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“They came to the hospital the day after my husband's crash. When the adjuster called, we already had a lawyer.”
Wrongful death lawyers in Chicago, IL
When you are ready, this page explains what a wrongful death claim is, who can bring it, and what happens next.
Nothing here needs a decision today. RBH is a Chicago trial firm that takes wrongful death claims from any cause. The call is free, and we come to you.
The first monthsNo dates
As seen in
- Chicago Tribune
- Chicago Sun-Times
- WGN-TV
- ABC 7 Chicago
- NBC 5 Chicago
- FOX 32
- Crain’s Chicago Business
- Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
- RBH Law Office attorneys are selected to Illinois Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters, 2016 to 2026.
- RBH Law Office is ranked Tier 1 in Chicago for Plaintiffs’ Personal Injury by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms, 2026.
- R. B. is peer-selected as a Leading Lawyer in Illinois by the Leading Lawyers Network.
- R. B. is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
- B. H. is a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
- RBH Law Office is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
- RBH Law Office is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.
What our clients had to say
Every review here is a Google review from a client we represented. Across 500+ reviews, the rating is 4.9 out of 5.
- Google review
“I was 20% at fault according to the first report. RBH found the dashcam. The final number was eight figures.”
- Google review
“I never once had to chase them for an update. Every month, a call, in plain English.”
- Google review
“The hospital bills arrived before the police report did. RBH took every one of them and told me what each letter meant.”
- Google review
“My father was killed on I-80. They never pushed us to settle. When the offer was wrong, they went to trial.”
Also rated onGoogle4.9500+ reviewsAvvo10.0Superb ratingYelp4.8120+ reviewsBBBA+Accredited business
These reviews are from the firm's truck accident clients.
What a wrongful death claim is.
When a wrongful act or neglect causes a death, Illinois lets the family bring a civil claim for what they have lost. It is separate from any criminal case.
In two sentences
A wrongful death action is a lawsuit, brought in the name of the person who died, for the losses their spouse and next of kin suffer because of the death (Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/1 and 180/2). It is a civil claim: the remedy is money, called damages, not punishment.
To succeed, the claim has to show negligence, a failure to use reasonable care, or another wrongful act, and that the death resulted from it. Whoever is responsible carries the liability, the legal responsibility for the harm. If the person who died could have brought an injury claim had they lived, the family can bring this one.
It is not the criminal case
If a driver is charged, that case belongs to the State. The State decides whether to charge, and the outcome is a sentence, not compensation. The civil claim belongs to your family. It can go ahead whether or not anyone is charged, because the two cases ask different questions and use different standards of proof: a crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil claim is decided on the preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.
Two cases, two lanesThey do not cross
The StateThe criminal case
A sentence, or no charge at all
Neither waits for the other. Neither decides the other.
Your familyThe wrongful death claim
Damages: money for what was lost
Who can bring the claim, and who it is for.
One person files it. Several people can receive from it. The first step is an estate, and it is a smaller step than it sounds.
Who files, who receivesNot a formula
The person who died
- SpousePersonal representative: files the claim
- Children
- Parents
- Brothers and sisters
Receives, if surviving. Only if there is no spouse or child.
One person brings it
The claim is filed by the personal representative, the person a court authorizes to act for the estate of the one who died (740 ILCS 180/2). An estate is the legal name for everything a person leaves behind, including their claims. The representative is usually a spouse, an adult child or a parent. If there is a will, it names an executor; if not, the probate court appoints an administrator. The court paper that lets that one person act for the estate is called letters of office.
If no estate has been opened, the Act lets the court appoint a special administrator for the sole purpose of bringing the claim (740 ILCS 180/2.1). Once letters of office have issued and an estate is open, the court no longer appoints one; the representative brings the claim instead (Cushing v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.). We handle that step. You do not need an estate open before you call.
Who it is for
The claim is for the surviving spouse and the next of kin, the relatives who would inherit if there were no will. That usually means a spouse and children. If there is no spouse or child, it can mean parents, brothers and sisters (Illinois Probate Act of 1975, 755 ILCS 5/2-1). An unmarried partner or a close friend does not count under the Act, however close they were. Tell us who survives, and we will tell you where each person stands.
Two claims come from one loss.
Illinois separates what your family lost from what your family member went through. They are usually filed together, but different people receive each.
One loss, two claimsSide by side
One loss
- Survival actionto the estate
- Wrongful death actionto the family
- Whose loss
- The person who died, from the injury to the death.
- The spouse and next of kin, from the death on.
- What it pays for
- Conscious pain and suffering, medical bills and lost wages before the death.
