805-962-1930 Santa Barbara Wrongful Death Lawyer
Losing a loved one in an accident or because of negligence is devastating. Funeral and burial costs can reach thousands of dollars, and a household can lose essential income when a family member dies. Surviving relatives must also cope with the loss of companionship, care, and guidance, especially when children lose a parent.
Our Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyers can help the surviving family members pursue damages through the California civil justice system. Unfortunately, filing a claim on your own can be complicated while you are grieving and worried about your family’s future.
Maho | Prentice, LLP can investigate the death, preserve evidence, identify the responsible parties, and pursue the available compensation under California law. Call us 24/7 at 805-962-1930 to speak with a wrongful death lawyer in Santa Barbara, or complete our online form to get started.
Why Choose Maho | Prentice, LLP for Your Santa Barbara Wrongful Death Claim
Maho | Prentice, LLP brings more than two decades of experience, experience in over 85 jury trials, and a 90% trial success rate to complex wrongful death claims. Our team handles the investigation, insurance negotiations, and litigation so your family doesn’t have to manage the legal process alone.
Decades of High-Stakes Trial Experience
We prepare every claim as if it could be heard in Santa Barbara County Superior Court. That trial-focused approach helps us build strong evidence and negotiate from a position of strength.
Insider Knowledge of Insurance Tactics
Our attorneys previously represented major retailers and insurance companies. That background helps us anticipate the arguments adjusters use to dispute liability, delay claims, and reduce their value.
Proven Results in Complex Litigation
Our firm has recovered more than $125 million for clients, including over $61 million in the past five years. Our experience with cases involving catastrophic and fatal injuries helps us document the financial impact of a death and prepare the claim for settlement or trial.
Immediate Local Investigations
Our team can quickly preserve evidence, obtain official reports, and investigate fatal accidents throughout Santa Barbara County. Call 805-962-1930 or complete our online form for a free, confidential consultation.
Who Can Sue for Wrongful Death in California?
California law allows the deceased person’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, or certain other heirs and dependents to file a wrongful death claim. The deceased person’s personal representative can also bring the claim on their behalf.
Determining who has the right to sue can become complicated when there are multiple relatives, unmarried partners, stepchildren, dependent parents, or disagreements among family members.
Our Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyers can review your family relationships and financial dependence to determine who must be included in the claim.
Eligible parties can include:
- Surviving Spouse or Domestic Partner: The decedent’s surviving spouse or registered domestic partner can bring a claim.
- Surviving Children: Biological and adopted children can file a wrongful death claim.
- Children of a Deceased Child: Grandchildren can qualify when their parent, who was the decedent’s child, died before the decedent.
- Other Intestate Heirs: If the decedent left no surviving children or grandchildren, other relatives who would inherit under California intestate succession law can qualify.
- Financial Dependents: A dependent putative spouse, children of a putative spouse, stepchildren, or parents can have standing.
- Certain Legal Guardians: A legal guardian can qualify in limited circumstances when the decedent’s parents are deceased.
- Certain Dependent Minors: A minor can qualify after living in the decedent’s household for at least 180 days and receiving at least half of their support from the decedent.
In most cases, the lawsuit must be filed within two years of the death, so waiting too long can prevent the family from recovering damages.
What Types of Accidents Can Lead to Wrongful Death in Santa Barbara?
A wrongful death claim can arise when negligence, misconduct, or a defective product causes a preventable death. Our Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyers can investigate what happened, identify every responsible party, and gather the evidence needed to connect that conduct to your loved one’s death.
Construction Accidents
Construction companies, contractors, property owners, equipment manufacturers, and other parties can bear responsibility for a fatal jobsite accident, including one at a redevelopment or commercial project in the Funk Zone.
Our Santa Barbara wrongful death attorneys review safety records, contracts, witness accounts, and equipment evidence to determine whether ignored safety rules or dangerous conditions contributed to the death.
Pedestrian Accidents
A driver who is distracted, impaired, speeding, or failing to yield can cause a fatal pedestrian collision on Cabrillo Boulevard or another busy Santa Barbara road. We use crash reports, video footage, vehicle data, and witness statements to establish how the collision occurred and who’s responsible.
Dog Bites and Attacks
California law generally holds a dog owner liable when the dog bites someone in a public place, such as Douglas Family Preserve, or while the person is lawfully on private property.
A wrongful death attorney in Santa Barbara can investigate the animal’s ownership, the circumstances of the attack, and available insurance policies.
Defective Products
A manufacturer, distributor, or seller may be liable when a defective product causes a fatal injury. These cases can involve unsafe design, manufacturing defects, or inadequate instructions and warnings.
Our legal team can preserve the product, consult qualified experts, and trace responsibility through the distribution chain.
Wrongful death claims can also arise from:
- Boating Accidents: Unsafe operation, intoxication, inadequate maintenance, or defective equipment can cause a fatal incident on the water.
- Aviation Accidents: Pilot error, maintenance failures, defective parts, or air carrier negligence can contribute to a deadly crash.
- Catastrophic Injuries: Some cases involving catastrophic and fatal injuries involve complications that ultimately lead to a loved one’s death.
- Motorcycle Accidents: A negligent driver, a dangerous roadway, or a defective vehicle component can cause a fatal motorcycle collision.
