Florida Wrongful Death Lawyer
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When Your World Has Stopped, We Carry the Legal Weight — Compassionate Miami Attorneys for Families in Their Most Difficult Hour
There is no marketing language that belongs at the top of this page. If you are reading this, someone you love is gone — a spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling — and the world that held them has collapsed into a before and an after. You are not alone. At Sky Law Firm, our wrongful death practice is built on a single promise: while you grieve, plan the funeral, manage relatives, and try to breathe through the next hour, we carry the legal work you did not ask for. We coordinate with funeral directors, medical examiners, hospitals, police agencies, and insurance carriers so the calls that would otherwise interrupt your mourning land on our desks instead. We do it with the dignity your loved one deserves — because Florida law gives your family only two years from the date of death to act, and that clock does not pause for grief.
Call (305) 320-4529 or 1-844-OUCH-844 anytime — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every call is free. Every call is confidential. We speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole, and if we represent you, there is no fee unless we recover for your family.
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Why Grieving Florida Families Choose Sky Law Firm
1. We Know the Florida Wrongful Death Act Cold — §§ 768.16 Through 768.26
The Florida Wrongful Death Act is a technical, unforgiving statute, and most general personal-injury firms have never litigated one to verdict. Attorney Andrew Sky, a 2012 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, has built our firm’s wrongful death practice directly on the text of §§ 768.16 through 768.26 — the provisions that define who may recover, what damages each survivor may claim, and how a single estate claim must be filed on behalf of every statutory beneficiary. We apply that statute the way it was written: as a vehicle to shift the loss from your family onto the wrongdoer.
2. Personal Representative Filing Handled Start to Finish
Florida is one of the few states that requires a personal representative of the decedent’s estate — not the spouse, not the children — to file the single wrongful death lawsuit. That means probate has to open first, and the wrong choice of representative can fracture a family mid-litigation. We handle the § 733.301 appointment, the Letters of Administration, the notice-to-creditors filings, and the coordination with the estate’s probate counsel so that one qualified representative stands in court for every statutory survivor. You will never have to learn probate law while planning a funeral.
3. Survivor-Specific Damages Mapped for Every Family Member
Under Fla. Stat. § 768.21, the damages available differ sharply by survivor class — and general-practice lawyers routinely leave money on the table because they do not know the distinctions. Surviving spouses recover for loss of companionship and protection plus mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. Minor children — and adult children when there is no surviving spouse — recover for loss of parental companionship, instruction, and guidance, and for mental pain and suffering. Parents of a deceased minor child recover for mental pain and suffering. Parents of a deceased adult child recover for mental pain and suffering when there is no surviving spouse or other survivor. Siblings or dependent blood relatives recover when they were partly or wholly dependent on the decedent. We build the damages model survivor by survivor.
4. Direct Coordination With Funeral Homes and Medical Examiners
One of the most painful moments for families is the collision between grief and paperwork — the coroner’s office calling while you are picking out a casket, the funeral director asking about death-certificate copies while you are choosing a headstone. We intervene within hours of being retained. We coordinate directly with the Miami-Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach Medical Examiner’s Office to preserve autopsy evidence. We work with the funeral home on payment deferrals pending settlement, secure the official death certificate copies the lawsuit requires, and preserve the decedent’s medical records before hospitals move them to long-term storage.
5. The 2-Year Post-2023 Statute of Limitations Does Not Forgive Delay
Before the 2023 tort reform (HB 837), most Florida negligence claims carried a four-year limitations period. Today, under the amended Fla. Stat. § 95.11, wrongful death claims arising from negligent acts on or after March 24, 2023 must be filed within two years of the date of death — half the time families had before. Medical malpractice wrongful death has its own calculus under § 95.11(4). Claims against government entities require presuit notice under § 768.28 and carry sovereign-immunity damages caps that require a legislative claims bill for larger recoveries. One missed deadline bars an otherwise winnable case. We calendar every triggering event the moment we are retained.
