Port Richey wrongful death lawyer

If you are reading this, someone you love has died because of what another person did or failed to do. A phone call from the Florida Highway Patrol, a trip to HCA Florida Bayonet Point that ended in the worst possible way, a fall at a facility that was supposed to be keeping your mother safe. The last thing you want right now is a legal process.

You do not have to handle it. Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers represents Pasco County families in wrongful death claims under Florida law. We take over the insurance calls, the paperwork and the investigation so that your family can grieve. Our attorney has practiced in Florida courts since 1992 and meets families at home, anywhere in Pasco County. Call (240) 421-5511 when you are ready. The consultation is free and private, and there is no attorney's fee unless we recover compensation.

What a wrongful death claim is, and what it is not

A wrongful death claim is a civil case brought under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 768.16–768.26. Its stated purpose is to shift the losses caused by a wrongful death from the survivors to the wrongdoer. It is not a criminal case, and it does not depend on whether the State Attorney files charges.

The two can run at the same time. After a fatal crash on US-19 or SR-54, FHP Troop C's traffic homicide investigators spend months reconstructing what happened. If the at-fault driver was impaired, the state may charge DUI manslaughter. Your family's civil claim proceeds separately, draws on that investigation, and does not wait for a verdict.

The claim must show that the defendant owed your loved one a duty of care, breached it through negligence or a wrongful act, and that the breach caused the death. Under § 768.19, a wrongful death claim exists whenever the injury would have supported a claim had the person survived.

Who files a Florida wrongful death claim?

This is where families are most often confused. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.20, the claim is filed by the personal representative of the deceased person's estate, not by the spouse, the children or the parents individually. The personal representative brings a single action on behalf of all the survivors and the estate, and the complaint identifies each survivor and the damages that person is claiming.

The personal representative is named in the will or, if there is no will, appointed by the circuit court in Pasco County through probate. Many families have not opened an estate when they first call us. We help with that step so the case does not stall.

Who the law recognizes as a survivor

Fla. Stat. § 768.18(1) defines "survivors" as:

• the decedent's spouse
• the decedent's children
• the decedent's parents
• when partly or wholly dependent on the decedent for support or services, any blood relatives and adoptive brothers and sisters

A child born out of wedlock is a survivor of the mother, and of the father if he recognized a responsibility for the child's support.

Section 768.18(2) then gives "minor children" a definition unique to this Act: children under 25 years of age. A 22-year-old college student who loses a parent is a minor child for wrongful death purposes, and the parents of a 24-year-old killed on the Suncoast Parkway are the parents of a minor child. Those categories decide what each person may recover.

What can each survivor recover under Fla. Stat. § 768.21?

The Act assigns specific damages to specific survivors:

• Each survivor may recover the value of lost support and services from the date of injury to the date of death, with interest, and the future value of lost support and services from the date of death.
• The surviving spouse may also recover for loss of the decedent's companionship and protection, and for his or her own mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.
• Minor children, and all children if there is no surviving spouse, may recover for lost parental companionship, instruction and guidance, and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.
• Each parent of a deceased minor child may recover for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.
• Each parent of a deceased adult child may recover for mental pain and suffering only if there are no other survivors.
• Medical or funeral expenses caused by the injury or death may be recovered by the survivor who paid them.
• The estate, through the personal representative, may recover the decedent's lost earnings from injury to death, the loss of prospective net accumulations of the estate in the circumstances the statute allows, and medical and funeral expenses that became a charge against the estate or were paid on the decedent's behalf.

What the survivors do not recover is the decedent's own pain and suffering. Under § 768.20, when a personal injury results in death, the injured person's own claim does not survive. The loss the law compensates is yours.

The medical negligence exception

One provision of the Act is harsh. Under § 768.21(8), when the death results from medical negligence, adult children and the parents of an adult child may not recover non-economic damages such as mental pain and suffering. A repeal passed the Legislature in 2025 and was vetoed, and a new bill was filed for the 2026 session. If your family's loss involves medical care, ask us where the law stands on the day you call.

The categories above are only the frame. Call (240) 421-5511 and our attorney will go through exactly who in your family qualifies and for what.

How long does a family have to act?

A Florida wrongful death action must be filed within two years of the date of death under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(e). That is the outside limit, and it is shorter than it sounds: a personal representative must be appointed, the investigation completed and the case prepared before anything is filed.