- Lost support, companionship and guidance, and grief, sorrow and mental suffering.
- Who receives it
- The estate. It passes under the will, or to the heirs if there is none.
- The spouse and relatives, in shares set by the court.
The wrongful death action belongs to the family. It covers what the death took from them: support, companionship and guidance, and their grief, sorrow and mental suffering.
The survival action is the claim your family member could have brought had they lived (Illinois Probate Act of 1975, 755 ILCS 5/27-6). It covers the time between the injury and the death: conscious pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages. It belongs to the estate, and what it recovers passes under the will, or under the rules for people who die without one. If the death was instant, there may be little in it. If there were hours or days in hospital, there may be a great deal.
Both are usually filed in one lawsuit, by the same personal representative, who is the plaintiff, the person in whose name the case is brought. The company, the driver, or whoever else is responsible are the defendants. The money is kept apart, because it goes to different people.
The deadline, and its exceptions.
The statute of limitations is the legal deadline to file a lawsuit. For most wrongful death claims in Illinois it is 2 years from the death. Three exceptions change it, and one makes it shorter.
Four clocks, one scaleYears from the death
Most wrongful death claims2 years from the date of death
Against the person whose violent intentional conduct caused the death5 years from the death, or 1 year after the criminal case ends
Against a local public body, or the CTA1 year from the death
A child's own claimcan run until 2 years after the child turns 18; confirm the date with us
The general rule
2 years from the date of death (740 ILCS 180/2). The clock runs from the death, not from the crash, which matters when someone lived for a time after being hurt.
Violent intentional conduct
If the death was caused by violent intentional conduct, the claim against the person who did it can be filed within 5 years of the death, or, if that person is charged with one of the offenses the Act lists, within 1 year after the criminal case ends (740 ILCS 180/2). The longer clock applies only to that person, not to a company or an insurer behind them.
A local public body
If the claim is against the City of Chicago, Cook County, a park district or another local public entity, or one of their employees, the statute of limitations is 1 year (Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101). The Chicago Transit Authority has its own 1-year rule (Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, 70 ILCS 3605/41). A claim against the State of Illinois itself follows different rules again; ask us.
A child
If one of the people the claim is for is under 18, that child’s own claim can run until 2 years after the child turns 18; confirm the date with us. Lawyers call a paused clock tolling. The rest of the family’s clock does not pause with it.
What a family can recover.
The money a court awards is called damages. The Act calls the family’s losses pecuniary injuries, and since 2007 that phrase has included grief.
The family’s losses
The jury, or the court, awards fair and just compensation for the pecuniary injuries, the losses with a money value, that the spouse and next of kin suffered: the support, goods and services the person provided, and the companionship, guidance and care they gave. That includes the grief, sorrow and mental suffering of the spouse and relatives (740 ILCS 180/2; Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil, chapter 31).
Economic damages are the losses you can add up: lost income and benefits, the value of work around the home. Non-economic damages are the ones you cannot: companionship, guidance, grief. Together they are compensatory damages, and Illinois puts no cap on them.
The bills
Funeral and burial costs, and medical bills from the injury, are claimed by whoever is legally responsible for them. A separate Illinois rule can make a spouse or parent responsible for medical and funeral bills; we check who must pay. Where that rule does not reach, the estate claims the bills it paid. We will tell you what can be recovered and what cannot.
Punitive damages, and the rule that reduces
Since a 2023 change to the Act (Public Act 103-0514), punitive damages, money meant to punish and deter rather than to compensate, can be awarded in a wrongful death or survival action where the law allows them. They are not available in medical or legal malpractice cases, or against the State, a local government or their employees, and the change applies only to actions filed on or after August 11, 2023.
Comparative fault is the rule that reduces an award by the share of blame the person who died carried. Under Illinois’s modified comparative negligence rule, if their share is 50% or less, the award is reduced by that share; if it is more than 50%, the claim is barred (735 ILCS 5/2-1116). The other side’s insurer will raise comparative fault. The evidence answers it.
What is added up, and who receives itNo amounts, on purpose
To the familythrough the wrongful death action
- Lost support: money, goods and servicesEconomic
- Companionship, guidance and careNon-economic
- Grief, sorrow and mental sufferingNon-economic
To the estatethrough the survival action
- Conscious pain and suffering before the deathNon-economic
- Medical bills before the deathEconomic
- Lost wages before the deathEconomic
To whoever paid, or is liablethrough the rule on family bills, or the estate
- Funeral and burial costsEconomic
- Medical billsEconomic
Compensatory damagesNo cap in Illinois
What comes offbefore the court divides the rest
- The share of fault, if any0% to 50%
- Contingency fee40%
- Case costs we advancedRepaid
Divided by the courtBy each person’s dependency
Step by step: what happens, and who does it.