What Grieving Families Say About Sky Law Firm
“The day my husband died on I-95, I could not think straight. Sky Law Firm called the funeral home, the medical examiner, the truck company’s insurer — everyone — so I could sit with my kids. Two years later they handed me a settlement that gave my children a future. I still do not understand how they carried all of it.”
— Maria R., Hialeah (wrongful death, commercial truck collision)
“We lost my father to a medication error at a Miami hospital. Three firms told us it was too complicated. Andrew Sky took the case the same day, opened the estate, and made sure we did not miss the notice-of-intent deadline under § 766.106. The hospital settled before trial.”
— The Alvarez family, Coral Gables (medical malpractice wrongful death)
“They called my abuela at the assisted living facility in Portuguese when she needed to give a statement. They called me in English. They called my cousin in Spanish. Nobody in our family had to translate grief for a lawyer. That alone meant everything.”
— J. Pereira, Little Havana (nursing home wrongful death)
Client names and identifying details have been adjusted where necessary to protect survivor privacy. Testimonials reflect individual experiences; results vary by case.
Proven Results — Florida Wrongful Death Recoveries
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every wrongful death case is evaluated on its own unique facts, and the recoveries below depended on specific liability evidence, insurance coverage, and the statutory survivor categories in each family.
- $12,400,000 — Wrongful death settlement for a surviving spouse and three minor children after a fatal tractor-trailer collision on I-95 in Miami-Dade County. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations violations and electronic logging device data established gross negligence; personal representative appointment completed within 9 days of retention.
- $7,850,000 — Medical malpractice wrongful death settlement for the adult children of a Miami grandmother who died following a missed sepsis diagnosis at a Broward hospital. Presuit notice filed under § 766.106 within 30 days.
- $5,600,000 — Settlement for the parents of a 19-year-old killed by a drunk driver on Biscayne Boulevard. Punitive damages claim under § 768.72 forced the carrier past prior policy-limits offers.
- $3,200,000 — Nursing home wrongful death on behalf of the surviving spouse and children of a Fort Lauderdale resident who died from untreated pressure ulcers. Recovery included punitive damages under § 400.023.
- $2,750,000 — Pedestrian wrongful death on A1A; fleeing driver identified via surveillance footage. Combined bodily injury liability, stacked uninsured motorist coverage, and criminal restitution.
- $1,450,000 — Wrongful death of a father killed by a defective industrial product on a Miami-Dade construction site. Third-party product liability claim built around design defect plus failure-to-warn theories.
Compensation Available Under the Florida Wrongful Death Act
Florida law recognizes that a human life cannot be reduced to lost wages. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.21, survivors and the estate may recover both economic and non-economic damages. The categories we build in every wrongful death case include:
Economic damages (survivor claims):
- Loss of support and services from the date of injury to the date of death, and loss of future support and services based on the decedent’s probable net income
- Medical and funeral expenses paid by a survivor (the personal representative recovers any expenses paid by the estate)
- Loss of earnings and future lost earnings of the decedent that the estate can recover through the personal representative
- Net accumulations — the projected savings the decedent would have left to the estate — recoverable when the decedent is survived by a spouse or lineal descendant
Non-economic damages (survivor claims):
- Loss of companionship and protection for a surviving spouse
- Mental pain and suffering for a surviving spouse from the date of injury
- Loss of parental companionship, instruction, and guidance for minor children, and adult children when no spouse survives
- Mental pain and suffering for parents of a deceased minor child
- Mental pain and suffering for parents of a deceased adult child when no other survivor exists
Punitive damages under § 768.72: When the conduct was intentional or grossly negligent — drunk driving fatalities, dispatched-over-hours trucking crashes, nursing homes ignoring documented harm — we pursue punitive damages. Florida generally caps punitive damages at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000, with enhanced caps for specific-intent misconduct.
We never tell a family what their case is worth in a first phone call. We build the damages model survivor by survivor after a full investigation.
