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Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Jared | August 7, 2024 | Phoenix Practice Areas, Wrongful Death
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys. Updated November 2026.
You lost someone. Now an insurance company, a hospital risk department, or a defense attorney is asking you to sign things, sit for recorded statements, or accept a quick payment. That is not standard procedure. That is strategy.
This page explains how Arizona wrongful death law actually works: who can file under A.R.S. § 12-612, what damages are available, the 2-year deadline under A.R.S. § 12-542, the 180-day notice rule for government defendants, and what Phoenix wrongful death cases tend to settle for. If you would rather talk to a real attorney first, call (602) 345-1818 for a free case review.
When a family hires us, here is what happens in the first 30 days.
Within 72 hours, we open a file, send preservation letters to every party we suspect may share fault (drivers, trucking companies, property owners, hospitals, manufacturers), and put insurance carriers on notice. Preservation letters lock down vehicle data, surveillance footage, and electronic records before they get “lost.”
In week one, we pull the police report or DPS report, identify witnesses, and order the death certificate and medical records. If it is a trucking case, we move fast on ECM and black-box data, dashcam, and driver logs. Federal regs only require 6 months of retention on some of these.
Weeks two and three, we identify every available insurance policy. This usually includes the at-fault party’s liability policy, any umbrella policy, employer coverage if they were on the job, commercial auto coverage, and your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. UIM is the policy families miss most often.
By day 30, we work with you to identify the right statutory plaintiff under A.R.S. § 12-612, value the economic and non-economic losses, and decide whether to open a probate estate. Opening probate is sometimes necessary if the personal representative is the right plaintiff.
You do not pay anything during this work. We are on a contingency fee, which we cover further down.
A lot of wrongful death pages talk around the statute. Here is the operative language.
A.R.S. § 12-611 creates the right to sue. The statute says that when the death of a person is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default, and the act would have entitled the injured party to maintain an action had death not ensued, the person or corporation that would have been liable is liable for damages despite the death.
Translated: if your loved one could have sued for personal injury had they survived, the family (or estate) can sue for wrongful death. The underlying wrong can be negligence, recklessness, an intentional act, or a strict-liability defect. The death itself does not have to be instantaneous.
A.R.S. § 12-612 says who can bring the action and who gets the money. The action is brought by and in the name of the surviving spouse, child, parent or guardian, or personal representative of the deceased, on behalf of the surviving spouse, children, or parents.
Two things to notice. First, only specific people can file. Second, the action is brought on behalf of statutory beneficiaries, not the estate at large. We cover both of those below.
Under A.R.S. § 12-612, the right to file is reserved for:
Siblings cannot file in their own name. Neither can grandparents, fiancés, unmarried partners, or stepchildren who were not legally adopted. If none of the listed family members are available, the personal representative files on behalf of the estate.
Arizona only allows one wrongful death action per death. If you have a spouse and three adult children, they do not each get to file separate lawsuits. One case gets filed, usually by the personal representative or the spouse, with all statutory beneficiaries named.
Arizona actually recognizes two distinct claims after a fatal injury, and you may need to file both.
A wrongful death claim under A.R.S. § 12-611 compensates the survivors for their own losses: loss of companionship, loss of financial support, and grief.
A survival action under A.R.S. § 14-3110 compensates the decedent’s estate for the damages the decedent themselves would have been entitled to recover: the medical bills they incurred between injury and death, lost wages during that period, and the conscious pain and suffering they experienced before dying.
If your loved one died instantly at the scene, the survival action may have limited value. If they survived for hours, days, or weeks in the hospital before dying, the survival action can be substantial, sometimes larger than the wrongful death claim itself.
Practical impact: a case where the decedent lived 11 days in the ICU before passing might include a six-figure survival-action component for the medical bills, lost wages, and conscious pain and suffering, plus a separate wrongful death recovery for the family’s losses. We file both when both apply.
Honest answer: it depends on six things. Decedent’s age and earning capacity, family composition, liability clarity, available insurance, the underlying cause of death, and whether the conduct supports punitive damages.
Here is what we see in Maricopa County. These are general settlement and verdict ranges, not promises:
A few honest caveats. Cases involving an elderly decedent with limited future earnings tend to settle for less than cases involving a 35-year-old with two young children. Cases with significant decedent fault (under Arizona’s pure comparative negligence rule, more below) get reduced. And cases where the only available insurance is a $25,000 state-minimum auto policy are limited by that policy, not by what the case is worth, unless we can find additional coverage.
The way we value a case is to add up the economic damages (lost future earnings, household services, funeral costs), add the non-economic damages (loss of consortium, grief, loss of guidance), and adjust for liability strength and insurance availability. Then we test that number against comparable jury verdicts and settlements. For more on how this works generally, see our page on case value.
Arizona allows three categories of damages: economic, non-economic, and (in qualifying cases) punitive.
These are the financial losses you can put a dollar figure on:
These are the harder-to-quantify losses, and they often make up the largest part of a wrongful death recovery:
One point worth flagging: Arizona has no statutory or constitutional cap on non-economic damages in wrongful death cases. Article 2, Section 31 of the Arizona Constitution provides that “no law shall be enacted in this state limiting the amount of damages to be recovered for causing the death or injury of any person.” The Arizona Supreme Court has applied that provision to invalidate legislative attempts to cap damages. That matters when the loss is catastrophic.
Punitive damages are extra damages meant to punish the defendant and deter future misconduct. Arizona requires a higher standard for punitive damages than for compensatory damages. Under Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Insurance Co., 150 Ariz. 326 (1986), you have to prove the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” meaning a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others.
Cases where we typically pursue punitive damages:
The standard of proof for punitive damages in Arizona is “clear and convincing evidence,” which is higher than the “preponderance of the evidence” standard for compensatory damages.
