Wrongful Death
Arizona divides what happened to your family into two separate claims. They belong to different people and they pay for different things, and nobody explains that at the hospital.
The Rules That Shape An Arizona Case
- Deadline
- Two years, running from the date of death
- If a government is involved
- 180 days to file a notice of claim
- Who may file
- Spouse, child, parent, guardian, or personal representative
- Pain and suffering
- Not recoverable for the person who died
One claim belongs to your family. The other belongs to the estate. Which one applies changes who recovers, what the recovery covers, and whether creditors can reach it.
Two Claims, And They Are Not The Same
Arizona law creates liability when a death is caused by a wrongful act, neglect or default, in the same situations where the person could have sued had they lived. That is A.R.S. 12-611, and it is the foundation of a wrongful death case.
Running alongside it is a second, older idea: the claims a person held when they died do not simply vanish. A.R.S. 14-3110 keeps most of them alive for the estate. But that same statute takes something away, and families are rarely told about it in advance.
The wrongful death claim
This one is about your loss, not your family member’s. It compensates the surviving spouse, children or parents for what the death did to them.
It is brought in one name on behalf of everyone the statute covers, which is why it looks like one case even when several people are affected.
The survival claim
This belongs to the estate and covers what the person themselves lost, such as medical bills and lost earnings before death.
Arizona draws a hard line here. Under 14-3110, once the injured person has died, damages for that person’s pain and suffering are not allowed. Families expect the opposite, and the disappointment lands hardest when they hear it late.
Arizona Names The People Who Can Bring The Case
The list is in A.R.S. 12-612, and it is shorter than most people assume. A wrongful death action is brought by and in the name of the surviving husband or wife, a child, a parent or a guardian, or by the personal representative, for and on behalf of the spouse, children or parents. If none of those people survive, the case is brought on behalf of the estate.
Either parent may bring the action for the death of a child, and a guardian may bring it for a ward. Siblings, grandparents, fiancés and long-term partners are not on the statutory list, which surprises people who were closest to the person who died.
A surviving spouse
Named first in the statute, and in most cases the person who files.
Children
Adult children count. So do children from an earlier marriage, which is where allocation questions usually start.
Parents
Either parent may bring the action for a child’s death. They do not have to agree first.
A guardian or the personal representative
A guardian may act for a ward. A personal representative files where the statute allows, which usually means opening a probate.
One Case, More Than One Family
Because the action is brought in one name for everyone entitled to recover, a single case can carry people who barely know each other. A second spouse and adult children from a first marriage is the common version in Arizona.
The statute does not split the money evenly. Under 12-612, the amount recovered is distributed to those parties in proportion to their damages. A jury deciding a wrongful death case is told by 12-613 to award what is fair and just with reference to the injury resulting from the death, with regard to the mitigating or aggravating circumstances of the wrongful act. Two people can be equally grieving and still have very different measurable damages.
There is one disqualification written into the statute. A person on the list who is found guilty, found guilty except insane, or who pleads guilty or no contest to certain homicide offenses involving the death, or to child abuse under 13-3623 involving the death of a child, is deemed to have predeceased the decedent and recovers nothing.
What The Recovery Is Protected From
Families come to us with bills. Hospital bills, an ambulance bill, sometimes credit cards in the name of the person who died. The question underneath the grief is whether anything recovered will simply be absorbed by those debts.
Arizona answers that in 12-613, and the answer depends on who the case is brought for.
Brought for the family
The statute says the amount recovered is not subject to the debts or liabilities of the deceased.
That protection is one of the most practical things in the wrongful death statute, and almost nobody knows it exists.
Brought for the estate
The exception in the same sentence matters. Where the action is brought on behalf of the decedent’s estate, the protection does not apply, and 12-612 makes the recovery an asset of the estate.
An estate asset sits inside the probate process, where creditors have a claims procedure available to them. Which route a case takes is worth understanding early rather than after a settlement.
If A Government Vehicle Or Agency Is Involved
This is the section that costs families the most, and it has nothing to do with the strength of the case. A city truck, a county vehicle, a school district driver, a public bus, a police cruiser: all of them shorten the deadline dramatically.
