Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Have Been Recovered for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Victims
In Washington DC, a wrongful death occurs when a person dies as a result of another party’s wrongful act, neglect, or default — and the deceased could have filed a personal injury claim had they survived. Under D.C. Code § 16-2701, surviving family members and domestic partners have the right to pursue compensation for their losses. Families have exactly two years from the date of death to file. That deadline rarely moves, and every week that passes costs the case evidence it can never get back.
Many families do not realize how broadly DC law defines wrongful death. If your loved one would have had a valid personal injury claim against another party — and that injury proved fatal — your family may have the right to file. The cause of death does not have to be a crime. Negligence is enough. Learn more about how our team approaches wrongful death cases.
Under D.C. Code § 16-2702, only the personal representative of the deceased’s estate has standing to file. That is typically the executor named in the will, or an administrator appointed by the probate court if there is no will. Our team guides families through both the estate administration process and the wrongful death claim simultaneously — so nothing falls through the cracks.
Once a recovery is obtained, the damages do not go to the estate itself. They go directly to the surviving family. The distribution follows a clear statutory priority:
Washington, D.C. allows families to recover substantial economic and non-economic damages. What families cannot recover — unlike some other jurisdictions — is compensation specifically for grief, mental anguish, or loss of consortium. That makes complete, professional documentation of every other loss even more important. Recoverable damages include:
There are no statutory damage caps for wrongful death cases in Washington, D.C., and this includes claims arising specifically from medical malpractice. Juries in the District are permitted to award full compensation for both economic and non-economic damages based entirely on the evidence, without any legislative limits. Because maximizing this recovery is critical, locating the best vocational economists and life-care planners to fully document future losses is something our catastrophic wrongful death lawyers handle directly — families do not need to find or fund these experts on their own.
Maximizing a family’s total recovery after a tragic loss generally requires pursuing two distinct but complementary claims: a wrongful death claim and a survival action.
Differing Statutes of Limitations: Wrongful death and survival actions follow distinct legal timelines under District of Columbia law. A wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the decedent’s death. In contrast, a D.C. survival action does not have its own unique death-triggered deadline; it simply inherits the statute of limitations of the underlying personal injury claim. For example, if the fatal event involved medical malpractice, the survival action carries D.C.’s general three-year limitations period for medical injury, running from the date the cause of action accrued.
The difference between a wrongful death settlement and a wrongful death verdict — or between a six-figure recovery and a seven-figure one — is almost always investigation. Our catastrophic wrongful death lawyers do not accept the official narrative of how a death occurred. We build our own.
This work requires resources. Expert retention, multi-state discovery, forensic data analysis, and court-ready reports cost money. Our team fronts every dollar of case costs. Families pay nothing unless we win. Contact The Killino Firm to start this process immediately.
The right court for a wrongful death case in DC depends on who the defendant is, how the death occurred, and whether federal law applies. Filing in the wrong court wastes time families cannot afford. Here is how it works.
Most wrongful death cases in Washington, DC are filed in the DC Superior Court, Civil Division. This court has jurisdiction over all civil actions in DC that are not exclusively within the jurisdiction of federal court. Wrongful death claims against private individuals, businesses, hospitals, nursing facilities, property owners, and product manufacturers are filed here.
Federal court jurisdiction applies in wrongful death cases when:
The DC Court of Appeals is the appellate court for matters decided in DC Superior Court. Located at 430 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.
Appellate review for matters decided in the U.S. District Court for DC — particularly relevant in cases involving federal agencies and FTCA claims — goes to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. This is one of the most prestigious and influential appellate courts in the country. Our team has experience litigating at every level of this court system.
If you are uncertain which court governs your case, contact our team for a free case evaluation. Venue strategy is one of the first decisions we make — and it affects everything that follows.
The legal process is important. It is not everything. Grief after a sudden, violent, or negligent loss is its own challenge — separate from the lawsuit, and often far more immediate. Washington DC has real, accessible resources for families who need support. None of these require a prior relationship with a particular hospital, hospice, or provider.
Legal claims and grief support are not either/or. The families who pursue accountability through the courts often describe it as part of their healing. Our team at The Killino Firm regularly connects families with the right support resources as part of working with us.
