There is no good time to read a page like this, and the two things that matter most are both about timing.
California decides who is allowed to bring a wrongful death claim, and the list is narrower than most families expect. A parent, a stepchild or a long-term partner may or may not be on it depending on facts that have nothing to do with how close they were to the person who died. Finding that out early is what prevents a family from spending months on a claim the law will not let them bring, or from assuming they have no standing when they do.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Who California Allows to File
Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 sets out two tiers, and the difference between them decides a great many cases.
The first tier does not have to prove anything about their relationship. The surviving spouse, the domestic partner, the children, and the issue of any deceased child. If none of those exist, the people who would inherit under California’s rules of intestate succession.
The second tier has to prove financial dependency. A putative spouse, that spouse’s children, stepchildren, parents, and the decedent’s legal guardians where the parents have died. Each of those may bring a claim only “if they were dependent on the decedent”.
Parents are the ones this catches most often. A mother and father who lose an adult child are in the tier that must show they were financially dependent on that child. Where the adult child was supporting them, that is provable and the claim proceeds. Where the relationship was close but the parents were financially independent, the statute may not let them bring it, however unjust that feels. It is a question worth answering in the first week rather than the sixth month.
Not sure whether you are entitled to bring the claim?
California restricts who may file, and parents sit in the tier that has to prove dependency. We can answer that in one call.
Two Different Claims, and a Rule That Changed in January
Most families are actually looking at two claims running side by side, and they compensate different losses.
The wrongful death claim belongs to the family, and it compensates what the survivors lost: the financial support the person would have provided, the value of household services they performed, and the loss of their love, companionship, comfort and guidance.
The survival action belongs to the estate, and it covers what the person themselves lost between the injury and the death: medical bills, lost earnings in that period, and any punitive damages they could have recovered had they lived.
The rule on survival damages changed on 1 January 2026 and most pages on the internet have not caught up. Under Code of Civil Procedure 377.34, a survival action’s damages “do not include damages for pain, suffering, or disfigurement”. Between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2026 there was a temporary exception permitting exactly those damages, and that window has closed. An action filed today falls under the ordinary rule.
This matters because it changes the shape of a case rather than only its size. What the person suffered before dying is no longer separately compensable in the estate’s claim, so the family’s own losses under the wrongful death claim carry more of the weight than they did two years ago. Code of Civil Procedure 377.61 keeps the two claims strictly separate, so the same loss cannot be recovered twice.
What a Wrongful Death Claim Can Cover
The financial support the person would have provided over their working life, and the value of household services they performed, which is frequently undercounted because nobody was paying for it. Funeral and burial costs. Medical expenses incurred before death. The loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support.
That last category is the largest element in most of these cases and the hardest to evidence, which is precisely why an early offer is almost always low. An insurer’s first number is calculated on documents. It is not calculated on what a household actually lost.
When a Public Entity Is Involved, the Clock Is Six Months
This is the deadline that ends otherwise strong cases, and grieving families are the least likely group to hear about it in time.
Where a city, county, transit operator, school district or state agency may share responsibility, a written claim must be presented under Government Code 911.2 before any lawsuit against that entity becomes possible. Six months, not two years.
It comes up more often than people expect: a public bus, a police or city vehicle, a road defect or a missing guardrail, an unsafe intersection, a public hospital, a school transport vehicle. A crash involving both a private driver and a public entity is two claims running on two different clocks from the same day.
What the First Weeks Are Actually For
Nobody in this position wants to think about evidence, and a good deal of what decides these cases is already running down while a family is arranging a funeral.
A criminal case is not your case. Where there is a prosecution, families frequently wait for it to finish before doing anything. The civil claim runs on its own deadlines, which do not pause for criminal proceedings, and the standard of proof is lower. A defendant acquitted at trial can still be held liable in a civil action on the same facts.
An autopsy and the records around it matter. So do the treating records from any period between the injury and the death, because those are what the estate’s claim is built from now that pain and suffering are out of it.
The physical evidence is on the ordinary timetable. A vehicle gets repaired or scrapped, footage overwrites, a road defect gets fixed, and witnesses become harder to find. None of that waits.
Financial records do more work than families expect. Where the claim rests on the support the person provided, tax returns, payslips, bank records and evidence of what they did around the house are the proof. Where a parent has to establish dependency to have standing at all, those documents are not supporting material, they are the case.
What we usually do first is put the people holding evidence on notice in writing. That does not commit anybody to litigation and it stops the clock on the things that would otherwise quietly disappear.
They Are Saying the Person Who Died Was Partly at Fault
This argument arrives in most of these cases and it does not end the claim.
California is a pure comparative fault state, settled in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. If the person who died is found partly responsible, the family’s recovery is reduced by that share. There is no percentage past which the right to bring the claim disappears.
It is worth knowing that this argument is often made early and abandoned later, because it depends on evidence the insurer does not have yet either.
What Is a Wrongful Death Claim Worth?
There is no formula, and in these cases the largest element is the hardest to evidence.
A claim is built from the financial support the person would have provided across their working life, the value of the household services they performed, funeral and burial costs, and the loss of their love, companionship, comfort, care and guidance. That last category is usually the largest, and it is the one an insurer’s first offer is least able to price, because an adjuster working from documents in the first weeks has no evidence about it at all.
There is no multiplier and no table in California law for that loss, and no cap on it. It is argued from the evidence of what the person did for the people around them.
