Virginia Wrongful Death Settlement Calculator

Virginia gives you 2 years to file, under Va. Code § 8.01-244(B). 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 brings the action. The award goes first to the spouse, the children and the children of a deceased child (and, where there are any of them, to parents who regularly received the decedent's support or services in the last 12 months); if there are none, to the parents, brothers and sisters, and dependent relatives in the household. The damages the section lists include sorrow, mental anguish and solace, lost income and services, medical and funeral expenses, and punitive damages for willful or wanton conduct or reckless disregard for safety. Va. Code §§ 8.01-50(C), 8.01-52, 8.01-53(A) reads: “Every such action under subsection A shall be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of such deceased person.” and “1. Sorrow, mental anguish, and solace which may include society, companionship, comfort, guidance, kindly offices and advice of the decedent; 2. Compensation for reasonably expected loss of (i) income of the decedent and (ii) services, protection, care and assistance provided by the decedent; 3. Expenses for the care, treatment and hospitalization of the decedent incident to the injury resulting in death; 4. Reasonable funeral expenses; and 5. Punitive damages may be recovered for willful or wanton conduct, or such recklessness as evinces a conscious disregard for the safety of others.” and “(i) the surviving spouse, children of the deceased and children of any deceased child of the deceased, and, only if there is a surviving spouse, children of the deceased, or children of any deceased child of the deceased, the parents of the decedent if any of such parents, within 12 months prior to the decedent's death, regularly received support or regularly received services from the decedent for necessaries, including living expenses, food, shelter, health care expenses, or in-home assistance or care, or (ii) if there is no surviving spouse, children of the deceased, or children of any deceased child of the deceased, then to the parents, brothers and sisters of the deceased, and to any other relative who is primarily dependent on the decedent for support or services and is also a member of the same household as the decedent” We read this statute only, so it is not a complete account of Virginia wrongful death law, and how courts have applied it or divided a recovery is not stated here. A licensed Virginia attorney can tell you how it applies to your claim.

Virginia applies the contributory negligence rule. Virginia 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 holds no ceiling of this kind for Virginia, so nothing on this page reduces an estimate to one. That is what our data records, not a finding that no limit could ever apply to your claim.