Culver City Wrongful Death Lawyer

Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 identifies who may sue: the surviving spouse or domestic partner, the children, and where there is no surviving issue, those entitled to the property by intestate succession, plus certain dependent parents, stepchildren and putative spouses.

Code of Civil Procedure § 377.61 sets what the claim recovers — the financial support the person would have provided, and the loss of their love, companionship, comfort, care and guidance. The survivors' grief is not a separate damages category under California law.

Code of Civil Procedure § 377.30 passes the decedent's own cause of action to the personal representative or successor in interest, and § 377.34 governs what that claim recovers — losses and expenses the person sustained before death, and punitive damages where they would have been available.

Because the categories differ, both claims are pleaded together so nothing available to the family is left unasserted.

The general deadline is two years from the death under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. If a public entity may share responsibility — a city vehicle, a dangerous condition of public property, a roadway design — the six-month written claim requirement in Government Code § 911.2 governs the front end.

Evidence has its own timeline. Vehicles are released and repaired, and camera footage from businesses along Washington, Venice and Sepulveda overwrites within days.