6 named steps, in order. Your part in each is small, and we say what it is.
Six stations, two sets of handsYour part is the small tick
The estate is opened
- Your part
- Decide who will serve as the representative, usually on a call with us.
- Our part
- Prepare the petition and obtain the letters of office from the probate court, or ask the court for a special administrator if no estate is needed for anything else.
The evidence is preserved
- Your part
- Keep the paperwork you were given. Nothing else.
- Our part
- Send the preservation letter the day we are retained: a written demand that whoever holds the records keeps them. In a truck case that matters quickly, because federal rules require a carrier to keep driver logs for only 6 months (49 CFR 395.8(k)). Then the investigation: the reports, the records, the witnesses.
The claim is made
- Your part
- Tell us about your family member's life, when you are ready to.
- Our part
- Put the claim to each insurer with the evidence and the losses, and negotiate.
A lawsuit is filed, if needed
- Your part
- Nothing, except to be kept informed.
- Our part
- File both claims in the circuit court before the deadline, and take the case through discovery and, if it comes to it, trial.
The settlement is approved
- Your part
- Sign what the court requires.
- Our part
- Present the settlement to the court. Approval is required where a beneficiary is a child or a person with a disability and the amount is over $5,000 (740 ILCS 180/2.1).
The money is distributed
- Your part
- Receive your share.
- Our part
- Prepare the petition and the order for distribution by dependency, pay any liens and the advanced costs, and close the estate.
How long it takes, and what it costs.
We do not print an average, because there is no honest one. We do print the fee.
Five phases, no fixed lengthNot to scale
- Estate opened
- Investigation
- Claim and negotiation
- Lawsuit, if needed
- Approval and distribution
As short as it can be Or longer. No phase has a fixed length.
How long
Opening the estate comes first. The investigation then depends on how quickly the other side’s records arrive. A claim can resolve in negotiation, as a settlement, the agreement that ends it. If it goes to suit, the court’s calendar sets much of the pace, and a trial ends in a verdict. Court approval and distribution add a step at the end. Once we know the facts of your case, we will give you our estimate and update it as things change.
What it costs
RBH Law Office takes 40% of what we recover and nothing if we recover nothing. We advance the case costs and are repaid from the recovery.
That is a contingency fee, a fee paid only out of the recovery. There is nothing to pay up front, and nothing at all if the claim fails. The fee is the same whether the case settles or goes to trial.
Where these claims come from.
Any death caused by negligence can give rise to the claim. The counts below are the ones we can cite.
A wrongful death claim can follow a truck or car crash, a death at work, a fall, a fire, a defective product, a medical error, or the neglect of a resident in a nursing home. Each has its own rules of liability, and some have their own deadlines.
We take wrongful death claims from every cause on that list. The counts we draw are the deaths that public agencies count and publish; most causes on the list above have no public Chicago count we would print. In 2023, 5,472 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks in the United States, and 7 in 10 of them were in the other vehicle (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).
Three counts, one scaleIllinois
People killed in large-truck crashes, Illinois, 2024, preliminary FMCSA
139Work-related deaths, Illinois, 2024 BLS
156of which transportation incidents BLS
55
Why a family might choose RBH.
We take wrongful death claims from any cause: truck and motor-vehicle crashes, deaths at work, medical negligence, unsafe premises, and neglect in nursing homes.
Day one, if you retain us6 things
- A lawyer, not an intake service, calls you back within the hour.
- The preservation letter goes to whoever holds the records the day you retain us.
- We take the insurers' calls from then on. You do not have to.
- We advance every case cost. You pay nothing up front.
- We come to your home, or wherever you are.
- We move at your pace, and we tell you when a date is getting close.
Two trial lawyers, one of whom used to defend trucking companies. Our deepest experience is in fatal truck crashes, where the carrier’s team arrives within hours; we know what it does in the first days, and what it will say about fault. The same preparation goes into every wrongful death claim we take, whatever caused the death.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and nothing on this page is a promise about yours.
What choosing us means on day one is drawn beside this. None of it waits for an estate, a crash report, or a decision.
Questions families ask.
How a recovery reaches the familyShares are illustrative
The recoverysettlement or verdict
What comes offthe fee, then the advanced costs
Divided by the courtin proportion to each person’s dependency
Do I have to decide anything today?
No. The deadline for most wrongful death claims is 2 years from the death, and nothing on this page is lost by taking a few days or weeks. If you would like someone to hold a place for your family in the meantime, one call does that, and it commits you to nothing.
