negligence caused the death: the action must be filed within three years of the injury or one year after the family discovered, or should have discovered, the injury, whichever comes first (Code Civ. Proc. §340.5).
• Evidence has its own deadlines. Commercial carriers can lawfully discard driver logs within six months, and surveillance footage is often overwritten within weeks. A preservation demand in the first days protects the case long before the legal deadline arrives.

Missing the deadline usually ends the claim permanently. A free case review with a legal professional, available 24/7, is the fastest way to know which deadline applies to your family.