Under A.R.S. 12-821.01, a claim against a public entity, public school or public employee must be filed within 180 days after the cause of action accrues, with the person authorized to accept service. The notice has to contain facts sufficient to let the entity understand the basis of the claim, and a specific amount the claim can be settled for, with the facts supporting that amount. A claim filed late is barred.
Separately, A.R.S. 12-821 requires any action against a public entity or public employee to be brought within one year. A family working on the ordinary two-year assumption can lose a strong case in the first six months without ever hearing from a lawyer.
The Two Years Run From The Death
A.R.S. 12-542 sets two years for injuries to the person, and it addresses this situation directly: where death results from the injuries, the action is considered to accrue at the death of the party injured.
That distinction matters more often than it sounds. Someone injured in March who dies in September has a wrongful death clock that starts in September, not March.
When death follows weeks later
The clock for the wrongful death claim starts at the death. Other claims connected to the same event can run on their own schedule.
If a case involves both, the earliest deadline is the one that governs how fast anyone needs to move.
A child’s own claim
Under A.R.S. 12-502, if the person entitled to bring an action is under eighteen or of unsound mind when the cause of action accrues, that period of disability does not count against the limitation period.
This is not a reason to wait. Evidence goes stale on its own schedule, and a claim against a public entity has its own short clock regardless.
Being Partly At Fault Does Not End The Case
Insurers raise this early, and they raise it about the person who died, who is no longer here to answer it. Arizona uses pure comparative fault under A.R.S. 12-2505. A claimant’s share of fault reduces the recovery in proportion. It does not bar the claim.
The practical effect is that an argument about fault is an argument about percentage, not about whether a family has a case at all. Answering it well is work that starts with evidence, not with an adjuster’s phone call in the first week.
Questions Families Ask
Can a brother, sister or grandparent file?+
Not under the wrongful death statute on their own. A.R.S. 12-612 lists the surviving spouse, a child, a parent, a guardian and the personal representative.
That does not always end the conversation. Where a grandparent was the legal guardian, or where the estate is the proper plaintiff, the analysis changes. It is worth asking rather than assuming.
Do we have to open a probate?+
Sometimes. Where a surviving spouse, child or parent brings the case, a probate is not automatically required. Where the personal representative is the one filing, or where the recovery would be an estate asset, probate becomes part of the work. This is one of the first things to sort out, because it affects who signs what.
Can we recover for what our family member went through before they died?+
Not their pain and suffering. A.R.S. 14-3110 says that on the death of the injured person, damages for that person’s pain and suffering are not allowed.
Other losses connected to the injury may still be part of a survival claim brought by the estate. The exclusion is specific, and it is narrower than “nothing before the death counts.”
How is the money divided between us?+
In proportion to each person’s damages, under A.R.S. 12-612. That is a real question with real evidence behind it, not a formula, and it is better worked through early than discovered at the end.
Two of us want to file separately. Can we?+
The statute contemplates one action brought on behalf of the statutory beneficiaries, with the exception that either parent may bring the action for a child. Where family members are not aligned, that is a situation to raise with a lawyer directly, because the answer depends on who the beneficiaries are.
Do we have to wait for the criminal case to finish?+
No. A civil claim and a criminal prosecution are separate proceedings with separate deadlines, and the civil clock does not pause while a prosecution is pending.
A conviction can matter to the civil case, including the disqualification rule in 12-612 for a beneficiary convicted of causing the death. Waiting for it is a different decision from being required to wait.
Can the hospital or credit card companies take the settlement?+
Under A.R.S. 12-613, the amount recovered is not subject to the debts or liabilities of the deceased, unless the action is brought on behalf of the estate.
Health care provider liens and reimbursement rights are their own subject and are not answered by that sentence alone. Ask about them specifically.
A city vehicle was involved. Is anything different?+
Yes, and the difference is measured in months. A notice of claim must be filed within 180 days under A.R.S. 12-821.01, and any action must be brought within one year under 12-821. Those run whether or not anyone has told your family they exist.
How long will this take, and what is it worth?+
We do not answer either question on a website. Anyone who gives you a number before reading the file is guessing, and a wrongful death case with several beneficiaries and a government defendant runs on a different track from one with a single claimant and a private insurer. Ask us in a consultation and we will tell you what we actually know.