Who can file a wrongful death claim in Illinois?
The personal representative of the estate: the person a court has authorized to act for the one who died. They file it for the surviving spouse and the relatives who would inherit (740 ILCS 180/2). If no estate exists, the court can appoint a special administrator just to bring the claim (740 ILCS 180/2.1).
Can brothers, sisters, partners or friends recover?
Brothers and sisters can receive when there is no surviving spouse or child. An unmarried partner or a friend cannot, under the Act, however close they were. Tell us who survives and we will tell you where each person stands.
How long do we have?
Usually 2 years from the death. 1 year if the claim is against a local public body such as the City of Chicago, Cook County or the CTA. Up to 5 years against a person who caused the death by violent intentional conduct. A child's own claim can run until 2 years after the child turns 18; confirm the date with us. The statute of limitations is the deadline to file the lawsuit, not to make a call.
What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?
Different people, different losses. The wrongful death claim pays the family for what they lost after the death. The survival action pays the estate for what the person went through before it. They are usually filed together, in one lawsuit.
Do we pay the funeral bill first?
Usually, yes. Funeral homes expect payment long before a claim resolves. Whoever paid the bill, or is legally responsible for it, can claim it back; a separate Illinois rule can make a spouse or parent responsible for those bills, and we check who must pay. Keep the receipts.
How is the money divided?
By the court, in proportion to each person's dependency, how much each relied on the one who died (740 ILCS 180/2). There is no fixed formula. A spouse who relied on their partner's income and a grown child who did not may receive very different shares. The court approves the division; we prepare it.
How long will it take?
It depends on the facts, on how quickly the other side's records arrive, and on whether the case settles or goes to trial. We do not print averages, because there is no honest one. Once we know your case, we will give you an estimate and keep it current.
What does it cost?
40% of what we recover, and nothing if we recover nothing. We advance the case costs and are repaid from the recovery. There is nothing to pay up front, at any point.
What if the criminal case is still open?
The civil claim is separate and does not wait for it. The State's case asks whether a crime was committed and must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil claim asks who is liable and is decided on the preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. Against the person charged, the deadline can be longer: 5 years from the death, or 1 year after the criminal case ends.
When you are ready.
This is what happens after a call or a form. None of it needs you to have decided anything.
The first conversationAt your pace
- You call, or writeSay as much or as little as you want to.
- A lawyer calls backWithin the hour. Not an intake service.
- We come to youYour home, or wherever you are.
Tell us what happened, or only that it happened. A lawyer will call you back within the hour, and everything after that moves at your pace.
Sources
- Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/1 and 180/2 (the claim, the personal representative, the surviving spouse and next of kin, pecuniary injuries including grief, sorrow and mental suffering, the 2-year deadline and its exceptions, distribution by dependency)
- Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/2.1 (special administrator; court approval of settlements for minors and persons with a disability over $5,000)
- Public Act 103-0514, House Bill 219, amending the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180 (punitive damages where applicable, with exclusions; actions filed on or after August 11, 2023)
- Illinois Probate Act of 1975, 755 ILCS 5/27-6 (survival actions)
- Illinois Probate Act of 1975, 755 ILCS 5/2-1 (who inherits when there is no will, the measure of next of kin)
- Rights of Married Persons Act, known as the Family Expense Act, 750 ILCS 65/15 (liability of a spouse and a parent for family expenses, including funeral and medical bills)
- Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil, chapter 31, including No. 31.14 (damages in wrongful death and survival actions; family expenses)
- Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-1116 (modified comparative negligence: recovery reduced by the share of fault, barred above 50%)
- Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101 (1-year limit for claims against a local public entity)
- Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, 70 ILCS 3605/41 (1-year limit for claims against the Chicago Transit Authority)
- Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Cushing v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 2012 IL App (1st) 100768 (no special administrator once letters of office have issued and an estate is open)
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 CFR 395.8(k) (how long a carrier must keep driver logs)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Illinois, 2024 (fatal work injuries; transportation incidents)
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Motor Carrier Management Information System, Illinois, 2024, preliminary (deaths in large-truck crashes)
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts: Large Trucks, 2023 data (5,472 people killed in crashes involving large trucks)
Tell us what happened. We will tell you what happens next.
Call, or send the form. A lawyer, not an intake service, calls you back within the hour. Free, confidential, no obligation.
No fee unless we winWe come to youAvailable 24/7
- NowYou call or send the form.
- Within the hourA lawyer calls you back.
- The day you retain usThe preservation letter goes out.