Fremont, CA Wrongful Death Lawyers

If you lost someone in Fremont because another person or company was careless, you are carrying two burdens at once. One is grief. The other is a legal and financial mess that arrives before the funeral is over: the other driver’s insurer calling with questions, ambulance and hospital bills, a mortgage or rent that still comes due, and a coroner’s report you do not know how to read.

Our Fremont wrongful death lawyers take the second burden off your family. GJEL has represented families across Alameda County for more than 40 years, has recovered more than $980 million for injured clients and for the families of people who were killed, and charges no fee unless we recover money for you.

What counts as wrongful death in California

California Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 gives certain family members the right to sue when a death is caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The simplest way to think about it: if the person would have had a personal injury claim had they survived, the family has a wrongful death claim now.

In Fremont that most often means a fatal car accident on Interstate 880 or Mission Boulevard, a pedestrian struck in a crosswalk on Fremont Boulevard or Decoto Road, a motorcyclist hit by a turning driver, a worker killed at an industrial site in Warm Springs or Pacific Commons, a death caused by a defective vehicle or product, or a nursing home resident who died because of neglect. Drunk driving deaths are a category of their own, and they often carry additional damages.

A wrongful death claim is a civil case. It is separate from any criminal charge the district attorney may bring against a driver. The criminal case has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your family’s claim only has to show that it is more likely than not that the other party’s negligence caused the death. Families win civil cases every year where no criminal charge was ever filed.

Who can file a wrongful death claim in Fremont

Section 377.60 sets out who has standing, in order:

• The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner.
• The children, and the grandchildren if a child has already died.
• If there is no surviving spouse, partner or children, the people who would inherit under California’s intestate succession rules, usually parents and then siblings.
• A putative spouse, the children of a putative spouse, stepchildren and parents can also file if they were financially dependent on the person who died.

California follows a one action rule. All heirs with standing are joined in a single lawsuit rather than filing separately, and the recovery is divided among them. The personal representative of the estate can also bring the claim on behalf of the heirs. When a family has several people with standing, getting everyone into the case correctly at the start avoids problems later, and it is one of the first things we sort out.

What a Fremont wrongful death claim can recover

California law recognizes two kinds of loss in a wrongful death case, and neither has a dollar cap outside of medical malpractice.

Economic losses

The financial support the person would have contributed to the family over their expected working life, the gifts and benefits the heirs would have received, funeral and burial expenses, and the reasonable value of the household services the person provided. For a parent of young children in a Fremont household where both incomes went to the mortgage, this number is large, and insurers fight it by arguing about life expectancy, career path and retirement age. We answer those arguments with economists and vocational experts.

Non economic losses

The loss of the person’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support. For a spouse, the loss of the marital relationship. For children, the loss of a parent’s training and guidance. No formula exists for these damages. They are decided by a jury, and the size of the award depends on how well the family’s story is told.

The estate’s separate survival claim

Alongside the wrongful death claim, the estate can bring a survival action for the losses the person suffered before death, such as medical bills and lost wages between the injury and the death. When the conduct was malicious or reckless, a drunk driver with prior convictions for example, the survival action is also where punitive damages are pursued. Our Fremont wrongful death lawyers file both claims together so nothing is left on the table.

Some of the results GJEL has secured for families include an $11.7 million wrongful death recovery in Contra Costa County, a $10.6 million settlement for a death caused by a defective tire, and a $4.5 million recovery against a utility company after a fatal car accident. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee an outcome, but they show what a properly built case is worth.

Deadlines that apply to Fremont families

The general deadline to file a wrongful death lawsuit in California is two years from the date of death under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Three exceptions come up regularly in Fremont cases:

• Public agencies. If a government entity shares the blame, for example a dangerous road design maintained by the City of Fremont or Alameda County, a Caltrans freeway such as I-880, I-680, State Route 84 or Mission Boulevard (State Route 238), or a crash involving an AC Transit bus or a city vehicle, a written claim must be filed with that agency within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Miss it and the claim is usually gone.
• Medical negligence. Deaths caused by a hospital, doctor or nursing facility follow the shorter medical malpractice deadlines in Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, generally one year from discovery of the negligence.
• Minor heirs. Special rules can extend some deadlines for children, but relying on them is a gamble no family should take.

Evidence disappears far faster than any deadline. Intersection and business camera footage is overwritten within days or weeks. A trucking company’s electronic logs and dispatch records can be purged. A vehicle’s event data recorder is lost the moment the car is sold for salvage. The single most useful thing a family can do in the first week is call a lawyer who will send preservation letters and secure the vehicle.

