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Losing someone you love because of another person’s carelessness changes an ordinary day into one your family will never stop measuring time against. If you are looking for a Pensacola wrongful death lawyer, you are likely holding everyone together while funeral arrangements, unpaid bills, and legal deadlines all arrive at once. Emmanuel Sheppard & Condon is a full-service Gulf Coast law firm, and we can carry the legal weight while your family tends to each other.
Under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, a wrongful death claim is filed by the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate, not by family members individually. The personal representative brings one action for the benefit of the estate and every eligible surviving family member. Survivors then recover their own losses through that single case.
Wrongful death claims are part of the broader personal injury work we handle in Pensacola, and they move on a short clock. We can look at what happened, explain what Florida law may allow in your circumstances, and tell you plainly what the next step is. Call 850-433-6581 whenever you are ready to talk.
In Florida, only the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate may file a wrongful death claim. That requirement comes from Florida Statute 768.20, part of the Wrongful Death Act at sections 768.16 through 768.26. A grieving spouse or adult child cannot file the lawsuit in their own name, even when they are the person most affected by the loss.
The personal representative is the individual named in the will, or the person a court appoints when there is no will. In Escambia County, that appointment happens in the probate division of the circuit court, which issues letters of administration confirming the authority to act on behalf of the estate.
This is the step that catches most families off guard. The estate generally has to be opened before filing a wrongful death action is possible, and probate takes weeks, which the filing deadline does not allow. We often open the estate and prepare the underlying claim on parallel tracks so neither one sits waiting on the other.
Florida limits recovery to a defined group of family members, and Florida Statute 768.18 spells out who belongs to it. The statute refers to these family members as survivors, and the personal representative must name each of them in the complaint.
Under Florida law, survivors may include:
One detail surprises almost everyone: for purposes of this statute, a minor child means a child under 25, regardless of whether that child had reached legal adulthood. Whether a particular relative qualifies often turns on dependency and on who else survived, so we sort those relationships out early.
Florida Statute 768.21 divides wrongful death damages into two groups: losses that belong to individual survivors and losses that belong to the estate. No recovery replaces a spouse, a parent, or a child. What a claim can do is secure the resources a family needs going forward and place responsibility where it belongs.
Each category attaches to a specific class of survivor rather than to the family as a whole, which is why two people grieving the same person may have very different claims.
These estate recoveries are subject to the claims of creditors who follow probate procedure, which is another reason the probate side and the injury side need to move together. The full picture of wrongful death damages under Florida law depends heavily on the facts of the individual case.
Most Florida wrongful death claims must be filed within two years of the date of death under Florida Statute 95.11. That clock runs from the death itself, not from the date of the crash or the original injury, which matters when someone survives for a period of time before passing.
Florida also shortened the general negligence deadline from four years to two for causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023. Families relying on older information about a four-year window may be working from a deadline that no longer exists.
A handful of situations change the timeline. Claims arising from murder or manslaughter may carry no limitation period at all, and claims involving a government agency come with separate written notice requirements that are strict and unforgiving. Because the wrongful death statute of limitations can turn on details like these, it is worth confirming your date rather than assuming it.
A wrongful death claim compensates survivors and the estate for losses caused by the death itself. A survival action is different: it carries forward a claim the person already held, and it generally applies when someone dies from a cause unrelated to the injury behind the claim.
When a personal injury results in death, Florida law does not allow the personal injury case to continue on its own. It merges into the wrongful death action, and any pending suit abates.
Which framework applies changes what can be recovered and who recovers it. The distinction between survival actions and wrongful death claims is one of the first questions we answer when a family comes to us.
We handle wrongful death claims arising from the same kinds of collisions that happen on roads across Escambia County. A fatal accident lawyer in Pensacola sees the same corridors come up again and again.
Each of these cases turns on evidence that begins disappearing almost immediately. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped, video gets overwritten, and skid marks fade, which is why the first few weeks carry so much weight.
