At Hach & Rose, LLP, our New York wrongful death lawyers represent families after fatal accidents caused by someone else’s negligence. We investigate what happened, identify those responsible, document the financial consequences of the death, and pursue accountability through settlement or trial.
When a family entrusts us with a wrongful death case, our attorneys take on the legal fight to give them the time and space to deal with an extraordinary loss.
New York’s wrongful death law is restrictive and procedurally demanding. The estate’s personal representative must bring the action, and the general filing deadline is only two years from the date of death.
Contact Hach & Rose Today for a Free Consultation
- Contact Hach & Rose Today for a Free Consultation
- What Can Our New York Wrongful Death Lawyers Do for Your Family?
- Key Takeaways About New York Wrongful Death Claims
- What Qualifies as Wrongful Death in New York?
- Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in New York?
- What Must Be Proven in a New York Wrongful Death Case?
- What Compensation Is Available After a Wrongful Death?
- Wrongful Death and Survival Claims Are Different
- How Long Do You Have to File a New York Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
- What If Your Loved One Was Partly Responsible for the Accident?
- Why Trial Readiness Matters in a Wrongful Death Case
- Fatal Accidents Can Require a Broader Investigation
- Frequently Asked Questions About New York Wrongful Death Claims
- Speak With a New York Wrongful Death Lawyer at Hach & Rose, LLP Today
What Can Our New York Wrongful Death Lawyers Do for Your Family?
Our job is to build and pursue the case while allowing the family to step away from battles with defendants and insurers. Our team works to determine who may be liable, preserve evidence, navigate estate-related requirements, document financial losses, handle communications and negotiations with insurers and defense counsel, and take the case to trial when necessary.
We explain what New York law allows, what evidence we need, what challenges we anticipate, and why we recommend a particular course of action. You do not have to become an expert in wrongful death litigation while grieving someone you love. Our lawyers take on the legal work and keep you informed about the decisions that matter.
Hach & Rose, LLP is a New York trial firm that has recovered more than $1 billion for our clients. We prepare serious cases to withstand contested litigation, and when defendants refuse to resolve a case fairly, we are prepared to take it to a jury.
Call (212) 779-0057 to speak with our New York wrongful death attorneys. We offer free, confidential consultations 24/7 in English and Spanish, and there are no attorney’s fees unless we recover compensation for you.
Key Takeaways About New York Wrongful Death Claims
- A wrongful death action may be available when someone’s wrongful act, neglect, or default causes another person’s death.
- New York requires the decedent’s personal representative to bring any wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of qualifying distributees.
- The general statute of limitations is two years from the date of death, although different deadlines or requirements can affect particular cases.
- Current New York law allows recovery for qualifying pecuniary injuries, rather than compensation for grief itself.
- A separate survival claim may sometimes recover damages the decedent sustained between their injury and death.
What Qualifies as Wrongful Death in New York?
A wrongful death claim arises when a person dies because of another party’s negligent conduct that would have been the basis of an injury claim against the responsible party if the person had survived.
Under New York Estates, Powers & Trusts Law § 5-4.1, the personal representative of a person survived by distributees may bring an action against someone whose wrongful act, neglect, or default caused the death. This right can include fatal car and truck crashes, construction accidents, unsafe property conditions, railroad accidents, nursing home neglect, and other preventable incidents.
The central issue is not simply that someone died unexpectedly. The evidence must establish a legal basis for holding another person, company, property owner, contractor, or other party responsible. Our attorneys look beyond the immediate circumstances of a fatal accident to determine why it happened, who had the ability or legal obligation to prevent it, and whether multiple parties share responsibility.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in New York?
In New York, general relatives cannot file wrongful death lawsuits directly. The decedent’s personal representative must bring an action in New York.
The representative may be an executor named in a will or an administrator appointed through the estate process. The action is pursued for the benefit of the decedent’s distributees rather than simply for the individual who serves as representative.
This procedural requirement can create an additional step for a family that has not yet established an estate. Our attorneys can identify what needs to happen so the appropriate representative has authority to pursue the claim while we address the liability investigation and applicable deadlines.
What Must Be Proven in a New York Wrongful Death Case?
A successful case requires evidence connecting the defendant’s wrongful conduct to the death and establishing the losses resulting from it. That investigation will look different depending on how the death occurred.
- After a fatal vehicle collision, evidence might include crash data, surveillance footage, driver records, witness accounts, and accident reconstruction.
- A construction accident death may require an examination of site control, contracts, safety equipment, work practices, and New York Labor Law responsibilities.
- A fatal premises case can turn on maintenance records, notice of a dangerous condition, or who controlled the property.
Evidence can disappear quickly. Video is overwritten, physical conditions change, vehicles and equipment are repaired, and witnesses become harder to locate. When our wrongful death lawyers accept a claim, we work to preserve the evidence necessary to establish what happened rather than relying only on an insurance company’s version of events.
What Compensation Is Available After a Wrongful Death?
New York’s wrongful death statute currently permits recovery for pecuniary injuries resulting from the death to the people for whose benefit the lawsuit is brought. Recoverable damages can also include reasonable medical, nursing, and funeral expenses specified by statute. Interest on the principal recovery runs from the date of death.
Depending on the evidence, recoverable losses can include:
| Loss | What the Claim May Consider |
|---|---|
| Lost financial support | Income and other financial contributions the decedent would likely have provided |
| Lost parental guidance | The economic value of guidance and services a parent would have provided to a child |
| Household services | Services the decedent performed for the family |
| Medical expenses | Qualifying treatment and care related to the fatal injury |
| Funeral expenses | Reasonable funeral costs covered by the statute |
The value of these losses can require substantial financial and personal evidence. Age, health, earnings, career trajectory, dependents, household responsibilities, and the relationship between the decedent and distributees may all become relevant.