A.R.S. § 12-612(C) controls distribution, and it is different from how a regular probate estate is split.
Wrongful death proceeds are distributed directly to the statutory beneficiaries (spouse, children, parents) in proportion to each person’s losses. The money does not pass through the probate estate. That means:
So if a 40-year-old man dies leaving a wife, two young children, and his elderly parents, the bulk of the recovery typically goes to the wife and minor children, who lost decades of financial support and parenting. The parents may receive a smaller share reflecting their relationship and loss, but it is not an automatic equal split.
If the parties cannot agree on distribution, the court decides after an evidentiary hearing on relative losses. In practice, our team often negotiates the distribution among family members as part of resolving the case, with court approval at the end.
Survival action proceeds (the separate claim under A.R.S. § 14-3110) work differently. Those flow into the probate estate and are subject to creditor claims and the will.
Wrongful death is a remedy, not a type of accident. The underlying cause varies. Phoenix cases we see most often involve:
If a government employee or government entity contributed to the death, there is a deadline most people miss. Under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, you must file a written notice of claim within 180 days of the date the cause of action accrues. Miss that deadline and the case is dead before it starts.
Government defendants we see in wrongful death cases:
The 180-day notice must be in writing, must contain specific factual content (basis of liability, amount of damages sought, factual basis for the demand), and must be served on the right agent for the right entity. A defective notice is worse than no notice at all because it locks in a flawed claim.
If you suspect a government defendant may share fault, call us immediately. The 180-day clock starts on day one and there is no good way to extend it.
Yes, in almost every situation. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Even if the decedent was found 99% at fault, the family can still recover 1% of the damages. There is no bar at 50% or 51% the way some other states impose.
Worked example: a jury returns a $1,000,000 wrongful death verdict. The defense convinces the jury that the decedent was 25% at fault (let’s say they were not wearing a seatbelt and the jury believed that contributed). The family recovers $750,000 ($1M reduced by 25%).
Worked example at the extreme: a jury awards $2,000,000 and finds the decedent 90% at fault. The family still recovers $200,000. That is a uniquely Arizona outcome. In modified comparative negligence states like Texas, Colorado, or Utah, the family gets nothing in the same fact pattern because those states bar recovery once decedent fault crosses 50% (Texas) or 51% (Colorado/Utah).
What this means practically: insurance companies will work very hard to assign fault to your loved one. They use accident reconstructionists, biomechanics experts, and even social media history. Our job is to push back and minimize the percentage assigned. We have seen the difference between a 10% finding and a 40% finding shift case value by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Two years from the date of death under A.R.S. § 12-542(2). That is the hard rule.
A few things to know:
For more on Arizona deadlines generally, see the Arizona statute of limitations page.
Waiting almost guarantees you lose the right to file. Evidence disappears, witnesses move, and surveillance footage gets overwritten on 30 to 90 day cycles. The sooner we open a file, the more we can preserve.
The legal basis for your case depends on how your loved one was killed. Most wrongful death cases rest on one of three theories.
The most common. To prove negligence, we have to establish four elements:
A drunk driver who runs a red light and kills your spouse: classic negligence, often with a punitive damages overlay.
In strict liability cases, you do not have to prove the defendant was careless. Liability attaches because of the type of activity or product involved. The main strict liability categories in Arizona wrongful death cases are:
When someone deliberately caused the death (assault, homicide, criminal vehicular conduct), the family can pursue a civil wrongful death claim regardless of whether the criminal case results in a conviction. The standard of proof is “preponderance of the evidence” (more likely than not), which is lower than the criminal “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard. That is why families sometimes win civil cases even after an acquittal at the criminal level.
For broader context on how these cases fit into Arizona injury law, see our Phoenix personal injury resources hub.
We work on a contingency fee. You pay nothing up front. You pay nothing during the case. We get paid as a percentage of what we recover for you, and only if we recover.
Most personal injury firms in Arizona, including ours, charge roughly 33% if the case settles before litigation, with the percentage stepping up (often to 40%) if the case has to be filed in court or goes to trial. Case costs (court filing fees, expert witness fees, deposition transcripts) are typically advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the recovery at the end.
If we do not recover anything for you, you owe us nothing. No fee, no costs. That is how contingency works.
Most wrongful death cases take 12 to 24 months from start to resolution. Cases that settle pre-litigation can wrap in 6 to 12 months. Cases that go to trial typically take 24 to 36 months. Complex cases (commercial trucking, medical malpractice, products liability) sit on the longer end because they require more experts and discovery.
Yes. Civil and criminal cases run on separate tracks. You do not have to wait for the criminal case to end. In some situations it makes sense to move forward with the civil case immediately (to preserve evidence and lock in testimony). In others it makes sense to let the criminal case develop first because it can produce useful evidence. We will advise based on your specific facts.
Arizona’s minimum liability is $25,000 per person, which is plainly inadequate for a wrongful death claim. We look at every possible additional source: the at-fault driver’s umbrella policy, employer coverage if they were on the job, dram-shop liability against a bar that overserved them, and most importantly, your own household’s underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. UIM is the policy that fills the gap, and many families do not realize they have it until we look.
No. Any statutory beneficiary (spouse, child, parent) or the personal representative can file the action. Only one action gets filed per death, so we work with the family to coordinate. If beneficiaries disagree on whether to file or on settlement terms, the court can resolve it, but it is much smoother when the family is aligned.
Most wrongful death recoveries are not taxable under federal law because they compensate for physical injury and death. Punitive damages and any interest awarded are generally taxable. The breakdown matters, which is why how a settlement is allocated in writing has real consequences. We coordinate with tax counsel when the recovery is large enough that