Remember what changed. Since 1 January 2026 the estate’s survival action can no longer recover the person’s pain, suffering or disfigurement, so more of the weight now sits in the family’s own claim than it did two years ago.
How Long Does a Wrongful Death Case Take?
Months in a straightforward case, considerably longer where fault is disputed, several parties are involved, or a criminal prosecution is running alongside.
The civil case does not wait for the criminal one. They run on separate timetables and the civil deadlines do not pause for a prosecution, which is the most common reason a family loses time. Where a public entity is involved, the six-month written claim has to be presented regardless of what else is happening.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer, and What Comes Out of a Settlement?
Nothing up front. California personal injury work is done on contingency, so the fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is no fee at all if there is no recovery.
The percentage is set out in a written fee agreement before any work begins, and California requires contingency fee agreements to be in writing and given to the client. That document governs, not a figure quoted on a website.
What comes out of a recovery, in order: the attorney’s fee under that agreement, then the case costs the firm advanced to build the claim, such as records, filing fees and expert reports, then any medical liens where a provider or health plan has a right to be repaid. What remains goes to you.
That is why a headline settlement figure and the amount somebody actually receives are different numbers. Ask for that breakdown at the first meeting.
How Long Do You Have?
Two years, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. In a wrongful death case the period generally runs from the date of death rather than the date of the injury, which can be considerably later.
Six months to present a claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2.
Where children are among those entitled to file, Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary period while they are under 18. The six-month government claim rule is not paused in the same way.
One claim, brought once. California requires the wrongful death claim to be brought as a single action on behalf of all eligible heirs rather than as separate lawsuits. Where family members are estranged or disagree, that has to be worked through rather than avoided, and it is another reason not to leave the question of who is entitled until late.
Was a city vehicle, a public road or a transit operator involved?
That puts a six-month written deadline on the claim instead of two years. It is worth confirming now.
Where These Cases Come From
A wrongful death claim takes its facts from the underlying event, and that decides who is liable and what insurance is behind it.
Most arrive from vehicle collisions, running on the same rules as any car accident claim. A truck collision brings a far higher federal insurance floor and federally regulated records that expire in six months. Somebody killed while walking or cycling had nothing between them and the vehicle. A fatal fall or an unsafe property is a premises liability claim. Where a person survives an injury for a period before dying, the case frequently began as a catastrophic injury or a brain injury claim.
Where We Handle Wrongful Death Cases
We take wrongful death cases across California: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Gardena and Long Beach.
Why Families Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. Families dealing with a death should not have to travel to a law office to find out where they stand. We will meet you at home or wherever is easiest.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Discussing what happened to someone you loved in a second language is not something anybody should have to do.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win, and somebody answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Wrongful Death FAQs
My adult child died and I was not financially dependent on them. Can I still file?
That is the hardest question in this area. Parents fall into the tier of Section 377.60 that must show dependency on the person who died. Where you were receiving support, that is provable. Where you were not, standing may be a real obstacle, and there may be other routes worth examining. It is worth asking early rather than assuming either way.
We were together for years but never married. Do I have a claim?
It depends on how the relationship was formally constituted. A registered domestic partner is in the first tier alongside a spouse. A putative spouse, meaning someone who genuinely believed they were married under a marriage that turns out to be void or voidable, is in the second tier and must show dependency. An unregistered partner may have no standing at all, which is a harsh result and one worth getting a clear answer on quickly.
Can the estate recover for what my family member suffered before they died?
Not any longer, for a case filed now. Between January 2022 and January 2026 a survival action could include the person’s pain, suffering and disfigurement. That window has closed, and an action filed today is limited to their economic losses before death plus any punitive damages. Pages that say otherwise were written during the exception and never updated.
A city bus was involved. Does that change the deadline?
Yes, and severely. A claim against a public entity must be presented in writing within six months rather than two years, and missing it can end the case against that entity regardless of the facts.
The insurance company has already offered a settlement. Should we take it?
Not without advice. An early offer is calculated from documents, and the largest element of a wrongful death claim, the loss of a person’s companionship, care and guidance, is not something an adjuster has evidence about in the first weeks.
We are undocumented. Can we bring a claim safely?
Yes. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either.
Can several family members each bring their own lawsuit?
No. California requires the wrongful death claim to be brought as a single action on behalf of all eligible heirs. Where relatives are estranged or disagree, that has to be worked through rather than avoided, which is another reason to settle the standing question early.
There was no will. Does that stop us?
No. A will governs the estate rather than the right to bring a wrongful death claim, and Section 377.60 sets out who may sue independently of any will. A survival action does need somebody appointed to act for the estate, which is a process rather than an obstacle.
A criminal case is going ahead. Should we wait for it?
No. The civil deadlines do not pause for a prosecution, and the civil standard of proof is lower, so an acquittal does not prevent civil liability. Waiting is the most common way families lose time.
A child lost a parent. Is anything different for them?
Yes. The ordinary limitation period is paused while a child is under 18, and any recovery on their behalf is usually subject to court approval and protective arrangements about how it is held until they are an adult.
Contact a Culver Legal Wrongful Death Attorney
Two questions decide most of these cases and both are answerable quickly: who the law allows to bring the claim, and whether a public entity is involved and has put you on a six-month clock. Family members frequently guess wrong on both. If you have lost someone in California, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The conversation costs nothing and carries no obligation.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