Claims against a government body follow stricter rules under § 768.28(6). If the death involved a Pasco County vehicle, a GOPasco bus, a school board employee, an FDOT roadway or a city police car, written notice must be presented to the agency within two years of the death, and suit cannot be filed until the agency denies the claim or 90 days pass. Recovery against the government is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident under § 768.28(5) unless the Legislature passes a claims bill.

Beyond the deadlines, there is evidence. Vehicles are salvaged. Intersection and business video is overwritten in days. Witnesses move. We send preservation demands in the first week after we are retained.

How fatal injuries happen in Pasco County

Pasco County averaged roughly 103 traffic deaths a year from 2018 through 2022 according to the Pasco MPO, a fatality rate about 30 percent above the Florida average. The corridors where those deaths cluster are the ones we drive every day:

• US-19 from Holiday through Port Richey, Bayonet Point and Hudson, which a 2024 study named the deadliest road segment in Florida and which is especially dangerous for people on foot and on bicycles. See /pedestrian-accident-lawyer/.
• SR-52, SR-54 and I-75 through Land O' Lakes and Wesley Chapel, where high speeds and commercial trucks produce the most violent crashes. See /truck-accident-lawyer/.
• US-301 and US-98 through Zephyrhills and Dade City, and Little Road through New Port Richey and Trinity.
• Impaired driving, which runs through every category. See /drunk-driving-accident-lawyer/.
• Motorcycles, which have no PIP coverage and little protection in a crash.

Traffic is not the only cause. We also handle deaths from falls and drownings on another person's property, neglect in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Hudson, Holiday and New Port Richey, workplace incidents, boating accidents on the Gulf and the Cotee River, and defective products.

Insurance and the rules that shape a death claim

Compensation in a wrongful death case comes almost entirely from insurance, so every policy must be found.

• PIP on the decedent's own auto policy pays a $5,000 death benefit under Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1), in addition to the medical benefits used before death.
• Bodily injury liability is not required of ordinary Florida drivers. The driver who caused the crash may have no coverage for the death at all.
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage under § 627.727 on the decedent's policy, or a household member's, is often the main source of recovery. We review every declarations page in the family.
• Commercial, rideshare and umbrella policies carry higher limits when a work vehicle, truck, bus or Uber or Lyft driver was involved. Rideshare coverage during a ride is at least $1 million under § 627.748(7).
• Comparative fault applies. Under § 768.81(6), if the decedent is found more than 50 percent at fault, the survivors recover nothing from the other driver. Insurers argue fault most aggressively when the person who could answer is gone, which is why reconstruction evidence matters so much.
• Bar liability is narrow. Under § 768.125, a bar or restaurant is liable only for willfully serving someone underage or knowingly serving a person habitually addicted to alcohol. Most drunk-driving death claims are brought against the driver and the family's own UM coverage.

The insurer for the at-fault party may call within days with sympathy and a quick offer. Do not sign anything. A wrongful death release ends every survivor's claim. Call (240) 421-5511 before you talk to them, and let us take those calls.

What Conde-Huggins does for your family

Our part is to carry the legal work so it does not land on the kitchen table.

• We meet at your home, on your schedule, and explain the process once, plainly, with time for questions.
• We help open the estate and have a personal representative appointed in Pasco County.
• We obtain the FHP traffic homicide report, 911 recordings, medical examiner findings and scene evidence, and we preserve vehicles and video.
• We identify every survivor under § 768.18 and document each person's losses under § 768.21, with testimony from family and employers and, where needed, an economist to value lost support and net accumulations.
• We locate every policy and present the claim to each insurer.
• We file in Pasco County when the offers do not reflect the loss, and we try the case if that is what it takes.

The attorney who handles the case is Clementine L. "CC" Conde, a Florida Bar member since 1992 with decades of trial experience in Pasco and Pinellas courts. Read about her at /attorneys/clementine-conde/. If the death followed a long hospitalization, our /catastrophic-injury-lawyer/ page explains how those medical costs are documented and recovered.

Talk to a Port Richey wrongful death lawyer today

There is no right time to make this call, only a deadline that does not move. When your family is ready, Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers is at 6609 Ridge Road, Suite 4, in Port Richey, and we will come to you anywhere in Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas or Hillsborough. Call (240) 421-5511, any hour, or use /contact/. The consultation is free, and there is no attorney's fee unless we recover compensation for your family. Se habla español.