In California, the recoverable damages for a wrongful death claim generally include:

• Financial support the heirs would have received.
• Loss of household services.

There is no greater harm than the death of a loved one. When your family member is killed by the negligence of another person or entity, you have the right to make a California wrongful death claim against the person, people, or entities responsible for causing the wrongful death.

What your wrongful death case is worth depends on many different factors. In California, the value of a wrongful death claim is driven primarily by the survivors’ losses, not by the severity of the decedent’s pain and suffering (which is generally part of a separate survival action, if available). There is no fixed formula, and juries have broad discretion in awarding damages.

The most important factors include:

Our California wrongful death lawyers are very experienced at handling serious personal injury and wrongful death claims. We can handle a wrongful death claim from start to finish and we know how to get the absolute best results for our clients who have experienced the tragic loss of their loved one.

The standard wrongful death claim that we handle involves a motor vehicle accident. There can be many types of accidents that cause a wrongful death. One type that we handle is when a big rig truck collides with a car. Because of the size and power of the truck, the occupants of a car often don’t have any chance to survive these crashes, especially when the truck smashes the car from the rear and pancakes the car in front. Another common wrongful death claim that we handle is when a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle. There can be many reasons for a pedestrian wrongful death accident. Sometimes the pedestrian is in a crosswalk and the driver doesn’t see them, other times a pedestrian is crossing where there is no crosswalk. Even in the situations with no crosswalk, the driver of the vehicle may still be at fault for causing the pedestrian’s wrongful death.

We’ve also handled wrongful death bicycle accidents and rideshare wrongful death claims. We have handled wrongful death cases where the person who died was a negligent free passenger in the rideshare vehicle. In those cases, it is necessary to determine if the rideshare driver or the other vehicle caused the collision. We have also had wrongful death claims where our client was I a car that was struck by a rideshare driver. There are different rules and insurance coverage issues with rideshare accidents, such as Uber, Lyft, Waymo, etc. so it is very important to have an experienced California wrongful death lawyer on your side. We always offer a free consultation. Even if the police report is not in your loved one’s favor, we will still do our best to see if we can win your wrongful death claim and get you the justice that is deserved. We only get paid when we win our cases, so there is no risk to you.

If your loved one is killed in an accident in California, you need to hire the best California wrongful death lawyers in order to make sure your rights, as the heirs of the deceased, are properly protected. Our California wrongful death lawyers know how to handle your wrongful death case from start to finish and we have obtained numerous multimillion dollar settlements on wrongful death claims.

A wrongful death is the most serious type of case that can be handled by California personal injury lawyers. The biggest mistake you can make when deciding what lawyer to pick would be using an inexperienced lawyer or a lawyer you see on tv or billboard ads. Many of these advertising law firms are what we refer to as “mills”, meaning their goal is to just get as many clients as possible, without regard to the quality of the services provided to their clients. Many clients of those firms just feel like a number instead of a victim with a name.

Our wrongful death law firm has been handling wrongful death and serious injury cases for over 50 years. There are very few California law firms that can say that. We also do not just take easy wrongful death claims. We will look at any wrongful death potential claim to see if there is anything we can do to help our prospective clients, even if the police report is 100% against the deceased. We have won those cases and obtained excellent settlements on wrongful death claims where the victim was placed at fault. Just because a police report blames your loved one who was killed, who does not get to give the police their side of the story, does not mean that you do not have a valid wrongful death claim. We will examine it and look into it to see if there is any hope for a positive financial recovery for the heirs of the victim.