Miami wrongful death lawyer

Which Florida laws apply to a Miami wrongful death claim

The rules are the same across Florida, so they are written out in full on one page rather than repeated here. They are explained on the statewide wrongful death page, with the statute text linked.

Florida’s Wrongful Death Act does something most families do not expect: Fla. Stat. § 768.20 says the action shall be brought by the decedent’s personal representative, who recovers for the benefit of the survivors and the estate. A spouse cannot file in their own name. Neither can a child or a parent.

So the first step is not a lawsuit. It is probate — opening an estate in the county where the person lived and having a personal representative appointed, which is a separate proceeding in a different division of the courthouse. The deadline for the claim itself is two years under § 95.11(5)(e), and it does not pause while an estate is being opened.

One exception is worth knowing. Section 95.11(11) provides that a wrongful death action against a natural person for an intentional tort resulting in death from acts described in § 782.04 or § 782.07 — murder or manslaughter — may be commenced at any time, and requires no arrest, no formal charges and no conviction.

What follows is the part that is specific to Miami-Dade County — where these claims arise, where you will be treated, which courthouse the case goes to, and how the records are obtained.

Why a spouse cannot bring a Miami wrongful death claim in their own name

This is the part that surprises people, and it is the plainest sentence in the Act.

Section 768.20 says the action shall be brought by the decedent’s personal representative. The representative recovers for the benefit of the decedent’s survivors and estate. The survivors are the beneficiaries of the recovery; they are not the plaintiffs.

That is one case, not several. A family does not file four claims because four people are grieving. One action is brought, and the damages of each survivor are claimed within it — which is also why the survivors have to be identified correctly at the start rather than added later.

Who the survivors are is defined, not assumed. Under § 768.18(1) they are the spouse, children and parents, together with blood relatives and adoptive brothers and sisters who were partly or wholly dependent on the decedent for support or services. A child born out of wedlock is a survivor of the mother, and of the father where he acknowledged responsibility for support.

And the word "minor" does not mean what it usually means. Section 768.18(2) defines minor children as those under 25, regardless of the age of majority — which is the hinge the medical negligence restriction turns on.

How a personal representative is appointed in Miami-Dade County

Probate is a different division, a different file and a different set of forms, and until it produces letters of administration nobody has standing to file the claim.

In Miami-Dade the Probate Court sits in Suite 6.223 of the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, 20 NW 1st Avenue, open weekdays from 9 to 4, reachable at 305-349-7492 or 305-349-7502. The clerk states the rule plainly: probate of wills and the granting of letters must be in the state and county where the deceased lived. The clerk’s published fees are $232 to open an estate, $236 or $346 for summary administration depending on size, and $401 for formal administration.

Formal administration is usually the route. It is what the clerk describes as the procedure used when a personal representative must be appointed, under chapters 731, 732 and 733. Summary administration, for estates not exceeding $150,000 or where the person died more than two years ago, is a distribution order rather than an appointment — so a family that used it to move a bank account generally does not have the representative § 768.20 requires.

There is also a ten-day rule nobody hears about. Under Fla. Stat. § 732.901 the custodian of the original will must deposit it with the clerk in the county where the person lived, within ten days of learning of the death. It is free, and it is separate from opening the estate.

Start both at once. The two-year deadline on the claim runs while probate is pending, and the evidence a death case depends on — the vehicle, the scene, the camera footage, the maintenance record — is going the same way it goes in any other case.

What the Act allows, and the restriction that catches families

The damages belong to particular people, and the statute says which. Under § 768.21 survivors may recover the value of lost support and services, and a surviving spouse may recover for loss of companionship and protection and for mental pain and suffering. Minor children — again, under 25 — may recover for lost parental companionship, instruction and guidance, and for mental pain and suffering.

Parents of a deceased minor child may recover mental pain and suffering, and parents of an adult child may as well where there is no other survivor.

The estate itself recovers lost earnings from the date of injury to death, lost prospective net accumulations, and medical and funeral expenses that the estate paid.

Then the restriction. In a claim for medical negligence, § 768.21(8) provides that an adult child may not recover for lost parental companionship, instruction and guidance or for mental pain and suffering, and that the parents of an adult child may not recover mental pain and suffering either.

That provision is still law. A repeal passed the Legislature in 2025 and was vetoed. HB 6003 passed the House 88–17 on January 15, 2026 and died in Senate Rules on March 13, 2026. It is the first thing to check in a medical death, because it can decide whether a recoverable claim exists at all.

Two years, and the one case with no deadline at all

The ordinary deadline is two years under § 95.11(5)(e), and opening an estate does not pause it.

Where a government is involved it is shorter in effect. A claim against the state or a subdivision must be presented in writing under § 768.28(6) — within two years for wrongful death — and recovery is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, with anything above payable only by act of the Legislature.

And one category has no deadline. Section 95.11(11) provides that an action under § 768.21 against a natural person, for an intentional tort resulting in death from acts described in § 782.04 or § 782.07, may be commenced at any time — and the subsection states that it does not require an arrest, the filing of formal charges, or a conviction.

That matters more than it sounds. Families are routinely told to wait for the criminal case. Where this applies, the civil claim was never on the criminal case’s clock in the first place.

Where the Miami office is, and how to get there

DAPENALAW is at 5975 Sunset Drive, Suite 102, South Miami, FL 33143, open Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. The direct number is (305) 662-4323.

The office is on Sunset Drive in South Miami, a few blocks west of US-1 and close to the South Miami Metrorail station, with parking on site. A first conversation can happen by phone or video, and home visits are available — in a death case that is usually how the first meeting happens.

You do not have to come in. The first conversation can be by phone or video, documents are handled electronically, and where an injury makes travel difficult the meeting happens where you are. The Sunset Drive office serves Miami-Dade generally, and most often South Miami, Coral Gables, Westchester, Kendall, Coral Terrace, Olympia Heights, West Miami, Sweetwater, Glenvar Heights, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Hialeah and Doral.

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