What to do after a wrongful death.

Within the first 7 days

1. Get certified copies of the death certificate (10 to start; you will need them for insurance, benefits, and the lawsuit).
2. Preserve all evidence of the cause of death — medical records, scene photographs, product or device involved, vehicle involved.
3. Identify witnesses to the underlying incident and the death.
4. Decide on autopsy. If cause is contested or could involve medical care or a product, independent autopsy is often essential. Decline to release the body for cremation until resolved.
5. Consult a wrongful-death attorney for an initial evaluation. Many offer no-cost contingency intake.

Within the first 30 days

1. Open probate. In personal-representative-model states, this is a prerequisite to filing the wrongful-death suit. The appointment itself takes 30–90 days.
2. Send preservation-of-evidence letters to all potential defendants — driver and insurer, hospital and providers, product manufacturer, premises owner. Demand preservation of all relevant evidence.
3. Notify life insurance, retirement plan administrators, and Social Security of the death — these are separate from the wrongful-death case but time-sensitive.
4. Begin assembling economic-loss documentation: pay stubs, tax returns, W-2s, retirement projections, household contributions.
5. Identify all available insurance: defendants' liability coverage, your own UM/UIM if vehicle-related, MedPay, umbrella policies.

Within the first 90 days

1. Complete probate appointment of personal representative.
2. File any required notice of claim against government defendants (commonly 6-month deadline; do not assume the suit deadline applies).
3. Engage experts — economist, life-care planner if appropriate, accident reconstructionist or medical-care expert as the case requires.
4. Collect all medical records from the final hospitalization and any prior providers relevant to the cause of death.
5. Document the family's losses — financial, household, companionship — through declarations of the surviving beneficiaries.

Before the limitations deadline

1. File the wrongful-death (and survival) complaint within the state's statute of limitations, measured from the date of death. Do not assume any deadline is later than the rule states.
2. Serve all defendants according to state rules of civil procedure and any service-of-suit provisions for government defendants.

What not to do

• Do not accept a quick settlement from any insurer without legal review.
• Do not give a recorded statement to a defendant's insurer.
• Do not authorize cremation if cause of death is contested.
• Do not sign broad medical-records authorizations — limit to the relevant treatment and time period.
• Do not post about the death or the family's losses on social media.