Hi, my name is Matt Eason. I’ve been practicing personal injury and wrongful death law here in the Sacramento area for 25 years. In this video, we’re going to address one of the common questions we get: who can file a wrongful death claim in California?
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To answer the question of who has the right to bring a death claim in California really depends on whether or not that claim is for wrongful death brought before the traditional court system or it’s a claim for someone who passed away whose brought in the workers’ compensation system. Workers’ compensation has its own special rules that we’ll talk about at the end of this video, but for a wrongful death claim that arises traditionally out of a car accident, truck accident, medical malpractice claim, the law is fairly strict in California as far as who has the right to bring that claim.
From a hyper-technical standpoint, wrongful death claims are really intended to be brought by the estate of the person that passed away. Consequently, if a probate estate is opened, then the probate representative or the probate executor is the person best suited to bring a wrongful death claim. However, not everybody needs to open a probate estate. Consequently, if a probate estate has not been open, then the heirs of succession under the normal probate law have standing or have the right to bring a wrongful death action.
In plain English, basically, the spouse or the registered domestic partner has the kind of priority of bringing a wrongful death action. Likewise, children of the decedent or grandchildren, if the children have passed away, have the right to bring a wrongful death action. If the person who passed away did not have a spouse or registered domestic partner or did not have children, then the rules of who can bring a wrongful death action go through the probate’s normal lines. It goes to siblings, nieces, nephews in a certain order of priority.
One of the unique things about a wrongful death action in California, however, is that all heirs to the claim should be named in the claim or lawsuit. Even though they may not wish to proceed, they technically have rights that need to be adjudicated and confirm that they don’t want to proceed. Additionally, there are a few other nuances about people dependent upon the person who passed away as to whether they have the right to bring an action. In particular, minors such as stepchildren may actually have standing in some cases to bring in action.
The workers’ compensation side of the equation is much broader. You don’t actually have to be married or a registered domestic partner. Simply being a dependent of the decedent may give you standing or the right to bring a death claim under the workers’ compensation statutes.
California law continues to evolve to try and expand the scope as to who has the right to bring the wrongful death action and is no longer limited to just pure family members by blood. If you’re watching this video, then the odds are strong that someone that you loved has passed away. Rather than rely on this video in particular, when there are lots of exceptions to these rules and new ones being created on a regular basis in California, I hope you’ll consider reaching out to our wrongful death attorneys in Sacramento, for a free consultation. Let’s go over your relationship with the person that passed away and see if you have a valid claim.