- Bicycle Accidents: Drivers who fail to yield, pass safely, or watch for cyclists can be responsible for deadly bicycle crashes.
- Dangerous Property Conditions: Property owners can face liability when a neglected or unsafe condition causes a fatal fall or other incident.
- Motor Vehicle Accidents: Fatal car, truck, and commercial vehicle crashes can involve several responsible drivers, employers, or insurance companies.
Maho | Prentice, LLP investigates the cause of the death, determines which individuals or businesses could be legally responsible, and identifies the available insurance coverage.
What Is the Difference Between a Wrongful Death Claim and a Survival Action?
In California, a wrongful death claim compensates eligible surviving family members for the losses they experience because of the death. A survival action belongs to the deceased person’s estate and seeks damages the person could have pursued if they had survived.
A family can sometimes bring both claims after the same fatal accident, but the parties, purpose, and available compensation differ.
| Wrongful Death Claim | Survival Action | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Brings the Claim? | Eligible heirs, or the personal representative acting on their behalf. | The estate’s personal representative or the decedent’s successor in interest. |
| Whose Losses Are Covered? | The losses suffered by eligible surviving family members. | Losses the deceased person sustained between the injury and death. |
| Financial Support | Lost income and financial support the decedent would likely have provided. | Income the decedent lost before death. |
| Medical Expenses | Not part of the claim. | Medical expenses incurred for treatment before death. |
| Funeral and Burial Costs | Reasonable funeral and burial expenses can be recovered. | Generally pursued through the wrongful death claim. |
| Household Services | The value of household services the decedent would have provided. | Not included. |
| Companionship and Guidance | Loss of companionship, care, protection, affection, guidance, and moral support. | Not included. |
| Pain and Suffering | Survivors can’t recover compensation for their own grief or emotional distress. | For actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, damages for the decedent’s pain, suffering, and disfigurement are generally unavailable. |
| Other Damages | Loss of gifts or benefits the decedent would have provided. | Property damage, penalties, and punitive damages the decedent could have pursued, when supported by the facts. |
A Santa Barbara wrongful death attorney can determine whether your family has one or both claims and make sure damages are assigned to the proper action.
Maho | Prentice, LLP works with medical, employment, and financial evidence to document lost support, final expenses, household contributions, and other losses recognized under California law.
Proven Results in Wrongful Death Cases
Wrongful death claims often involve complex liability issues, disputed damages, and aggressive insurance or corporate defense teams. Maho | Prentice, LLP has recovered substantial results in high-stakes wrongful death litigation and prepares every case with the expectation that it could proceed to trial.
Our wrongful death results include a $9.375 million settlement for a fatal trucking accident, a $6.7 million settlement involving a wrongful death police shooting, a $4.2 million verdict in a wrongful death fraud and conspiracy case, and a $3.5 million settlement arising from a fatal motorcycle-truck collision.
Every case depends on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Our attorneys build each wrongful death claim through a thorough investigation, careful damages analysis, and strategic preparation for settlement negotiations or trial.
FAQ for Santa Barbara Wrongful Death Lawyers
What Is the Difference Between a Wrongful Death Claim and a Survival Action?
A wrongful death claim seeks compensation for losses suffered by eligible surviving family members, such as lost financial support, funeral expenses, and the loss of the decedent’s care, companionship, protection, and guidance.
A survival action belongs to the decedent’s estate and seeks damages the decedent incurred before death, which can include medical expenses, lost income, property damage, and certain other losses.
Under the current California statute, pain, suffering, and disfigurement damages in a survival action are generally unavailable when the action was filed on or after January 1, 2026.
Will My Family Have To Go to Court for Our Wrongful Death Claim?
Many wrongful death claims resolve through a negotiated settlement, but no lawyer can guarantee that your case will stay out of court. Our attorneys investigate the death, prepare the evidence, and negotiate with the insurer or responsible party.
If a fair resolution can’t be reached, we’ll be ready to present your case at trial.
How Do Santa Barbara Wrongful Death Lawyers Prove Negligence?
The Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyers at Maho | Prentice, LLP prove negligence by showing that the defendant owed your loved one a duty of care, violated that duty, and caused the fatal injury.
Depending on how the death occurred, our team can use police reports, video footage, medical records, witness statements, company documents, vehicle data, and expert testimony to establish liability.
Are Wrongful Death Settlements Subject to Federal Income Taxes?
Compensatory damages arising from a physical injury or death are generally excluded from federal taxable income. However, punitive damages, interest, and certain other portions of a settlement can be taxable.
Can Multiple Family Members Hire Different Attorneys for the Same Death?
Eligible heirs generally must pursue their claims in one wrongful death action, although individual family members can seek separate legal advice or representation. California’s one-action rule is intended to prevent a defendant from facing several wrongful death lawsuits arising from the same death.
Talk to a Santa Barbara Wrongful Death Attorney
Maho | Prentice, LLP has served personal injury clients throughout Southern California for more than 20 years. Our attorneys can investigate your loved one’s death, calculate the losses available under California law, and guide your family through each stage of the claim.
You don’t have to manage insurance negotiations, evidence collection, and filing deadlines while grieving. Call 805-962-1930 or use our online form for a free, confidential consultation with a Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyer.