North Carolina Wrongful Death Settlement Calculator

North Carolina gives you 2 years to file, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-53(4). That is the outside limit, not a target. Evidence gets harder to collect the longer you wait, and several rules can shorten the window, including claims against a government body. Speak to a licensed attorney in your state well before the deadline.

The personal representative or collector brings the action. The recovery is not used to pay the estate's debts, except burial expenses and limited medical expenses, and passes under the Intestate Succession Act. The damages the section lists include medical and funeral expenses, the decedent's pain and suffering, the decedent's present monetary value to those entitled to the recovery, and punitive damages in the cases it describes. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-18-2(a), (b) reads: “to be brought by the personal representative or collector of the decedent” and “The amount recovered in such action is not liable to be applied as assets, in the payment of debts or devises, except as to burial expenses of the deceased, and reasonable hospital and medical expenses not exceeding four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500) incident to the injury resulting in death, except that the amount applied for hospital and medical expenses shall not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the amount of damages recovered after deducting attorneys' fees, but shall be disposed of as provided in the Intestate Succession Act.” and “(b) Damages recoverable for death by wrongful act include: (1) Expenses for care, treatment and hospitalization incident to the injury resulting in death; (2) Compensation for pain and suffering of the decedent; (3) The reasonable funeral expenses of the decedent; (4) The present monetary value of the decedent to the persons entitled to receive the damages recovered, including but not limited to compensation for the loss of the reasonably expected; a. Net income of the decedent, b. Services, protection, care and assistance of the decedent, whether voluntary or obligatory, to the persons entitled to the damages recovered, c. Society, companionship, comfort, guidance, kindly offices and advice of the decedent to the persons entitled to the damages recovered; (5) Such punitive damages as the decedent could have recovered pursuant to Chapter 1D of the General Statutes had the decedent survived, and punitive damages for wrongfully causing the death of the decedent through malice or willful or wanton conduct, as defined in G.S. 1D-5; (6) Nominal damages when the jury so finds.” We read this statute only, so it is not a complete account of North Carolina wrongful death law, and how courts have applied it or divided a recovery is not stated here. A licensed North Carolina attorney can tell you how it applies to your claim.

North Carolina applies the contributory negligence rule. North Carolina applies contributory negligence. Any plaintiff fault bars recovery. The table on this page shows what that rule does to the same case at four different shares of fault, computed by the calculator above.

Our verified data records a ceiling of $712,847 in North Carolina, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-21.19(a). The calculator on this page applies it, so an estimate large enough to reach the ceiling is held at it.