Seven Factors That Influence the Value of a Florida Wrongful Death Case
Every family wants to know what the case is worth. The honest answer is that value is a function of at least seven variables, each of which we evaluate carefully before placing a demand:
- Age, health, and earning trajectory of the decedent — A 38-year-old professional with three minor children generates a dramatically different lost-earnings and loss-of-guidance model than an 82-year-old retiree. Neither life is worth more as a human being; the statutory damages, however, are measured differently.
- Number and category of statutory survivors — A decedent survived by a spouse, minor children, and dependent parents has more recoverable damages than a decedent survived only by adult children when no spouse exists. The §768.21 categories drive the model.
- Strength of liability evidence — Clear negligence (a drunk driver with a criminal conviction; a hospital with documented protocol failures) produces higher settlements than contested cases requiring jury resolution.
- Available insurance and defendant solvency — We identify every applicable policy: primary, excess, umbrella, employer commercial, homeowner, uninsured-motorist, professional-malpractice, and contractual indemnity. A $25 million verdict against a defendant with $100,000 in coverage and no assets is a paper result; we hunt for real money.
- Jurisdiction and venue — Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach juries award differently than Collier, Lee, or Duval juries. We select venue strategically where the law permits.
- Pre-death pain and suffering (survival action) — If the decedent survived the injury for hours, days, or weeks, a separate estate claim under § 768.20 may exist for the conscious pain and suffering during that interval.
- Conduct supporting punitive damages — Evidence of intentional wrongdoing or gross negligence can unlock punitive damages, which often changes the negotiating posture overnight.
Frequently Asked Questions — Florida Wrongful Death Claims
1. Who can file a wrongful death lawsuit in Florida?
Only the personal representative of the decedent’s estate. The personal representative is usually named in the will; if there is no will, Florida probate court appoints one under § 733.301. The personal representative files one lawsuit on behalf of every statutory survivor and the estate. Individual family members do not file separate suits.
2. How long do I have to file a Florida wrongful death lawsuit?
Generally two years from the date of death under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, as amended effective March 24, 2023. Medical malpractice wrongful death has a separate calculus. Claims against government entities require presuit notice under § 768.28. Do not wait to call — evidence, witnesses, and probate filings all have their own faster timelines.
3. Who are the "statutory survivors" under the Florida Wrongful Death Act?
Under § 768.18, survivors include the decedent’s spouse, children, parents, and any blood relative or adoptive sibling who was partly or wholly dependent on the decedent for support or services. Each category has different damages under § 768.21.
4. Can parents recover when their adult child dies in Florida?
Yes, but with limits. Parents of a deceased adult child may recover mental pain and suffering only when no other survivor exists (no spouse, no children). The 1990 amendment carving out medical-malpractice cases was held unconstitutional in North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, opening recovery to parents in malpractice wrongful death cases.
5. What if my loved one died at a Florida hospital from medical negligence?
Medical malpractice wrongful death carries additional presuit requirements under Chapter 766, including a 90-day presuit notice of intent, a sworn expert affidavit, and a mandatory presuit investigation. The statute of limitations includes a separate two-year/four-year/seven-year calculus under § 95.11(4)(b). These cases demand experienced counsel from day one.
6. How much does a Florida wrongful death lawyer cost?
Nothing out of pocket. Sky Law Firm handles every wrongful death case on a pure contingency fee. We advance all costs — investigators, experts, filing fees, probate expenses — and collect only from the settlement or verdict. If we do not recover, you owe us nothing.
7. Will we have to go to trial?
Most wrongful death cases settle, but we prepare every case for trial from the first day. Insurers track which firms file suit and which firms actually try cases. We are on the try-cases list — and insurers pay differently because of it. If the defense refuses a fair settlement, we are ready to present the case to a jury.
8. How soon should we call after our loved one's death?
As soon as you can. Evidence disappears fast — hospital records are archived, witnesses move, surveillance footage is overwritten, trucking-company electronic data is erased, and probate deadlines run. We never pressure a family in the first 48 hours, but a phone call that preserves evidence costs nothing and loses nothing. Every hour of delay favors the defense.
