If your family has lost someone to negligence, California law gives you the right to seek accountability and compensation. Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60, eligible family members, including a surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and certain dependents, can pursue a wrongful death claim for funeral costs, lost financial support, and loss of companionship.
Our founding attorneys Daniel Sabet and Omeed Hakimianpour, a Super Lawyers® Rising Stars honoree for 2025 and 2026, are ready to stand with your family. The Injury Partners Beverly Hills personal injury lawyers offer a free, confidential consultation 24/7, and you pay nothing unless we recover for your family. Call (310) 861-7660.
We understand your family is going through an unimaginable loss, and we are sorry you are here.
A wrongful death claim under California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 gives eligible family members the right to pursue compensation when a loved one’s death was caused by someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional wrongdoing. This is a civil claim, separate from any criminal case. Whether or not the district attorney pursues criminal charges, your family’s right to file is independent. You do not need to wait for a criminal case to move forward.
California also allows a companion claim called a survival action under CCP §§ 377.30 and 377.34. This lets your loved one’s estate pursue losses they suffered between the injury and death, a distinct claim that serves a different legal purpose.
Filing deadlines vary. Most wrongful death claims must be filed within two years under CCP § 335.1. Medical malpractice wrongful death claims follow different timing rules under CCP § 340.5. And if a government entity may be responsible, a government tort claim must generally be filed within six months under Government Code § 911.2. Speaking with an attorney early protects both your evidence and your family’s right to file.
If your family needs guidance, call (310) 861-7660 for a free, confidential consultation.
Your loved one’s death may qualify as a wrongful death if it was caused by another person or entity’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. It may also qualify if it resulted from a defective product, an unsafe property condition, or a medical error. Common examples include fatal car crashes on Beverly Hills corridors, pedestrian deaths at busy intersections, medical errors at hospitals or surgical centers, falls or assaults caused by unsafe properties, and workplace incidents involving dangerous conditions. Your family does not need to prove the death was intentional. If someone else’s carelessness or wrongful conduct caused the loss, you may have a claim.
Once you have reason to believe negligence played a role, choosing the right legal team matters. These cases require both legal skill and genuine care for your family.
The Injury Partners combine big-law litigation power with boutique-firm attention — every family works directly with a founding attorney through one of the most difficult cases imaginable.
Omeed Hakimianpour earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his J.D. from USC Gould School of Law. He trained at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the world’s largest law firms, where he negotiated multimillion- and billion-dollar transactions — and now applies that same intensity against corporations, hospitals, and insurers on behalf of grieving families. Daniel Sabet completed the SCALE accelerated J.D. program at Southwestern Law School in just two years and built his career representing accident victims and grieving families.
When your family is ready to talk, call (310) 861-7660 to speak with an Attorney.
A wrongful death lawyer must manage both legal and family issues that do not exist in ordinary injury cases. Your attorney needs to identify all eligible family members under CCP § 377.60 and understand the one-action rule that governs how the lawsuit is filed. Your attorney also needs to evaluate whether a survival action should be pursued on behalf of the estate. The damages work often requires forensic economists, medical experts, and life-care planners to calculate the full scope of your family’s financial and personal losses. Wrongful death cases filed in Los Angeles Superior Court may also involve Medical Examiner-Coroner records, BHPD reports, and hospital records from Cedars-Sinai or UCLA Health.
Most Beverly Hills wrongful death cases stem from preventable negligence — fatal motor-vehicle collisions, medical errors, unsafe premises, defective products, and workplace incidents. The circumstances differ, but the cause is always the same: someone’s carelessness, recklessness, or wrongful conduct cost your family a life that should still be here.
Fatal incidents in Beverly Hills often involve high-traffic corridors, commercial properties, medical facilities, and residential areas. Data from the California Office of Traffic Safety and the CDC’s WISQARS system confirms that unintentional-injury deaths remain a leading cause of preventable loss in Los Angeles County.
The evidence needed to prove your family’s case depends on the type of incident. BHPD reports, Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner records, hospital records from Cedars-Sinai or UCLA Health, CHP SWITRS crash data, surveillance footage from nearby businesses, and expert accident reconstruction all play different roles depending on the circumstances.
If your family lost someone in Beverly Hills, call (310) 861-7660 to speak with an attorney.
California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 limits who may file a wrongful death lawsuit — and the list is narrower than many families realize.
Under California’s one-action rule, all eligible family members generally need to join a single wrongful death lawsuit, or a personal representative can file on behalf of everyone. If family members file separately, the court may consolidate or dismiss claims, which costs time and can weaken the case. An experienced wrongful death attorney helps coordinate among family members to protect everyone’s interests.
If you are unsure whether your relationship to the deceased person qualifies you to file, call (310) 861-7660 and an attorney can help identify all eligible family members.
