PhoenixWrongful death attorney
Phoenix wrongful death attorney
Losing someone because another person or company failed to take reasonable care is a grief with a legal dimension — and the legal part can wait its turn. Arizona law gives certain family members a claim for their own loss. When you're ready, we'll explain what that claim is, who can bring it, and what the process asks of you. At your pace, not ours.
WHAT THE PROCESS LOOKS LIKE
One court, one case, each loss its own
Families deserve to know what they'd be stepping into before deciding whether to step into it. Here is the shape of an Arizona wrongful death case, described plainly.
Maricopa County Superior Court
Wrongful death cases arising in the Valley are filed at the Superior Court in downtown Phoenix. Most resolve through negotiation rather than trial, and nothing about starting a claim commits a family to a courtroom.
One case, every beneficiary
Arizona channels a family's claims into a single wrongful death action, but each statutory beneficiary's loss — a spouse's, a child's, a parent's — is considered on its own. One lawsuit does not mean one shared grief, and the law doesn't treat it that way.
The probate connection
Some claims connected to a death belong to the estate rather than to the family members, which can involve appointing a personal representative through the probate court. It sounds like more process than it usually is — we handle the coordination.
PLAIN ANSWERS
The questions families ask, answered without pressure
Arizona's wrongful death statutes decide who may bring a claim, what the law compensates, and how long a family has. These are the answers — offered as information, for whenever you're ready to use them.
Who is allowed to bring a wrongful death claim in Arizona?
Arizona's wrongful death statutes (A.R.S. §§ 12-611 to 12-613) name the people who may sue: the surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died — or the personal representative of the estate, suing on behalf of those family members. Each beneficiary's loss is valued separately, because each relationship lost was its own.
The statute's list is specific, and it leaves some people out — siblings, grandparents, and unmarried partners are not statutory beneficiaries, however real their grief. If you're unsure where you fall, that's a question worth asking early, and it costs nothing to ask.
What's the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?
They're two different claims. The wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving family members and compensates their own losses — what the death took from them. A survival action (A.R.S. § 14-3110) belongs to the estate and continues claims the person had while living; under that statute, the decedent's own claim for pain and suffering does not survive death.
Said plainly: the survival statute lets the estate recover things like the decedent's medical expenses and lost earnings before death, but not damages for the pain the person experienced. The family's wrongful death claim — for their loss of the person — is the claim Arizona law centers, and it is unaffected by that limitation.
Which claims exist, and who holds each one, shapes everything from who must be appointed personal representative to how any recovery is divided. It's exactly the kind of mapping a family shouldn't have to do alone, and doesn't have to do right away.
What losses does the law recognize?
Arizona recognizes what the death actually took: the companionship, love, and guidance of the person; the income and household support they provided; the care a parent would have given a child; and the family's own anguish. The Arizona Constitution (art. II, § 31) forbids caps on these damages — a jury, not a statute, weighs the loss.
We won't tell you what a claim is "worth," and you should be wary of anyone who does early on. Every family's loss is its own, and the honest answer is that value emerges from the evidence — the life, the relationships, the record of what happened — not from a formula.
How much time do we have?
Generally two years from the death — enough room, in most cases, to grieve first. The significant exception involves public entities: a claim against a city, county, the state, or a public school requires a formal notice of claim within 180 days and suit within one year. If a government vehicle, road, or agency may be involved, the shorter clocks apply.
We mention deadlines not to hurry you, but so no one is caught by one. If the circumstances even might involve a public entity, it's worth a short conversation now to protect the family's options — and then the pace of everything else can be yours.
How do these cases usually arise?
Most Phoenix wrongful death claims come from a familiar set of circumstances: vehicle collisions, including commercial trucks; workplace incidents, where a claim against a third party can exist beyond workers' compensation; medical negligence; and unsafe premises. What they share is a death that reasonable care would have prevented — which is what the family may have a claim about.
Workplace deaths deserve a particular note: workers' compensation death benefits are usually the exclusive remedy against the employer itself, but claims against others — a subcontractor, an equipment maker, a negligent driver — remain open. Families are often told, wrongly, that comp is all there is.
Asked by Phoenix families
There's no schedule for grief, and a first conversation commits you to nothing. The honest tension is that some evidence — vehicle data, scene conditions, witness memories — is best preserved early, and a preservation letter can protect it without you doing anything else. We can take that one step and then move entirely at your pace.
Legally reviewed by Catherine O’Grady, State Bar of Arizona No. 011647
Managing partner & chief compliance officer · 30+ years in practice · Reviewed August 2026 · Full bio →