Los Angeles Wrongful Death Lawyer

Wrongful Death Lawyer Los Angeles

When Someone You Love Died Because Another Person Was Careless

We are sorry you have a reason to read this page. Nothing written here can make the loss smaller, and no legal claim brings a person back. What a claim can do is narrower and still matters: it can replace the income your household depended on, pay the costs the death left behind, and hold the person or agency that caused it accountable.

If you are looking for a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer, Ravan Law represents families across Los Angeles County after a fatal collision, a death caused by a bus or public vehicle, a fall on unsafe property, or a dog attack. This page explains who may bring a claim in California, what a family can recover, how a settlement is divided, and which deadlines apply. You do not have to decide anything today, but some of the deadlines are short.

Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation whenever you are ready. No fee unless we win. Information is available in Spanish.

What a Wrongful Death Claim Is in California

A wrongful death claim is a civil case brought by the family of a person whose death was caused by “the wrongful act or neglect of another.” Those words come from Code of Civil Procedure 377.60, the statute that creates the claim. In most of our cases the wrongful act is ordinary negligence: a driver who ran a light, or a property owner who left a known hazard in place.

The claim is separate from any criminal case. Your family decides whether to bring a civil claim, which is decided on a lower standard of proof (more likely true than not) and does not depend on an arrest or a conviction.

The claim belongs to the surviving family members, and it compensates them for what they have lost. That is the main difference between a wrongful death claim and the survival action described below.

Who May Bring a Claim: A Wrongful Death Attorney Explains Section 377.60

California does not let every relative bring a wrongful death claim. Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 sets the list. The claim may be brought by the people below, or by the personal representative of the estate on their behalf.

A “putative spouse” is someone who believed in good faith that they were validly married to the person who died, although the marriage was void or voidable.

A partner who was neither married to nor in a registered domestic partnership with the person who died generally has no wrongful death claim, however long the relationship lasted. When a person leaves no descendants, the right to bring the claim follows the intestate succession rules in Probate Code 6401 and 6402. We work out who qualifies in your family before anything is filed.

The Survival Action: The Claim Your Family Member Would Have Had

Many families have two claims and do not know it. The second is called a survival action.

Under Code of Civil Procedure 377.20, a person’s legal claims are not lost when that person dies. Under Code of Civil Procedure 377.30, the claim passes to the person’s successor in interest and may be brought by the personal representative of the estate or, if there is none, by the successor in interest. In plain terms, the estate brings the case the person could have brought had they lived. It matters most when there was time between the injury and the death.

The two claims can be joined in one lawsuit when they arise from the same wrongful act (Code of Civil Procedure 377.62). A successor in interest who starts a survival action must file a sworn declaration with a certified copy of the death certificate (Code of Civil Procedure 377.32).

The Pain and Suffering of the Person Who Died: Where the Law Stands Now

Families often ask whether the law accounts for what their relative went through before dying. The answer has changed twice in recent years.

For decades, Code of Civil Procedure 377.34 barred an estate from recovering damages for the pain, suffering, or disfigurement of the person who died. In 2021 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 447, which opened a temporary window: those damages could be recovered in a survival action filed on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2026.

That window has closed. Under section 377.34 as it reads today, a survival action filed on or after January 1, 2026 cannot recover damages for the pain, suffering, or disfigurement of the person who died. Efforts to extend that window, including Senate Bill 29 in 2025, did not pass. Cases filed inside the window keep the right they had.

One exception remains. Section 377.34 does not limit certain claims under California’s elder and dependent adult abuse law (Welfare and Institutions Code 15657), which has its own requirements.

The law here may change again, so we check the current text of section 377.34 before we advise any family on it.

What a Family Can Recover, and What It Cannot

Code of Civil Procedure 377.61 allows the damages that “under all the circumstances of the case, may be just.” California’s civil jury instructions (CACI 3921 for the death of an adult, CACI 3922 for the death of a minor child) spell out what that means.

Economic damages:

• The financial support the person would have contributed to the family.
• Gifts and benefits the family would have expected to receive.
• Funeral and burial expenses.
• The reasonable value of the household services the person would have provided.

