Los Angeles Wrongful Death Lawyer

What a Los Angeles Family Should Know in the Weeks After a Death

When a family member dies in Los Angeles County because of someone else's negligence, the closest relatives can bring one wrongful death claim together under California law.

The claim covers what the person provided to the family, from income to care and companionship, and the cost of the funeral.

When a city street, a Metro bus or train, or a county hospital is involved, a written government claim is due within six months.

Other wrongful death lawsuits generally have two years from the date of death.

A death caused by medical negligence carries MICRA's $650,000 limit on non-economic damages in 2026.

Pre-death pain and suffering is no longer recoverable in most survival actions filed in 2026.

Call (888) 713-6653 whenever your family wants to talk through what happened; the call is confidential.

Which Family Members Can Sue Under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60?

Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 gives the claim first to the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the children, and the children of a child who died earlier. Other relatives who would inherit can sue when there are none, and certain dependents, including stepchildren and parents who relied on the person who died, can sue as well.^[1]

All of them share one lawsuit, and the court splits any award among them. The harder standing questions, from domestic partners to a minor who lived in the household, are covered on our page about who can file a wrongful death claim in California.

Every heir with a claim needs to be part of that one action, because the case cannot be brought again.

A Death on a City Street or Metro Line Needs a Six-Month Claim

A death on a city street with a dangerous condition, in a crash with a city or county vehicle, on a Metro bus or train, or after care at a county hospital brings in the Government Claims Act. A written claim must reach the right agency within six months of the death under Government Code § 911.2 before a lawsuit can be filed.^[2]

• City of Los Angeles: the Office of the City Clerk, online or at City Hall, 200 North Spring Street, Room 395
• County of Los Angeles: the Executive Officer of the Board of Supervisors, Attention: Claims, 500 West Temple Street, Room 383, including for deaths after care at the county's hospitals
• Metro: its Office of Board Administration, Legal Services, at One Gateway Plaza, in person or by mail

The six-month deadline does not pause because a child is one of the heirs, and a public entity cannot be ordered to pay punitive damages. Long Beach, Pasadena, and the county's other cities take their own claims, as our page on California's six-month government claim explains.

When the Death Followed Care at a County Hospital, UCLA, or Kaiser

A death caused by a health care provider's negligence falls under MICRA, which limits non-economic damages for a death to $650,000 in 2026 and $700,000 in 2027, with the lost financial support left uncapped.^[4]

• A county hospital such as Los Angeles General or Harbor-UCLA needs the six-month claim to the County first
• A UCLA Health hospital is exempt from the government claim, but the 90-day notice and the malpractice deadlines apply
• Kaiser members' heirs are generally bound to arbitrate a malpractice death claim, though Holland v. Silverscreen Healthcare (2025) held the agreement does not reach claims about a facility's neglect of basic needs

Which hospitals fall in which group, and why a name like Harbor-UCLA can mislead, is laid out on our page about medical malpractice claims in Los Angeles.

Who Can Be Sued Besides the Employer After a Death at Work?

When someone dies on the job, the family receives workers' compensation death benefits from the employer's insurer, and the employer itself generally cannot be sued. A separate wrongful death claim is still possible against any other company whose negligence caused the death, such as a general contractor, an equipment maker, or a trucking company whose driver caused a crash at a port or warehouse.

The comp carrier can claim a share of that recovery, and how it is divided is explained on our page about third-party claims after a California work injury. A death in a crash with a port truck is covered on our page about truck accident claims in Los Angeles.

What a Los Angeles Wrongful Death Claim Can Recover

A Los Angeles wrongful death claim recovers the family's own losses from the death, with no cap outside medical malpractice.

• Lost financial support, based on the person's earnings and the years they would have provided
• Household services, from childcare to caring for an aging parent
• The loss of love and companionship, which California measures without compensating grief itself
• Funeral and burial costs

A separate survival claim recovers the person's own losses before death, and for most survival actions filed in 2026 that no longer includes pre-death pain and suffering.^[5] If the person who died was partly at fault, the family's recovery is reduced by that share. What the damages include and leave out is set out in full on our page about California wrongful death damages.

The Two-Year Wrongful Death Deadline and the Claims Due Sooner

Most wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within two years of the death under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1.^[6]

• Six months for a written claim against the City, the County, Metro, or another public agency
• One year from discovering a death caused by medical negligence, and no more than three years
• Two years to protect an uninsured motorist claim under the family's own policy

When a minor is among the heirs, the child's share of a settlement needs a judge's approval, as our page on court approval of a child's settlement explains.