Why Choose Sky Law Firm
- Attorney-led from the first call. Andrew Sky or a senior attorney speaks with your family directly — not a case manager, not an intake paralegal.
- Florida-grown, Florida-focused. University of Miami School of Law, 2012. We have never practiced anywhere else.
- Multilingual, multicultural, and ready for South Florida families. English, Spanish, Portuguese, Creole.
- We try cases. Insurers know which firms take cases to verdict. We do.
- Probate, estate, and funeral-home coordination built into our intake. You will never learn probate law at the worst moment of your life.
- No fee unless we recover. No retainer, no hourly billing, no costs charged back if we lose.
- 24/7 availability. Wrongful deaths happen at 2 a.m. We answer the phone.
Four Steps to Take After a Wrongful Death in Florida
- Preserve evidence immediately. Do not authorize the destruction of the decedent’s vehicle, do not sign hospital authorizations without counsel reviewing them, and do not allow the medical examiner’s office to release specimens before an independent autopsy decision is made.
- Do not sign insurance papers. The at-fault party’s insurer will contact your family within days with a release disguised as a “sympathy payment.” Signing eliminates the wrongful death claim entirely. Call us before signing anything.
- Secure Letters of Administration. A qualified personal representative must be appointed by the probate court before the lawsuit can be filed. We handle the § 733.301 petition, notice-to-creditors filings, and court appearances.
- Call Sky Law Firm — free, confidential, 24/7. We will review the facts, explain the Florida Wrongful Death Act in plain language, handle every agency call for the next week, and begin the investigation the same day.
Common Causes of Wrongful Death We Handle
Motor vehicle crashes. Fatal car, truck, rideshare, pedestrian, bicycle, and motorcycle collisions across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties — I-95, the Palmetto, the Turnpike, US-1, A1A, and Biscayne Boulevard.
Commercial trucking collisions. Federally regulated crashes involving hours-of-service violations, electronic logging device falsification, negligent hiring, and defective maintenance.
Medical malpractice and hospital negligence. Missed diagnoses, medication errors, surgical mistakes, anesthesia failures, sepsis, birth injuries, and emergency-room negligence.
Nursing home and assisted-living facility neglect. Pressure ulcers, falls with hip fractures, dehydration, malnutrition, elopement, medication errors, and abuse.
Drunk-driving fatalities. Including punitive damages and dram-shop claims under Fla. Stat. § 768.125 against over-servers.
Workplace and construction deaths. Third-party liability claims against contractors, equipment manufacturers, and property owners (workers’ compensation is a separate parallel track).
Defective products. Cars, tires, medical devices, industrial equipment, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods.
Premises liability. Negligent security, drownings in pools, balcony collapses, elevator failures, and slip-and-fall deaths.
Boating and watercraft. Fatal collisions on Biscayne Bay, the Intracoastal, and inland waterways.
Criminal acts. Third-party premises liability for foreseeable violence, rideshare assaults, and workplace violence.
Injuries That Preceded the Death — The Survival Action
Florida recognizes a separate cause of action for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering. When the decedent survived the injury for any period — hours in a trauma bay, days in an ICU, weeks on a ventilator — the estate may bring a survival action under § 768.20 parallel to the wrongful death claim. We document the conscious pain interval carefully because it materially affects the total recovery:
- Traumatic brain injury with preserved consciousness in the ER
- Internal injuries producing prolonged suffering before death
- Burns and crush injuries with extended ICU courses
- Spinal cord injuries followed by complications days or weeks later
- Sepsis and post-surgical complications with recognized decline
In every case we review, we analyze whether a survival action exists and file it alongside the wrongful death claim so that nothing is left on the table.
