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Gammill Law’s results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict.
Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 19, 2026
When a death in Los Angeles is caused by another person’s negligence, California law gives specified family members a wrongful death claim, and it gives the estate a separate survival claim. Both carry deadlines, and the one that applies when the City, the County or the State may be responsible is six months, not two years. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that represents families across the City of Los Angeles in these cases. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
There is no rush to decide anything today; when it would help, you can request a free case evaluation and we will walk through your options at your pace.
A wrongful death claim is a civil lawsuit brought by the family of a person who died because someone else was negligent, reckless, or acted intentionally. Negligence means a failure to use reasonable care. The claim belongs to the survivors, not to the person who died, and it compensates them for what they lost: financial support, household services, and the person’s love, companionship, comfort, care, and guidance. It does not depend on a criminal case being filed, and in Los Angeles it does not depend on whether the Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department or the Highway Patrol ever finds fault.
California limits who may bring a wrongful death claim. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60, the claim belongs first to the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the children, and the children of any child who died before the decedent. If none of those people survive, the claim passes to whoever would inherit under California’s intestate succession rules, which usually means parents or siblings. The statute also lets certain financially dependent people file: a putative spouse and that spouse’s children, stepchildren, parents, and a minor who lived in the decedent’s household for the prior 180 days and relied on the decedent for at least half of their support.
All eligible heirs generally join one lawsuit, and the recovery is divided among them. A relative who is left out can lose the right to recover, so sorting out who qualifies is one of the first things we do. Our guide to California wrongful death lawsuits and their filing deadline covers the rules in more depth.
A death usually gives rise to two separate claims. The wrongful death claim compensates the family for its own losses. The survival action is different: it is the claim the person who died could have brought if they had lived, and the estate brings it. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.34, the survival action recovers the decedent’s own economic losses before death, such as medical bills and lost wages, and it can recover punitive damages where the conduct qualifies.
One rule changed at the start of this year. For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, the decedent’s own pain and suffering is no longer recoverable, because the temporary window that allowed it under SB 447 closed without extension. Punitive damages, governed by Civil Code § 3294, survive in the survival action where the evidence shows malice, oppression, or fraud, which in a crash case most often means a drunk or grossly reckless driver; they are never guaranteed.
Los Angeles is large enough that the numbers are public and the agencies are several. By the state crash database, 340 people died in traffic crashes inside the city limits in 2025. The same database puts 2024 at 315 deaths. Of the 2025 deaths, 265 were in crashes reported by the Los Angeles Police Department, and 75 were in crashes reported by other agencies, mostly the California Highway Patrol on the freeways. The state’s 2025 file can still be revised as late reports arrive. By LAPD’s own count, the city recorded 290 fatal crashes in 2025, more than its 230 homicides, the third straight year that traffic deaths outnumbered killings. Those are two different measures from two different sources, a count of deaths and a count of fatal crashes, and this page keeps them apart.
Two patterns in the same database matter to a family’s case. In 2024, by the same database, 88 of the people who died in city crashes died in hit-and-run crashes, which is why we move at once on camera footage and on the uninsured-motorist coverage of the person who died. And about 73 percent of the 2024 deaths happened in crashes after dark, which bears on lighting, signal timing and sight lines when a roadway condition is in question. A roadway case is possible under Government Code § 835, which lets a family hold a public entity responsible for a dangerous condition of its property that it created or had notice of in time to fix; the City owns the local streets and signals, Caltrans owns the freeways, and the entity will usually raise an immunity for the road’s design that has to be answered with evidence. What the entity knew about the road, and when, is casework, never a conclusion drawn in advance. Whoever investigated, the cause and manner of death are determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, a separate county department, and its file is part of nearly every case.
The general deadline is two years from the death. If the person was injured on one date and died on a later one, the wrongful death clock runs from the date of death, not the date of the crash. Our plain-English guide to CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, covers the rule and its narrow exceptions. Courts rarely excuse a missed deadline.
Government cases move much faster. If a public entity may share responsibility, a written claim must be presented to that entity within six months of the death, before any lawsuit can be filed, under Government Code § 911.2. In Los Angeles that means the City of Los Angeles for a city street, a signal, a City vehicle or a City police officer; Caltrans for a freeway or state highway; and the County of Los Angeles for a county road, a county-run facility or a Sheriff’s vehicle or deputy. The City of Los Angeles accepts a claim only through the Office of the City Clerk, not the City Attorney, and a claim the City does not act on within 45 days is treated as rejected. Once an entity rejects the claim, Government Code § 945.6 gives six months from the rejection notice to file suit. Filing with the wrong entity does not stop the clock. Our guide to the California government claim deadline walks through the sequence.
Where the case is heard. Most wrongful death lawsuits arising inside the City of Los Angeles are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Central District and assigned to an independent calendar judge at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, downtown; the court assigns the courthouse by where the crash happened, so a death in the Harbor, the San Fernando Valley or the Westside can land in another district.