Who investigates a death in Fremont, and where the case is heard

Deaths on Fremont city streets such as Fremont Boulevard, Mission Boulevard, Paseo Padre Parkway, Decoto Road and Auto Mall Parkway are investigated by the Fremont Police Department. Deaths on the freeways that cross the city, I-880, I-680, State Route 84 to the Dumbarton Bridge and State Route 262, are handled by the California Highway Patrol. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau conducts the death investigation and autopsy. The traffic collision report and the coroner’s report are the first two documents we obtain, and we read them for what the investigators did not do as much as for what they found.

Wrongful death lawsuits arising in Fremont are filed in Alameda County Superior Court. Cases of this size are heard in Oakland. The Fremont Hall of Justice on Paseo Padre Parkway, a few blocks from our office, handles traffic matters and smaller civil cases. Our lawyers have tried cases in Alameda County for decades and know the judges, the jury pool and the defense firms that insurers hire here.

Fatal accidents in Fremont: the patterns we see

Fremont adopted a Vision Zero goal in 2015 and has redesigned several corridors since, but people still die on its roads every year. The cases that reach our Fremont office follow a few patterns. Speed and heavy truck traffic on I-880 between Auto Mall Parkway and the Dumbarton approach. Pedestrians struck at night on wide, fast arterials such as Fremont Boulevard and Mission Boulevard, often far from a signal. Motorcyclists killed by left turning drivers, and on the curves of Niles Canyon Road east of town. Cyclists hit on the crossings of the Alameda Creek Trail and in the door zone of Mission Boulevard. We have written about several of these, including a cyclist killed in Fremont and a pedestrian killed in a Fremont crash.

Each pattern points to different defendants and different evidence. A truck death means federal hours of service records and the broker who hired the carrier. A pedestrian death on an unlit arterial can mean a claim against the agency that designed the road as well as the driver. A motorcycle death almost always means fighting an insurer that wants to blame the rider. Knowing which case you have on day one changes what gets preserved.

How our Fremont wrongful death lawyers handle your family’s case

1. We come to you. The first meeting happens at your home or wherever your family is gathered, at no cost. You talk to a lawyer, not an intake screener.
2. We preserve the evidence. Preservation letters go to every driver, company and insurer within days. We secure the vehicles, request camera footage and obtain the police and coroner’s reports.
3. We reconstruct what happened. Accident reconstruction experts, event data recorders, phone records and, in truck cases, electronic logging data tell the story the insurer would rather leave untold.
4. We find every responsible party and every policy. The driver, an employer, a vehicle or parts maker, a bar or a property owner, a public agency, plus umbrella and underinsured motorist coverage your own family may hold.
5. We value the loss properly. Economists, vocational experts and the family’s own account of the person who is gone.
6. We negotiate from a position of strength, and we try cases. Insurers pay full value to firms they know will go to a jury. GJEL is one of those firms.

Your family will have one lawyer as its point of contact throughout. If a probate proceeding is needed to appoint a personal representative, we coordinate with your probate attorney or refer you to one. We handle the legal side so you can grieve.

Why Fremont families choose GJEL

GJEL Accident Attorneys has represented seriously injured people and the families of people who were killed since 1972. The firm has recovered more than $980 million for clients with a 99 percent success rate, and our lawyers have been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers for decades. Managing partner Andy Gillin has personally handled wrongful death cases against trucking companies, drunk drivers and public agencies across the East Bay.

Our Fremont office at 39159 Paseo Padre Parkway serves families in Fremont, Newark, Union City and the rest of southern Alameda County, and we also handle car accident and personal injury cases in Fremont, Fremont truck accidents, Fremont motorcycle accidents and brain injury claims in Fremont. For an overview of how these cases work statewide, see our California wrongful death lawyers page and our verdicts and settlements.

Fremont wrongful death questions families ask us

How long do we have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Fremont?

Two years from the date of death in most cases. If a city, county, state or transit agency may be responsible, a government claim must be filed within six months. Medical negligence deaths have shorter deadlines. Call early so the deadline is never the problem.

Can I file if we were not married?

Registered domestic partners have the same standing as spouses. An unmarried partner generally does not, unless they qualify as a putative spouse or were financially dependent on the person who died. The children of the person who died can always file. We can tell you where you stand in one conversation.

Does the criminal case against the driver affect our claim?

The two cases run separately. A conviction, especially for DUI, strengthens the civil case, but your claim does not depend on one. Criminal restitution is limited to out of pocket losses and does not replace the damages a civil claim recovers.

How much does a Fremont wrongful death lawyer cost?

Nothing up front and nothing unless we recover money for your family. We advance the costs of experts and investigation. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed in writing before we start.

Talk to a Fremont wrongful death lawyer today

You do not have to decide anything today. Call (510) 794-9441 or send us a message, and a GJEL lawyer will listen, explain your family’s options and tell you honestly whether a claim is worth pursuing. The conversation is free and confidential, and we are available 24 hours a day.