Non-economic damages:

• The loss of the person’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support.
• For a spouse or partner, the loss of the enjoyment of sexual relations.
• The loss of the person’s training and guidance, which matters most to children.

Our explainer on economic and non-economic damages covers the two categories.

What California Law Does Not Allow

This is the part families find hardest to accept, so we say it at the start.

• Your own grief. A jury is instructed not to consider the family’s grief, sorrow, or mental anguish. The law compensates the loss of the relationship, not the pain of mourning.
• The person’s own pain and suffering. It is not part of the wrongful death claim. It belongs, if anywhere, in the survival action, under the rules above.
• Punitive damages in the wrongful death claim. California courts have held they are not available. Civil Code 3294(d) makes one exception, for a death that resulted from a homicide for which the defendant has been convicted of a felony. Punitive damages the person could have recovered had they lived may be claimed in the survival action.
• Punitive damages against a public entity. Government Code 818 bars them in every case.

When parents lose a minor child, the same categories apply, with one adjustment: the jury is told to deduct the probable cost of the child’s support and education from the economic loss.

Wrongful Death Attorney Los Angeles: The Cases We Handle

A wrongful death claim rests on the same proof as an injury claim: someone failed to use ordinary care (Civil Code 1714), and that failure caused the death. These are the cases our firm takes.

Vehicle Collisions

Fatal crashes in Los Angeles happen on freeways and surface streets alike, to drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. We start with the evidence that disappears first: intersection and business video, vehicle event data, and witnesses.

Insurance is often the hard part. California’s minimum auto liability limits are $30,000 for one person and $60,000 for all injuries in one accident (raised by SB 1107 effective January 1, 2025). We look for every source: an employer if the driver was working, a vehicle owner, and your own family’s uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which under Insurance Code 11580.2 extends to wrongful death. More is on our car accident page. See also our pages on motorcycle accidents and pedestrian accidents.

Commercial Trucks

A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. Truck cases bring in federal rules that car cases do not: hours-of-service limits, electronic logging device data, driver qualification files, and maintenance records. The motor carrier is often responsible for its driver. Logs and onboard data can be overwritten, so a preservation letter goes out first. See our truck accident page.

Buses and Public Vehicles

Civil Code 2100 requires a carrier of passengers to use the utmost care and diligence. Most buses in Los Angeles are run by public agencies, and a public entity is liable for a death caused by the negligent operation of its vehicle by an employee on the job (Vehicle Code 17001).

These cases run on a separate track with a six-month deadline, explained below. Attorney Ted H. Ravan went into injury law after his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus. That is why our firm takes cases against public entities. Our government claims page and our guide to filing a claim against LA Metro cover the process. Read more about Los Angeles bus accident claims.

Dangerous Property

A fatal fall on a broken stairway or a death caused by a hazard the owner knew about is a premises liability case. A property owner is not responsible simply because someone died on the property. The case turns on notice: whether the owner knew of the hazard, or would have found it through reasonable inspection, and failed to fix it or warn. When the property is public, Government Code 835 applies and so does the six-month claim. See our slip and fall page.

Dog Attacks

Civil Code 3342 makes a dog owner liable for the damages suffered by a person bitten in a public place or while lawfully on private property, whatever the dog’s history. These claims are usually paid by a homeowners or renters policy. See our dog bite page.

Deadlines for a California Wrongful Death Claim

Several deadlines can apply to the same death, and the shortest controls.

The six-month government claim is the deadline families miss. If a Metro bus, a city or county vehicle, a school district, or a dangerous public road played any part in the death, a written claim has to reach the right agency within six months. The two-year statute does not extend it, and six months is not long for a family that is planning a funeral.

When a public entity is involved, the six months for the survival claim are counted from the date the person’s own claim arose, which may be the day of the injury and not the day of the death. If your family member was hurt and died later, tell us both dates.

Our guide to California personal injury time limits covers each deadline. Agency-specific steps are in our guides to filing a claim against the City of Los Angeles and claims against Caltrans and the State of California.

How a Wrongful Death Case Is Valued

No one can put a number on a person. What the law measures is the loss to the family, and these are the factors that move it.