Some Los Angeles families are here because a police officer or sheriff’s deputy caused the death, in a shooting, a use of force, a pursuit or a jail. Those cases carry everything above and one more claim: a federal civil rights claim for the violation that caused the death. The federal claim is not subject to the state rule that bars the decedent’s pain and suffering in a survival action, so what the person experienced before dying can still be part of the case. The six-month claim rule still applies to the state-law claims against the City or the County, and a claim for an LAPD officer’s conduct is a claim against the City while a claim for a deputy’s conduct is a claim against the County. Our Los Angeles civil rights page covers how those cases are built, and our Los Angeles police shooting page covers the shooting cases in particular.
The family must prove that the defendant’s negligence caused the death and what the family lost as a result. The evidence is gathered early: the collision report, which the Los Angeles Police Department writes for a city street and the California Highway Patrol writes for a freeway; the Medical Examiner’s findings; scene photographs; vehicle event data; camera footage from City signals, transit vehicles and nearby businesses before it is overwritten; phone records; and witness statements. Where the roadway itself is in issue, the City’s and Caltrans’s own records for that road become evidence too, and a written preservation demand in the first weeks is what keeps them from disappearing. Experts often carry the case: an accident reconstructionist, medical witnesses on the cause of death, and an economist to calculate what the family will go without over a lifetime. A police fatal investigation and any criminal prosecution run separately from the civil claim; the civil case can proceed whether or not charges are filed, and it uses a lower standard of proof.
Most Los Angeles wrongful death cases begin as one of the injury cases this firm handles every day, and the first facts to establish depend on which one. A death in a Los Angeles car crash turns on the other driver’s fault and on the insurance available, including the uninsured-motorist coverage of the person who died. A death involving a commercial truck in Los Angeles turns on the carrier’s records and on who else stands behind the driver. A Los Angeles motorcycle death turns on beating the assumption that the rider was at fault. A death from a fall, a fire, or an assault on someone else’s property in Los Angeles turns on what the owner knew and what it did about it. Each of those pages explains its own case; this page explains what every one of them becomes when the injury is fatal.
The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Separately, its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict in a roadway-danger case against a public entity, returned by a jury after a $10,000 pre-trial offer; every case is different, and that result does not predict the outcome of any Los Angeles case. What it shows is that the firm prepares wrongful death cases to be tried. David Gammill has tried over 100 cases to verdict; past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. See our case results.
Our office is on Del Amo Boulevard in Torrance, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. We prepare every wrongful death case for trial from the first meeting, because insurers and public entities price a claim differently when the lawyer across the table will finish the fight in front of a jury.
We work on a contingency fee: nothing upfront, no hourly bills, and a fee only out of the recovery, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
An initial consultation can be held by Zoom video, and we meet families at home or at the hospital when travel is the last thing anyone needs. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 310-750-4149, and nothing about your case moves faster than you want it to.
Two years from the date of death for most claims. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is due to that entity within six months; for the City of Los Angeles it goes to the City Clerk, for a freeway it goes to Caltrans, and for a Sheriff’s deputy or a county road it goes to the County. The lawsuit deadline then runs from the entity’s response.
The surviving spouse or domestic partner, the children, and the children of a child who died earlier. If none survive, the people who would inherit under intestate succession may file, and certain financially dependent stepchildren, parents, putative spouses, and household minors also qualify under CCP § 377.60.
The claim survives. California follows a pure comparative negligence rule: the recovery is reduced by the decedent’s percentage of fault, never eliminated by it. Insurers exaggerate that share for exactly that reason, and the person who could answer them is gone, so we answer with evidence.
No. A wrongful death claim is a civil case with its own standard of proof, and it proceeds whether or not the district attorney files charges. A death caused by a drinking driver is the usual example: the civil claim goes forward on its own evidence, and an acquittal does not end it. The same is true when the driver was never found; a hit-and-run death is pursued through the coverage of the person who died and through the footage and records that identify the driver.
The wrongful death claim compensates the family for its own losses. The survival action, brought by the estate, recovers the losses the person suffered before death, and can include punitive damages. For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, the decedent’s pain and suffering is not recoverable, because the temporary window that allowed it closed without extension; a federal civil rights claim against the police is the exception.
Nothing upfront. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, set in a written agreement, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. The written contingency fee agreement linked above explains how the percentage and case expenses work.
Our office is in Torrance, and we represent families across the City of Los Angeles, from San Pedro, Wilmington and the Harbor through South Los Angeles and downtown to the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For every kind of injury case in the city, see our Los Angeles personal injury lawyer page.
When you are ready, we will listen, explain the deadlines that apply to your family, and tell you what a claim would involve. The conversation is free and confidential, and there is no obligation. Call 310-750-4149 any time, or send us a message through our contact page and we will reach out at a time that works for you. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win.
This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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My name is David Gammill. I am a California trial lawyer and the founder of Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. Our firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients. Our results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict. I learned to try cases in front of juries early in my career as a Deputy District Attorney, and trying cases remains the backbone of my practice.