Filing deadlines vary depending on the type of case:
Your family should not wait to explore your options. Evidence, records, and witness memory all become harder to preserve over time, and shorter deadlines can close before you expect them to.
A California wrongful death claim can recover both economic losses (funeral costs, lost financial support) and non-economic losses (loss of companionship, care, and guidance). California also recognizes a survival action that allows the estate to recover separate damages. Knowing which losses belong to your family and which belong to the estate affects how the entire case is structured.
Wrongful Death Action vs. Survival Action
| Claim Type | Who Brings It | What It Covers | Key California Law | Important Notes |
| Wrongful Death Action | Eligible family members or a personal representative on behalf of the family | Losses the family personally suffered, including financial support and companionship | CCP § 377.60 | Focuses on surviving family members’ losses |
| Survival Action | Estate, personal representative, or successor in interest | Claims the decedent could have brought if they had survived | CCP §§ 377.30 and 377.34 | Can include pre-death losses and potential punitive damages where legally supported |
Whether your family can recover pre-death pain and suffering through a survival action depends on your filing date and the current status of SB 447 and CCP § 377.34. SB 447 temporarily allowed recovery of the decedent’s pain, suffering, and disfigurement in survival actions filed between January 1, 2022 and January 1, 2026. For cases filed on or after January 1, 2026, those pre-death pain-and-suffering damages are no longer recoverable unless the Legislature further extends the statute. Because this area of law has changed in recent years, we recommend confirming how it applies to your family’s case based on your specific filing date.
If your case involves medical malpractice, MICRA and AB 35 may limit non-economic damages. The cap amounts vary by claim type and filing date under AB 35’s phased increases, so we recommend speaking with an attorney to confirm the current applicable figure.
The damages your family can recover generally fall into financial losses and relationship-based losses. Financial losses include funeral expenses, lost income and financial support, lost household services, and loss of inheritance. Relationship-based losses include loss of love, companionship, comfort, moral support, guidance, and consortium. If your family lost a high-income earner, business owner, or primary caregiver, forensic economists and life-care planners may be needed to calculate the full scope of your financial losses. Some cases also involve a separate survival action on behalf of the estate, which covers claims your loved one could have brought had they survived.
To succeed in a California wrongful death case, the plaintiff must prove four elements by a preponderance of the evidence — meaning it is more likely than not that each element is true.
The evidence we gather for your case may include BHPD reports, CHP SWITRS crash records, and Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner autopsy records. We may also use medical records from Cedars-Sinai or UCLA Health, employment and earnings records, surveillance footage from local businesses, and witness statements. Accident reconstruction analysis, forensic economist testimony, and life-care planning evidence are often critical in calculating the full value of your family’s losses.
Under California’s pure comparative negligence rule, your family may still recover damages even if your loved one was partly at fault. The recovery is reduced by their percentage of responsibility, but it is not eliminated.
If your family is considering a wrongful death claim, call (310) 861-7660 to discuss the evidence in your case.
If your family lost a loved one to someone’s negligence in Beverly Hills, The Injury Partners offer a free, confidential consultation 24/7, and you pay nothing unless we win.
We understand that no legal outcome will undo what your family has been through. But a wrongful death claim exists for a reason: to hold the responsible party accountable and to provide your family with the financial security your loved one would have wanted you to have. Pursuing that claim is not about litigation for its own sake. It is about making sure that the person or company whose negligence took someone from you bears the full weight of that responsibility.
At The Injury Partners, every wrongful death case is handled personally by a founding attorney. Our co-founder Omeed Hakimianpour is a Super Lawyers® Rising Stars honoree for both 2025 and 2026, a distinction earned by fewer than 2.5% of California attorneys. We limit the number of wrongful death cases we accept at any given time so that every family receives the attention, communication, and care that a case of this magnitude demands. You will never feel like a file number in our office.
Our contingency fee commitment means your family carries no financial burden throughout this process. There are no retainers, no hourly fees, and no costs of any kind unless we secure a recovery on your behalf. We advance all case expenses ourselves because we believe that a family’s ability to seek justice should never depend on its ability to write a check.
California Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 imposes a two-year statute of limitations on most wrongful death claims, and the timeline can be even shorter when a government entity is involved. Meanwhile, the evidence your case relies on — surveillance footage, employer safety records, vehicle data, maintenance logs — is subject to routine deletion and overwriting. Preserving that evidence early is essential, and it is something we can begin immediately.
If you are not ready to call, that is completely understandable. You can submit a confidential inquiry through our secure form, email info@theinjurypartners.com, or text us at (310) 861-7660.
If you’d prefer, you can visit us in person. The Injury Partners is located at 499 N. Canon Dr., Suite B1 Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