Florida’s no-fault system shapes the early paperwork after a crash, even when the crash was fatal. Personal injury protection coverage provides up to $10,000 in benefits, and treatment generally must begin within 14 days of the crash for those benefits to apply. The policy also includes a limited death benefit that falls far short of what a family actually loses.
No-fault rules do not close the door on a wrongful death claim. Florida’s serious injury threshold allows a claim against the at-fault driver when the injury meets certain statutory categories, and death is one of those categories.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters a great deal on the Gulf Coast. Our roads carry a steady mix of out-of-state visitors, seasonal traffic, and drivers passing through, and the at-fault driver may carry minimal liability limits or none at all. We look for every policy that could respond, including coverage your own family already pays for.
Florida follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. Under Florida Statute 768.81, a claimant found more than 50% at fault for the harm may not recover damages at all, and below that line any recovery is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned.
Because those percentages carry so much weight, the question of who did what often becomes the center of the case. A defense that would reduce or bar one survivor’s recovery may be raised against that survivor without affecting the others.
We build the fault record early, working from physical evidence and reconstruction rather than from assumptions made in the first 48 hours.
We start by preserving what is still there to preserve, because most of it has a shelf life. In the wrongful death matters we handle, the work usually begins with these steps:
Families are rarely in a position to manage any of this in the weeks after a death, and no one should have to be. That is the part we take on.
A fatal accident claim touches probate, insurance coverage, and injury litigation at the same time. Being a full-service Gulf Coast law firm matters more here than in almost any other kind of case, because families working with us do not have to assemble three separate legal teams to handle one loss.
Emotion belongs in these conversations. We would rather sit with a family’s questions than rush past them, and we would rather explain an option twice than watch someone agree to something they do not fully understand.
You do not have to decide anything today. Call us at 850-433-6581 and we will listen first.
These are the questions families in Pensacola ask us most often in the first conversation after a loss.
When there is no will naming someone, the probate court appoints a personal representative. Florida probate law sets an order of preference that generally favors the surviving spouse, followed by a person selected by a majority of the heirs. If family members disagree, the probate division resolves it, which is one more reason to start the process early rather than late.
No. Florida allows a single wrongful death action, brought by the personal representative on behalf of the estate and all survivors together. Disagreements about who should serve in that role are handled in probate rather than through competing lawsuits.
Damages are assigned by category to particular survivors and to the estate rather than distributed as one shared pot. Where survivors cannot agree, or where a minor has an interest, court approval of the allocation may be required. The division depends on the facts, the relationships involved, and what each survivor can prove.
No. A civil wrongful death claim and a criminal prosecution proceed on separate tracks, with different burdens of proof and different purposes. Timing is sometimes coordinated for practical reasons, but a family does not have to wait for a verdict before protecting their civil claim.
Possibly, though these claims work differently. Florida Statute 768.28 waives sovereign immunity only in limited circumstances, caps what may be recovered, and requires formal written notice before suit. Those notice deadlines are strict, so a potential claim involving a city, county, or state entity should be reviewed quickly.
Often not automatically. The Wrongful Death Act defines survivors by legal relationship and, in some cases, by financial dependency, and a long-term partner without a legal marriage may fall outside the statutory list. A stepchild may qualify in narrow circumstances, so these situations deserve a careful look rather than a quick assumption.
Whatever you happen to have is enough to start. A death certificate, a crash or incident report, insurance policies, and any estate planning documents all help, along with the names of anyone who witnessed what happened. If you have none of it yet, call anyway and we will work out what is needed.
There is no version of this that is easy, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is lift the legal weight off your family and give you honest answers about what Florida law may allow in your particular situation.
Emmanuel Sheppard & Condon serves families throughout Pensacola and the surrounding Gulf Coast communities. Whether your loss happened last week or last year, a short conversation can tell you where you stand and how much time you may have.
Call 850-433-6581 to speak with a Pensacola wrongful death lawyer about your family’s next step.