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What rights do surviving family members have after wrongful death?

Wrongful Death - September 1, 2026

In Illinois, surviving family members have the right to be compensated after a wrongful death, including damages for financial losses and for what the statute calls grief, sorrow, and mental suffering. Family members don’t each file their own case, though. The personal representative of the person who died brings a single action, and the recovery goes to the surviving spouse and the next of kin.

A death in the family raises hard questions about who controls the claim and how any recovery gets divided. Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates has represented Illinois families after fatal accidents since 1924, and a Chicago wrongful death lawyer can explain how these rules apply to your family.

Who has the right to file a wrongful death claim in Illinois?

The personal representative of the estate files it. Under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, that one person brings the action, and the recovery benefits the surviving spouse and the deceased person’s next of kin.

Adult children and parents can benefit from the case without ever being named as plaintiffs. If no estate has been opened and the wrongful death claim is the estate’s only asset, the court can appoint a special administrator so the case can move forward, which is also how a claim proceeds when your loved one died without a will.

How is a wrongful death recovery divided among family members?

The court divides it in proportion to dependency, which rarely produces equal shares. Illinois directs the court to distribute the recovery among the surviving spouse and the next of kin according to how much each one depended on the person who died.

That means counting relatives won’t tell you the answer. When minor children are among the beneficiaries, the court applies added procedures to protect their share.

Do intestate succession rules decide who receives the money?

Not exactly. Illinois courts may look to intestacy law to identify who counts as next of kin, and the Wrongful Death Act then controls how the recovery is actually divided.

So these proceeds work differently from the separate property that passes by intestate succession when someone dies without an estate plan. Once the eligible spouse and next of kin are identified, dependency governs the split.

What happens to life insurance and jointly owned property?

Those assets sit outside a wrongful death recovery and pass under their own rules. Life insurance follows its beneficiary designation. Bank accounts or property held in joint tenancy pass according to how the ownership was set up.

Property the person owned alone can become part of the estate and go through the probate process. So whoever receives the wrongful death recovery may not receive every asset the deceased spouse or parent owned, and a wrongful death claim and a survival action are two separate claims with separate rules.

How can a lawyer protect the rights of surviving family members?

By settling who controls the claim before anyone talks about money. The rights of surviving family members get tangled when a wrongful death claim and the probate process overlap, and an attorney can identify who has authority to bring the case and which relatives stand to benefit from it.

Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates is a trial-driven firm with the resources to carry a fatal accident case as far as it needs to go, so your family won’t be pressured into an early settlement that undervalues what it lost. This is about holding a negligent company accountable for what it did. Call (800) 985-1819 or contact us online to request a free consultation to talk through your family’s circumstances.