If someone in your family was killed because another person or company was careless, a NYC wrongful death lawyer can explain what a claim involves and what New York law allows a family to recover. Nothing about a case undoes the loss. What it can do is hold the responsible party accountable and provide for the people who depended on the person who died.
Families are usually dealing with a funeral, an investigation, and paperwork nobody prepared them for, all while a deadline is running that they were never told about. Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower handles these cases with care, moves quickly on the evidence, and explains everything in plain language. Below are the questions families ask our wrongful death attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
A wrongful death claim exists where a death was caused by conduct that would have allowed the person to bring an injury claim had they survived. That covers a motor vehicle collision, a construction accident, an unsafe property condition, medical malpractice, a defective product, a fire, and an injury caused by a public agency.
You do not need to know what went wrong, and you do not need to have decided anything. Our wrongful death lawyers review what happened at no cost, and asking a question does not begin a lawsuit.
Not the family directly, which surprises almost everyone. In New York a wrongful death claim is brought by the personal representative of the estate, appointed by the Surrogate's Court, on behalf of the family members who suffered a loss.
That appointment takes time, and it has to happen before a case can be filed. It is usually a spouse, an adult child, a parent, or another close family member, and our wrongful death lawyers handle the process so it does not become one more thing on a family's list. The recovery, when it comes, is distributed among the eligible family members according to their losses, and a court reviews that allocation.
Two separate claims usually arise from one death, and knowing the difference matters, because they compensate different things.
The wrongful death claim belongs to the family and covers what the family lost economically because the person died. The survival claim belongs to the estate and covers what the person themselves went through between the injury and death, including conscious pain and suffering and their own medical expenses.
In cases where someone lived for hours, days, or longer after an injury, the survival claim can be the larger of the two. It is also the claim most often overlooked, and it depends on proof that the person was conscious and aware, which comes from EMS records, hospital charts, and witnesses.
New York's wrongful death law is narrower than most families expect, and it is better to hear that clearly at the start than to learn it later.
The wrongful death claim compensates the family's economic losses. That includes the income and financial support the person would have provided, the value of the services they performed for the household, the loss of parental guidance for children, medical expenses related to the final injury, and funeral and burial costs.
What New York does not currently allow in the wrongful death claim is compensation for the family's grief, or for the loss of the person's companionship and society. Legislation to change that has been debated for years and has not become law. The survival claim is where the human cost is compensated, through the pain and suffering the person experienced before death.
Generally two years from the date of death, which is shorter than the deadline for most injury cases and shorter than families assume.
There are important variations. Where a public agency such as the City, the MTA, a school, or a public hospital is involved, a written notice of claim is generally due within about ninety days, as explained on our municipal liability page. A death from medical malpractice involves both the malpractice rules and the death deadline. And because a personal representative has to be appointed before a case can be filed, the practical time available is shorter than the calendar suggests.
Workers' compensation provides death benefits to a surviving spouse and dependent children regardless of fault, and it generally bars a claim against the employer. It does not bar a claim against anyone else on the job, and on a construction site that separate case is often substantial, particularly where New York's Scaffold Law applies.
Those two claims run alongside each other, and at the end the compensation carrier is repaid part of what it paid out. That amount can be negotiated down so more of the recovery stays with the family.
Often, yes, and families should be prepared for it rather than blindsided. The argument usually appears early, in a police report written from one driver's account, in an employer's incident report, or in a hospital chart. It suggests the person was not paying attention, was where they should not have been, or contributed to what happened.
Two things are worth knowing. New York reduces a recovery by the deceased person's share of fault rather than barring the claim, so blame does not end a case. And there is a rule that matters in these cases specifically: a person who has died cannot give their side, and courts recognize that a family bringing a death claim is held to a lesser burden in proving how the accident happened than an injured person who survived would be.
Because the evidence that explains a death disappears on its own schedule, regardless of what a family is going through. Video from buildings, buses, and intersections is overwritten within days or weeks. Vehicles are repaired or scrapped. Construction sites are cleaned and rebuilt, and the equipment involved goes back to a rental yard. Witnesses move on.
Meanwhile the companies involved are already working. Their investigators are at the scene within hours, and their insurers open a file immediately. A family does not have to match that pace personally, but someone should be doing it on their behalf, and that is the practical reason to make one call early even if nothing else is decided.
On two tracks at once. The first is what happened, built from scene evidence, video, police and agency reports, vehicle or equipment data, maintenance and inspection records, employer and contractor files, autopsy and medical examiner findings, and, where it fits, an engineer or reconstruction professional.
The second is what was lost, which in New York means proving economic loss with real specificity. That is done with tax returns and employment records, the person's work history and expected career path, benefits and pension contributions, an economist's analysis of what they would have earned and provided, and evidence of the household services and the parental guidance they gave. Families are often surprised how much of a death case is about proving the ordinary daily contributions of a life.
The wrongful death portion is distributed among the eligible family members in proportion to their economic losses, which is not always an equal split. Where children are involved, their shares are protected and held for them, and a court reviews and approves both the settlement and the allocation.
Disagreements within a family do happen, and they are handled through that process rather than left to sort themselves out. Our wrongful death lawyers explain how it works at the start, so nothing about it is a surprise at the end.
No. Our wrongful death lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first conversation is free and carries no obligation, and it does not commit your family to filing anything.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the work so a family can grieve. Our wrongful death lawyers:
These cases are prepared as if a jury will hear them, because that is what makes a company and its insurer take a family's loss seriously. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that treats a life as a small matter is not one this firm accepts because it comes early.
If your family lost someone because of someone else's carelessness, you can ask what your options are without deciding anything today. The conversation is free and confidential, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless there is a recovery.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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