Brooklyn Wrongful Death Attorney

Lost a loved one in a Brooklyn accident? Contact our compassionate wrongful death lawyers in Brooklyn, New York today for a free consultation and fight for the compensation and justice your family deserves.

If a preventable accident took your husband, wife, parent, or child in Brooklyn, New York law gives your family the right to hold the responsible party financially accountable. A wrongful death claim will not undo what happened, but it can secure the resources your family needs to move forward and force the at-fault party to answer for what they did.

Grigor Law Injury & Car Accident Lawyers represents Brooklyn families in fatal accident cases across every borough, from Bay Ridge to Brownsville to Downtown Brooklyn.

Our Brooklyn wrongful death attorneys handle the legal fight, the paperwork, and the insurance company pressure so you can focus on your family. Call (718) 249-7447 for a free, confidential consultation today.

Why Grigor Law Fights for Brooklyn Families

Losing someone to another party’s negligence is devastating. What makes it worse is an insurance company moving fast, not to help your family, but to protect its own bottom line. At Grigor Law, we stand between your family and the adjusters who count on grieving families settling for less than they deserve.

Founding attorney Chrissy Grigoropoulos, Esq. leads a team with a clear philosophy: fight like a shark for every client and prepare every case for a jury from day one. Insurance companies know we walk into courtrooms, and that changes how they negotiate. Our Ridgewood office covers Brooklyn, Queens, and all five boroughs.

• Contingency fee: No attorney fee unless we recover compensation for your family.

• We come to you: If travel is difficult, our attorneys meet you at home or the hospital.

• Trial-ready representation: Our Brooklyn wrongful death lawyers build every case to win, at the negotiating table and in front of a jury.

What Is a Wrongful Death Claim in New York?

A wrongful death claim is a civil lawsuit that allows a deceased person’s estate to seek financial compensation when someone dies because of another party’s negligent, reckless, or wrongful conduct. New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL § 5-4.1) is the specific statute that governs these claims.

There is also a related but separate claim called a survival action, it seeks compensation for the pain and suffering your loved one experienced between the time of their injury and the moment of death. We pursue both claims simultaneously to capture everything New York law allows your family to recover.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in New York?

The lawsuit must be filed by the “personal representative” of the deceased’s estate, either the executor named in your loved one’s will or a court-appointed administrator if no will exists. Surviving family members cannot file directly, even though they are the ones who ultimately receive the compensation.

We guide families through the Surrogate’s Court process, the New York court that oversees estate administration, to appoint a personal representative quickly. Compensation then flows to the surviving family members, known as “distributees,” which typically includes a spouse, children, or parents.

What Damages Can Your Family Recover?

New York limits wrongful death recovery to pecuniary losses, financial losses that can be calculated in concrete dollars. Unlike many states, New York does not compensate for grief, emotional pain, or loss of companionship in a wrongful death claim itself. That makes it critical to work with attorneys who can identify and document every dollar of your family’s financial loss.

Your family may be entitled to recover:

• Loss of financial support: The wages, salary, and benefits your loved one would have provided over their working life.

• Loss of household services: The value of childcare, home maintenance, cooking, and other services they regularly performed.

• Loss of parental guidance: What a child loses in nurturing, supervision, and education when a parent is taken too soon.

• Lost inheritance: What the deceased would reasonably have accumulated and left to their family.

• Medical expenses: All bills for treating your loved one’s final injury before they passed.

• Funeral and burial costs: Reasonable expenses directly tied to burial and service arrangements.

• Conscious pain and suffering: Recovered separately through a survival action for the period between injury and death.

How Long Do You Have to File?

In New York, you generally have two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit. This deadline is the statute of limitations, a hard legal cutoff after which your family loses the right to sue, regardless of how clear the negligence is.

Two exceptions can shorten this window significantly:

• Medical malpractice deaths: The statute of limitations is two years and six months, measured from the date the malpractice occurred, not necessarily from the date of death.

• Government defendants: If a city agency, the MTA, or a public hospital shares blame, a Notice of Claim must be filed within 90 days of the incident before any lawsuit can proceed.

Who Can Be Held Liable?

Identifying every responsible party is one of the most consequential decisions in a wrongful death case. More liable parties often means more available insurance coverage, and a larger potential recovery for your family.

Depending on how the death occurred, our personal injury attorneys in Brooklyn may pursue claims against:

• A driver who caused a fatal car, truck, or motorcycle crash

• A property owner who ignored a known hazardous condition on their premises

• A general contractor or construction company that violated jobsite safety requirements

• A doctor, hospital, or nursing facility that breached the medical standard of care

• A product manufacturer whose defective item caused a fatal injury

• A government agency whose negligence contributed to the accident

If your loved one shared some fault for what happened, New York’s comparative negligence rule reduces, but does not eliminate, your family’s right to recover, unless your loved one’s fault was greater than the other driver’s, a bar that took effect May 26, 2026. Your award is reduced by their percentage of fault, but it is not taken away.