What About Grief and Emotional Loss?
This is one of the most important—and sometimes surprising—features of current New York law.
Although losing a family member causes profound emotional harm, New York’s current wrongful death statute does not generally compensate family members for their grief and anguish as wrongful death damages. Legislative proposals have repeatedly sought to expand recoverable damages, but these changes are not currently law.
Wrongful Death and Survival Claims Are Different
A death caused by an accident can potentially give rise to both a wrongful death claim and a survival action, but they compensate for different losses.
Wrongful death addresses qualifying losses suffered by the decedent’s distributees as a result of the death. A survival action preserves certain claims the injured person could have pursued before dying. New York law addressing when an injury causes death permits the estate’s injury claim and wrongful death action to be prosecuted together in appropriate circumstances.
This distinction can be particularly important when a person survives for some period after suffering the fatal injuries. Depending on the evidence, the estate may have a claim for damages that accrued before death, including conscious pain and suffering.
How Long Do You Have to File a New York Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
The general New York wrongful death statute of limitations is two years from the date of death, and also contains specific provisions affecting certain circumstances, including when a criminal prosecution arises from the same occurrence. Other deadlines can be considerably shorter.
For example, cases involving municipalities or other public entities can trigger notice requirements that must be addressed long before the ordinary wrongful death deadline expires. The circumstances surrounding the accident, identity of the defendant, and related claims can all affect the applicable timetable.
Waiting can also weaken the evidence even when the filing deadline remains months away. Our team can begin preserving evidence quickly while the estate and family address the procedural steps required to pursue the action.
What If Your Loved One Was Partly Responsible for the Accident?
Partial responsibility does not necessarily eliminate a New York wrongful death claim.
New York’s wrongful death statute specifically addresses contributory negligence, and the state’s comparative fault rules can reduce damages by the percentage of responsibility attributed to the decedent, rather than automatically barring recovery.
That makes fault allocation an important part of the investigation. Defendants and insurers have a financial incentive to shift as much responsibility as possible to the person who died, while that person is no longer available to give their account.
Our attorneys work to reconstruct what actually occurred using independent evidence rather than allowing the defense’s account to go unanswered.
Why Trial Readiness Matters in a Wrongful Death Case
A wrongful death case can involve substantial financial exposure for defendants and insurers. That gives them every reason to challenge liability, causation, damages, or all three.
At Hach & Rose, LLP, our attorneys develop serious cases with litigation in mind from the beginning. That can mean preserving physical and electronic evidence, examining corporate or construction records, taking depositions, retaining appropriate experts, developing economic-loss evidence, and testing the defense’s account through discovery.
Preparation also changes the settlement conversation. An insurer knows the difference between a firm that needs a case to settle and one that is prepared to put the evidence before a jury.
Founders Michael A. Rose and Gregory Hach have built Hach & Rose, LLP around that trial-ready approach. As a result, the firm has recovered more than $1 billion for clients, including seven- and eight-figure verdicts and settlements.
When a wrongful death case warrants trial, we are prepared to go there.
Fatal Accidents Can Require a Broader Investigation
One of the most important questions after a fatal accident is whether the obvious defendant is the only responsible party.
- A deadly construction accident, for example, may involve an owner, general contractor, subcontractor, equipment provider, or another entity with responsibility for the work or safety conditions.
- A commercial vehicle crash can raise questions about both the driver and the company behind the vehicle.
- A dangerous property condition may implicate ownership, management, maintenance, or contractors.
Identifying every potentially responsible party can affect both the legal theories available and the insurance or assets from which a recovery can be made.
This is one reason Hach & Rose, LLP’s broader New York personal injury practice matters in wrongful death litigation. Our attorneys draw on experience investigating serious accidents rather than treating the death itself as the beginning and end of the analysis.
Families whose loved ones suffered catastrophic injuries before death can also learn more about our work involving traumatic brain injuries, while our New York nursing home abuse attorneys address cases involving neglect or abuse of vulnerable residents.
Frequently Asked Questions About New York Wrongful Death Claims
Can a spouse or child file the wrongful death lawsuit?
Not simply because they are the decedent’s spouse or child. New York requires the decedent’s personal representative to bring the action, although eligible distributees may benefit from the recovery.
What happens if my loved one did not have a will?
The absence of a will does not necessarily prevent a wrongful death action. An administrator can be appointed to represent an intestate estate, after which the representative can pursue the claim if the legal requirements are satisfied.
Does a criminal case prevent the family from bringing a wrongful death claim?
No. Civil and criminal proceedings serve different purposes. State law also contains a provision affecting the civil filing period when a criminal action has been commenced against the same defendant concerning the event that caused the death.
Can you investigate a fatal accident if no one witnessed it?
Potentially, yes. Witness testimony is only one form of evidence. Depending on the circumstances of the accident, our attorneys may use surveillance footage, vehicle data, photographs, physical evidence, records, expert analysis, and other sources to reconstruct what happened.
How much does it cost to hire Hach & Rose, LLP for a wrongful death case?
We offer free consultations, and personal injury and wrongful death cases are handled on a contingency-fee basis. You do not pay attorney’s fees unless we obtain a recovery for you.
Speak With a New York Wrongful Death Lawyer at Hach & Rose, LLP Today
A wrongful death case cannot undo what happened, but it can establish accountability and address the financial consequences a preventable death leaves behind.
At Hach & Rose, LLP, our New York wrongful death attorneys investigate fatal accidents, build evidence against responsible parties, document the losses recognized under New York law, and pursue cases through settlement or trial. We bring the resources of a firm that has recovered $1Billion+ for clients without losing sight of the family behind the case.
Call (212) 779-0057 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Our team is available 24/7, with consultations offered in English and Spanish.