• Age, health, and life expectancy. Financial support is measured over the shorter of two life expectancies: the person’s before the death, and the family member’s.
• Earnings. Tax returns, pay records, and benefits.
• Present cash value. Future economic losses are reduced to their value in today’s dollars.
• Household services. Childcare, cooking, repairs, and caring for an elderly parent have a measurable value, including when the person who died earned no wage.
• The relationship itself. There is no fixed standard for the loss of love, companionship, and guidance. A jury uses its judgment based on the evidence, so the evidence has to show who the person was in the family.
• Shared fault. If the person who died was partly at fault, the family’s damages are reduced by that percentage. They are not eliminated.
• More than one defendant. Under Civil Code 1431.2, each defendant pays non-economic damages only in proportion to its own share of fault, which is why we identify every responsible party.
• Available insurance. Policy limits often set the practical ceiling.

How Settlement Proceeds Are Divided Among Family Members

California treats a wrongful death as one case. Each family member’s claim is personal and separate, but the law ordinarily requires the claims to be brought together in a single lawsuit.

At trial, the jury usually returns one amount for all of the family members, and the court then decides each person’s share (CACI No. 3921). The shares are not set by a will, because the wrongful death recovery belongs to the family members who hold the claim and not to the estate. They are not automatically equal either.

Most cases end in settlement, and there the family can agree on the division. If the family cannot agree, a court can decide it. Where a share belongs to a child, a court must approve the settlement (Probate Code 3500; Code of Civil Procedure 372) and directs how the child’s money is to be held.

Money recovered in a survival action follows a different path. It goes to the estate and is distributed under the will or, without a will, under the intestate succession rules.

Attorney fees, case costs, and any liens are paid from the recovery before the net amounts are distributed. We explain the numbers to every family member in writing before anyone signs, and where relatives’ interests conflict, we say so openly.

What to Do in the First Weeks

If someone in the family is able to do a few practical things, these are the ones that protect a claim.

1. Order certified copies of the death certificate. Insurers, agencies, and the court will each ask for one.
2. Ask for the reports: the collision report from the agency that responded (CHP on freeways, LAPD or the local police department on city streets), and the report of the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner if that office investigated the death.
3. Keep what came home. Clothing, the phone, a helmet, the car itself. Do not allow a vehicle to be repaired, sold, or released for salvage until its data has been preserved.
4. Save the records: funeral and burial receipts, recent tax returns, pay stubs, and insurance policies, including your own auto policy.
5. Do not give a recorded statement or sign a release. You are not required to give a statement to the other side’s insurer, and a signed release ends the claim for good.
6. Write down the date, and who was involved. If a bus, a government vehicle, a school, or a public road is part of what happened, the six-month clock is already running.

If none of this has been done, call anyway. Much of it is work we can do for you. See also why time matters after an injury.

How We Work With Families as Your Wrongful Death Attorney

The first conversation is free. We listen to what happened, tell you who in the family holds a claim, and tell you the date of your earliest deadline. If we do not think there is a case, we say so.

If you ask us to go forward, you work with us directly from our office on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles. We preserve the evidence, collect the reports and records, identify every responsible party and insurance policy, and present the government claim when one is needed. We deal with the insurers so that you do not have to. We answer your questions, and we keep you updated at every stage, as often or as seldom as you want to hear from us.

We work on contingency: no fee unless we win. Most cases resolve by settlement. When an offer does not reflect what your family has lost, we file suit and prepare the case for trial. That is the standard we believe a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer should meet. For timing once a case is filed, see how long a personal injury case takes in California.

Ted H. Ravan, a Los Angeles personal injury attorney, studied political science at UC San Diego and earned his law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he gave more than 100 volunteer hours to the campus free legal clinic. Read more about attorney Ted H. Ravan.

Speak With a Los Angeles Wrongful Death Lawyer When You Are Ready

There is no good time to make this call, and we will not press you to make it sooner than you can. We do ask you to keep two dates in mind: two years from the death for a claim against a private person or company, and six months under Government Code 911.2 when a public entity is involved.

Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation with a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer. You work with us directly, and we keep you updated at every stage. No fee unless we win. For other injury claims, see our personal injury practice and our catastrophic injury page.

6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.