Damages Available in a Wrongful Death Claim

In 2024, accidents or unintentional injuries were among the common causes of death in the US, according to the CDC. These preventable incidents include car accidents, accidents at work, defective products, and medical negligence.

When the loss of a loved one results from someone's carelessness, bereaved families experience both the tragedy of grief and financial woes at the same time. The system of wrongful death claims exists to help compensate for the economic aspect associated with the untimely death. This claim cannot restore the lost life, but it can help the family move forward. Such cases will require the knowledge of what kinds of damages can be sought.

What damages can be sought in a wrongful death claim? Most individuals have an idea that they can receive monetary compensation for loss of income and funeral expenditures. Fewer realize that wrongful death damages extend well beyond those categories and that an entirely separate legal claim, called a survival action, may run alongside the wrongful death case. These two legal actions seek to compensate different losses and are initiated for different purposes. Failing to plead one of the claims can lead to loss of a substantial amount of money.

Let's discuss the potential damages that can be claimed when filing a wrongful death claim.

What Qualifies as a Wrongful Death Claim

When a person dies as a result of carelessness, insensitivity, or a deliberate action another individual has done, a wrongful death claim can be brought forth in civil court. Such allegations are often linked to vehicle crashes, patient treatment errors, dangerous goods, occupational injuries, and other incidents. These events all involve a person's death that someone in particular caused.

Every state in America allows for the commencement of wrongful death claims, but they do not share the same regulations. Different rules in different states provide specifications as to the persons who are eligible for seeking compensation from court, the extent of damages that are recoverable, and the window period for initiating a lawsuit, and that's court.

Most states permit a spouse, children, or parents of the deceased to bring a claim. Some states also include financial dependents and, in limited circumstances, more distant relatives. The personal representative of the estate typically files the lawsuit, even if the compensation flows to surviving family members.

North Carolina applies a stricter version of this rule than many states. According to Charlotte wrongful death lawyer F. William (Will) DeVore IV, only the executor or court-appointed administrator of the estate may file a wrongful death claim in that state. Surviving family members cannot bring the claim directly on their own behalf, even if the recovered damages eventually pass to them through the estate.

Economic Damages: The Financial Losses That Can Be Documented

Economic damages are the tangible, calculable losses resulting from the death. These are grounded in financial records, employment history, and actuarial projections.

Lost income is the most significant economic category for most families. This category covers the wages, salaries, and employment benefits the deceased would have earned over their remaining working years. This damage is calculated using age, profession, earning history, and life expectancy tables published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If the deceased contributed to a pension or retirement plan, the projected value of those contributions may also be recoverable.

Medical expenses incurred between the injury and the death are also recoverable. This includes emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgeries, and any palliative care. Families can claim these costs regardless of whether they were covered by insurance, depending on state subrogation rules.

Funeral and burial expenses are recoverable in every state that permits wrongful death claims. The same applies to the value of household services the deceased provided, including childcare, home maintenance, and other contributions that must now be replaced at cost.

Non-Economic Damages: What Cannot Be Assigned a Number but Still Has Legal Value

Intangible damages are aimed at compensating for consequences that are negative in real terms but don't necessarily come with a price tag. One of the unconditional items includes loss of companionship, which concerns the harm caused by the incident to family relationships.

The Restatement (Second) of Torts is concerned with the meaning of a loss of consortium. Examples of this are the affection of one's spouse, such as care, conjugal affection, society, and services.

Concerning the surviving spouse, such a loss would entail the loss of a helper or a confidant. With respect to the surviving parent, loss of parental care, supervision, and guidance can be assessed. Courts in most states recognize these losses as compensable but acknowledge the challenge involved in their calculation.

Many legal systems also grant compensation to the dead person's relatives on account of their pain and suffering from losing someone dear. The amounts of non-financial damage are determined by the individual circumstances of each particular case. Some states impose caps on these awards.

The Survival Action: A Separate Claim Most Families Overlook

A survival action compensates the estate for what the deceased suffered before death. Under the Restatement (Third) of Torts, survival actions preserve the decedent's own personal injury claims, allowing the estate to pursue them even though the injured person is no longer alive to file.

The recoverable damages sought by a survival action may cover healthcare costs sustained directly prior to the death of the victim, loss of salary within the period from injury until death occurs, or whatever else the victim can recover once the fatality has ensued.

In some jurisdictions, the law includes the pain and suffering the deceased person experienced before his or her demise. In some situations where the injured individual experienced prolonged illness or injury, the law usually presumes that he or she incurred losses. In cases where death has taken place immediately, the chances for recovery are narrow.

It has been pointed out by the American Bar Association (ABA) that from an efficiency perspective, it is better to bring both the wrongful death claim and the survival action from the onset of the case. For instance, handling only the wrongful death claim without exploring the option of filing the survival action is like abandoning the case halfway.

When Punitive Damages Apply

Punitive damages are not a claim available in each and every wrongful death lawsuit. They are only an option for particular instances, which are usually actions involving gross negligence, outright recklessness, or deliberate intent to harm another human being.

The intention of this sanction is to deter the liable party from committing the same offense in the future. Most statutes impose a higher standard of proof, namely clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted maliciously or with reckless endangerment of others' well-being.

Law does not uniformly practice punitive damages for death and for a tort action while the harmed party is still alive. In the survival action, several areas allow recovery of punitive damages, while the wrongful death action itself severely limits or denies them. This is yet another rationale for determining which claims apply in a particular case and the applicable law in that state, as the amount of civil redress granted to the claimant will depend on these issues.

How Damages Are Calculated and What Affects the Final Number

No formula automatically produces a wrongful death settlement amount. A comprehensive review conducted by a team of experts of wrongful death lawsuits observed that the agreement figure was usually around $973,000, while the median was typically $295,000. Disparities in these values arise from the significant impact of the circumstances surrounding particular lawsuits on their outcomes.

The factors that control the computation of damage are the deceased's age and earning capacity, number and ages of widows and dependents, instantaneous death or death preceded by suffering, extent of blame on the part of the defendant, and laws in certain states placing limits on pain and suffering. In many states, the doctrine of contributory negligence may prevent a plaintiff's recovery in whole if the decedent has a share of fault. States with comparative fault rules reduce the award proportionally.

Accurate economic projections typically require forensic accountants and vocational experts. In wrongful death cases involving significant future income claims, economists who specialize in life expectancy and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are involved.

Understanding the Full Scope of What Is Recoverable

Wrongful death damages are more layered and complex than most families initially expect. Economic losses are documented and calculable. Non-economic losses exist but are harder to quantify. The survival action adds a third dimension that is independent of both. Families who understand all three categories before filing are better positioned to pursue the full value of their claim.

One consistent pattern in wrongful death litigation is that claims filed without a clear accounting of all damage categories tend to settle lower. The reason is practical: insurers and defense counsel negotiate against what the complaint actually claims. Losses not identified early are rarely added later. Thorough documentation from the start, including expert analysis of future lost earnings and the decedent's pre-death losses, strengthens the entire case from the first day it is filed.