What Happens to My Personal Injury Case If I Die?

Posted in Wrongful death on December 23, 2025

When an injury is severe or catastrophic, it leaves the injury victim facing an uncertain future. While some severe injuries can be overcome, a grave injury may lead to complications resulting in fatality. In other cases, a personal injury victim may die of other causes while a personal injury claim is in progress.

While no legal action can change the outcome of a severe personal injury, it’s crucial to know what happens if you die during the process of a personal injury claim in New York.

Contact a wrongful death lawyer in NYC to get the justice your loved one deserves — call today.

When a Personal Injury Claim Becomes a Wrongful Death Case In New York

Wrongful death is a category of personal injury claims. If an individual’s death directly results from someone else’s carelessness, recklessness, or intentional wrongdoing—all examples of legal negligence—then their family is entitled to pursue a wrongful death claim the same way the decedent could have pursued a personal injury claim had they not died from their injuries.

If an injury victim begins the personal injury claim process but dies from their injury, the case can become a New York wrongful death claim.

Who Files for Wrongful Death If I Die During My Personal Injury Claim?

Some states allow family members, such as a spouse, parent, or adult child, to file wrongful death claims directly against the at-fault party, but in New York, only a decedent’s personal representative may file a claim on behalf of the family.

This is typically the person named as executor or personal representative in the decedent’s will. If the decedent has no will, the court appoints a family member as representative. The amount recovered is distributed to the family in accordance with the state’s intestate laws for inheritance.

What Can a Family Recover In a Wrongful Death Claim When an Injury Victim Dies During a Personal Injury Case?

When a person suffers a grave injury through no fault of their own, they may recover compensation for the economic impacts of the injury, as well as for pain and suffering. New York is one of only two U.S. states that do not allow family members to recover non-economic damages like compensation for emotional grief and anguish through a wrongful death claim. Still, a successful New York wrongful death claim can recover compensation for the following:

Reimbursement for medical expenses
Funeral and burial costs
Compensation for the decedent’s lost income and benefits for the remaining earning years they would have had left to them if they hadn’t died
Compensation for the loss of household services, such as for a parent who cared for the children and home, or a parent’s home, yard, and vehicle maintenance

An experienced New York personal injury attorney carefully calculates the family’s economic damages to seek the maximum compensation available despite the lack of non-economic compensatory damages in New York wrongful death claims.

What Is a Survival Action After a Personal Injury Victim Dies?

Less commonly, a personal injury victim in New York dies from something unrelated to their personal injury. For instance, suppose a car accident victim in New York dies from cancer while their personal injury claim for their car accident damages is still in progress? Their death did not occur from the car accident.

In this case, the family cannot pursue a wrongful death claim against the at-fault driver because the driver’s actions did not cause the death. Instead, the decedent’s estate continues the personal injury claim process with the representative of the decedent’s estate as the plaintiff in the case. This may be a representative named in an estate plan or by the court.

Then, the amount recovered is distributed in accordance with the decedent’s will or, if the decedent died without a will, under the state’s intestacy laws.