Wrongful Death Claims in San Francisco

A wrongful death claim is brought by the family of a person who has died because of someone else’s wrongful act or negligence. It is a separate claim from anything the person who died might have brought had they survived, and it belongs to the relatives rather than to the estate.

California also recognises a second, related claim — a survival action — which is brought on behalf of the estate for losses the person themselves suffered between the injury and their death. The two often proceed together, and which is available depends on the circumstances.

None of this is a substitute for what has been lost, and nobody sensibly suggests otherwise. What it can do is address the financial consequences of a death that should not have happened, and establish on the record what caused it.

California sets out by statute who may bring a wrongful death claim, and the list is narrower than many people expect. It begins with the surviving spouse or domestic partner, the children, and the children of any child who has died before them.

Where there is nobody in that first group, the right can extend to those who would be entitled to the person’s property under California’s intestacy rules. Certain other people — a putative spouse, stepchildren, or parents, where they were financially dependent on the person who died — may also qualify.

California generally requires these claims to be brought together rather than as separate lawsuits by different relatives, which is one of several reasons it is worth establishing early who is entitled and who intends to participate.

The financial side is the more straightforward part: the support the person would have provided to their family, the value of services they performed for the household, and funeral and burial costs.

Alongside that, California recognises the loss of the person’s companionship, comfort, care, society and moral support to their family. It is an uncomfortable thing to quantify and the law does not pretend otherwise, but it is a recognised part of the claim rather than an afterthought.

What California does not do is compensate the family’s grief and sorrow as a separate item. The distinction can feel like a technicality from the outside. It is worth knowing about in advance rather than discovering partway through.

A wrongful death claim in California is generally subject to a two-year deadline running from the date of death. As with any deadline, there are circumstances that change it.

One of those matters a great deal here. Where a public agency may be responsible — a transit vehicle, a public road, a public building — a written claim generally has to be presented to that agency within six months. Families are often still dealing with a funeral when that period is already running, which is why claims involving public agencies are worth identifying early even if nothing else is decided yet.

Susan F. Reyes has been licensed to practice law in California since 1990, and this is a solo practice — the attorney you speak with is the attorney handling the matter. For a family dealing with a death, that means not repeating the account of what happened to a succession of different people.

A first conversation is not a commitment. It is a chance to understand what happened, whether there is a claim, who is entitled to bring it, and what deadlines are already running. If there is no claim worth pursuing, you will be told that plainly.