Practice areas / Wrongful death
Wrongful death claims
the personal representative, the survivors, the 2-year clock
A Florida wrongful death action is filed by the personal representative of the estate on behalf of the survivors named by statute.
Florida law defines who may recover and imposes strict filing deadlines. Opening the estate and identifying the statutory survivors are among the first steps.
What Florida law actually says
The Florida Wrongful Death Act defines who counts as a survivor: the spouse, children, parents, and certain dependent relatives (Fla. Stat. 768.16-768.26). The definitions are statutory, not intuitive.
The personal representative brings one action for all survivors and the estate together.
The general deadline is 2 years from the death, with exceptions in both directions, including shorter clocks when a government entity is involved.
What gets secured first
Opening the estate and getting the personal representative appointed before positions harden
Every insurance policy that could answer, including coverage the family does not know exists
The full sequence of what happened, documented while witnesses are reachable and records exist
Who qualifies as a survivor under the statute, resolved before it becomes a dispute inside the family
Asked in the first phone call
Who is allowed to bring the case?
The personal representative of the estate, on behalf of the survivors the statute names. If no estate has been opened yet, that is the first step, and it can move quickly with counsel.
How long do we have?
Generally 2 years from the date of death, and less in some circumstances. Do not calculate this from a website. Have the date confirmed against the specific facts.
Nothing on this site is legal advice. The deadlines and standards described here are general, they have exceptions, and they change. Florida rewrote several of them in 2023. Do not use this site to calculate your own deadline.