A pattern we consistently see in fatal crash cases is that the at-fault party’s insurer opens a file and starts minimizing exposure within days, often before a family has even scheduled a funeral. We send our own preservation demand for scene evidence and any available camera footage the same week we’re retained, so that early insurer narrative never becomes the only record of what happened.

Types of Fatal Accidents We Handle in Brooklyn

We represent families in every type of wrongful death case that Brooklyn’s streets, worksites, and buildings produce.

What we see in Brooklyn worksite fatality claims is that families are often told a workers’ compensation death benefit is their only recovery, when a third-party contractor or equipment manufacturer may carry separate liability. We investigate every party present on site before letting a comp claim close out a family’s full case.

Fatal Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Accidents

We pursue negligent drivers, trucking companies, and their insurers for fatal crashes caused by reckless driving, drunk driving, or distraction.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Fatalities

When someone is killed while walking or cycling through Brooklyn’s crosswalks and bike lanes, we hold the responsible driver and every other negligent party fully accountable.

Construction Site Deaths

New York’s Labor Law creates strict liability for certain fatal construction accidents. We use these statutes aggressively against property owners and general contractors who allow dangerous conditions on their jobsites.

Medical Malpractice

When a healthcare provider’s failure to meet the standard of care leads to a patient’s death, we build our case with independent medical experts who identify exactly where the negligence occurred.

Premises Liability Deaths

Broken stairs, inadequate lighting, and missing guardrails can all be fatal. We hold building owners responsible when dangerous conditions on their property take a life.

Nursing Home Neglect

When a facility’s failure to provide adequate care leads to a resident’s death, we pursue those claims with the same force we bring to every wrongful death case we handle.

What to Do After a Fatal Accident in Brooklyn

The steps your family takes in the first days and weeks can have a direct impact on your claim’s outcome.

Step 1: Gather Key Documents

Obtain multiple certified copies of the death certificate and secure any police reports, medical records, and incident reports connected to the accident.

Step 2: Preserve All Evidence

Photograph anything relevant, save witness contact information, and preserve any text messages or communications related to the incident. Do not delete anything.

Step 3: Do Not Speak to the At-Fault Party’s Insurer

Their adjuster will call quickly, that is intentional. Do not give a recorded statement or sign any documents before our Brooklyn wrongful death attorneys are involved, as those statements can be used to reduce your family’s claim.

Step 4: Call Grigor Law Immediately

The sooner we get involved, the faster we can secure evidence, identify every liable party, and begin the Surrogate’s Court process so we can file your family’s claim without delay.

How We Build Your Case

We do not sit back and wait to see what the insurer puts on the table. From the moment we take your case, we are retaining accident reconstruction specialists, pulling employment and income records, and working with economists to assign concrete numbers to every financial loss your family has suffered.

We build a case strong enough that a jury would be persuaded by it, because sometimes a jury is exactly who decides. That preparation is what compels insurers to negotiate seriously, and when they refuse to pay what your family deserves, we take the case to verdict.

In our experience handling wrongful death negotiations, insurers frequently anchor an early offer to lost income alone, leaving out the value of household services and parental guidance a family actually lost.

We bring in an economist to calculate the full scope of those damages before a family accepts a number built on an incomplete formula.

What Does It Cost to Hire Us?

Nothing upfront. We handle Brooklyn wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis, we collect no attorney fee unless we win. We also advance all litigation costs, including expert witness fees, court filing expenses, and investigative costs, so your family carries zero financial risk throughout the process.

Cost Item	What Your Family Pays
Upfront Attorney Fee	$0
Case Consultation	Free
Fee If We Don’t Win	$0
Home or Hospital Visit	Always Available

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Receives a Wrongful Death Settlement in New York?

Compensation is distributed to the surviving distributees, typically a spouse, children, or parents, according to New York’s inheritance laws. A court must approve the settlement and the final distribution plan before any funds are released.

Does New York Allow Recovery for Loss of Companionship or Grief?

No, New York’s wrongful death statute restricts recovery to financial, pecuniary losses. However, a survival action filed alongside your wrongful death claim can recover compensation for the conscious pain and suffering your loved one experienced before their death.

Can We File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit If Criminal Charges Were Also Filed?

Yes. A civil wrongful death lawsuit is completely separate from any criminal case and operates under a different legal standard. Your family’s right to financial compensation is independent of whether the responsible party faces criminal prosecution.

What If My Loved One Was Partially at Fault for the Accident?

Your family can still pursue compensation in most cases. Under New York’s comparative fault rule, the court reduces your recovery by the percentage of fault attributed to your loved one, but your right to recover is not eliminated entirely, unless that fault was greater than the other driver’s, a bar that took effect May 26, 2026.

How Long Does a Wrongful Death Case Take to Resolve?

These cases typically take one to three years, depending on the complexity of the liability and damages issues. Because we prepare every case for trial from the start, insurers are often motivated to offer a meaningful settlement rather than face a jury.

Compassionate Wrongful Death Law Firm in Brooklyn, New York

Our Ridgewood office serves families across Brooklyn and every corner of New York City. If someone else’s negligence took your loved one, call Grigor Law at (718) 249-7447 or contact us online for a free, confidential case review. We will come to you.