Why You Need a Florida Wrongful Death Lawyer
The Florida Wrongful Death Act is not a form. It is a statute with seven interlocking sections, a mandatory personal-representative filing requirement, survivor-specific damages categories, a two-year deadline that does not forgive grief, a presuit-notice regime for medical-malpractice deaths, presuit notice for government defendants, sovereign-immunity caps requiring legislative claims bills, Chapter 766 affidavit requirements, punitive-damages thresholds under § 768.72, dram-shop exceptions under § 768.125, and a comparative-negligence framework that insurers try to weaponize into denials.
A general-practice attorney who files a handful of wrongful death cases a year cannot match a firm that lives inside the statute. We have opened estates in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Monroe, Collier, Lee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Orange, and Duval probate courts. We have taken depositions of medical examiners, accident reconstructionists, hospital risk managers, trucking company safety directors, and defense-retained forensic economists. We have tried wrongful death cases to verdict. When the insurance carrier realizes the firm across the table is going to try the case, the offer changes.
And there is a second reason — the one that matters most. A grieving family should not be on the phone with defense adjusters, hospital billing departments, funeral homes, medical examiners, insurance subrogation units, probate clerks, and reporters in the days after a death. You should be with each other. We take every one of those calls.
How Sky Law Firm Handles Your Wrongful Death Case — Four Steps
Step 1: Free, Confidential Consultation — Same Day
We meet your family where you are — in our Fort Lauderdale office, at your home, in a hospital family room, or by phone or video call. We explain the Florida Wrongful Death Act in plain language, answer every question, and help you understand whether you have a claim worth pursuing. No fee, no pressure, no obligation.
Step 2: Personal Representative Appointment and Estate Opening
Within 48 to 72 hours of retention, we coordinate with probate counsel to open the decedent’s estate under Chapter 733. The correct personal representative is identified, Letters of Administration are filed, and the lawsuit-filing authority is secured. Families never navigate probate alone.
Step 3: Full Investigation and Evidence Preservation
Our team immediately preserves every piece of evidence — crash scene measurements, vehicle downloads, hospital records, surveillance footage, employer files, FMCSA data, dispatch logs, witness statements, 911 audio, medical examiner findings, photographs, and any defendant correspondence. We send preservation-of-evidence letters within 24 hours and file spoliation motions when defendants destroy evidence anyway.
Step 4: Demand, Litigation, Settlement or Trial
We prepare a comprehensive demand package — liability analysis, full damages model by survivor, expert reports, economic-loss projections, and settlement authority. If the insurer engages fairly, we settle. If not, we file suit, take depositions, retain experts, and try the case to a Florida jury. Our clients decide whether to accept an offer; we give them the information to decide well.
Meet Attorney Andrew Sky
Andrew Jarrett Sky, Esq. founded Sky Law Firm, P.A. in 2012.
- Education: University of Miami School of Law (JD)
- Bar: Florida state courts, USDC Southern District of Florida
- Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole
- Credentials: National Trial Lawyers Top 100, Super Lawyers, AVVO 8.1 (4.8★), America’s Top 100 PI Attorneys
- Case Results: $3M, $1.9M, $1.8M, $1.2M in recent Florida settlements
Call (305) 320-4529 to speak with Andrew’s team directly.
Serving All Major Florida Cities
Call Now — The Clock Is Running
Every hour after a wrongful death is an hour the defense uses to build its file. Every day without a lawyer is a day evidence can be lost. Florida’s two-year statute of limitations will not bend for your grief. We understand that picking up the phone feels impossible right now — and we also know that picking up the phone is the single act that most often changes a family’s financial future.
Call (305) 320-4529 or 1-844-OUCH-844 now. We are reachable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The consultation is free, confidential, and carries no obligation. If you retain us, you pay nothing unless we recover for your family.
Sky Law Firm | Attorney Andrew Sky, Esq. | University of Miami School of Law, JD 2012 3333 W Commercial Blvd STE 105, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 Hablamos Español. Falamos Português. Nou pale Kreyòl.
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Sky Law Firm
3333 W Commercial Blvd STE 105, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
(305) 320-4529
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Prefer to talk? Call (305) 320-4529 anytime.
Prefer to talk? Call (305) 320-4529 anytime.