Preserve every piece of evidence immediately. Photographs, medical records, surveillance video, defective products, electronic data, and witness contact information. Truck black-box data can be overwritten in as few as 30 days; hospital incident reports may be destroyed on a set retention schedule. Contact our team the same day if possible.
Obtain the official death certificate. You will need multiple certified copies. Request them through the DC Department of Health Vital Records.
Appoint a personal representative of the estate. This is a legal requirement before any wrongful death claim can be filed in DC. Our team can help coordinate this process alongside the lawsuit.
Do not speak to any insurance company or opposing party without legal counsel. This applies to auto insurers, hospital risk management departments, product liability adjusters, and anyone representing the party responsible for the death.
Contact The Killino Firm for a free, confidential case evaluation. Our catastrophic wrongful death lawyers tell you honestly what your case looks like, what it may be worth, and exactly what our team would do to investigate it.
The Killino Firm is a national catastrophic injury and wrongful death firm with the resources, the team, and the proven methods to pursue the most complex cases in the country. We have represented Washington, DC families and families across the nation who have lost loved ones to negligence, medical error, defective products, commercial truck crashes, and intentional misconduct.
Our catastrophic wrongful death lawyers do not treat these cases as files to be settled quickly. We build the kind of case that reflects the seriousness of what your family has been through — deep-dive investigations, the best expert witnesses available, aggressive discovery, and the financial resources to take cases all the way through trial when that is what the family’s best outcome requires.
We front all costs. We collect no fee unless we win. And we work with families throughout the entire legal process — connecting them with grief support resources, guiding them through estate administration, and keeping them fully informed at every step.
Two years from the date of death, under D.C. Code § 16-2701. This deadline is shorter than most people expect — and shorter than neighboring Maryland’s three-year limit. If the defendant is a federal government entity, an administrative claim must be filed under the FTCA before a lawsuit can be brought, adding procedural steps that make early action even more important.
Yes. DC law explicitly allows civil wrongful death claims to proceed alongside — or entirely independent of — criminal proceedings. A civil verdict requires only a preponderance of the evidence, a lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold in criminal court. Families have won substantial civil verdicts even when a criminal prosecution did not result in a conviction.
The compensation does not go to the estate. It flows directly to the surviving spouse or domestic partner, children, and next of kin, allocated by the jury or judge based on evidence of each person’s actual losses. DC law provides a specific distribution formula when no jury allocation is made, governed by D.C. Code § 19-301 et seq.
No. Unlike neighboring jurisdictions such as Maryland and Virginia, Washington, D.C., imposes no statutory dollar caps on compensatory damages in medical malpractice or personal injury cases. However, it is important to note that under D.C.’s Wrongful Death Act (D.C. Code § 16-2701), surviving family members cannot recover non-economic damages for personal grief, sorrow, or mental anguish. Instead, recovery for pre-death physical pain and suffering must be pursued through a separate survival action filed on behalf of the decedent’s estate.
Claims against DC government employees or agencies generally proceed through DC Superior Court under local law. Claims against federal employees acting within the scope of their employment must follow the Federal Tort Claims Act process — administrative claim first, federal district court second. Our team handles both pathways.
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In the aftermath of a wrongful death or catastrophic injury, particularly those involving babies and children, victims and their families are forced into the new “normal”. Their lives are often characterized by multiple facets of struggle; physical, medical and financial. The worry and stress can be unbearable. But, that is where the Killino Firm steps in.
Time and again for over two decades Jeffrey Killino has changed the lives of his clients and their families with recoveries that will provide for all future medical care and day to day needs. The Killino Firm clients are regularly purchasing new homes and vehicles; securing much needed medical care and assistance; and sleeping better at night know there are millions of dollars to take care of them for the rest of their lives.
Yes, the Killino Firm regularly secures multi-million dollar settlements and/or verdicts, however, we measure our true success in terms of how we change our clients’ lives. The Killino Firm is dedicated to its clients and their plight. After the cases are over, the Killino Firm stays involved and available to it’s clients as the journey continues.
At the Killino Firm we care about our clients and we care about our community, which is why from time to time when we uncover a hazard or danger with the potential to harm others, the Killino Firm takes action to alert the public and appropriate regulatory authorities.
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