Wrongful death claims typically involve court filing fees ranging from $200-$400, attorney fees on contingency (usually 33-40% of recovery), expert witness fees from $3,000-$15,000, medical record costs at $0.50-$1 per page, and case investigation expenses that can total $5,000-$20,000 depending on complexity.
Families facing the loss of a loved one due to negligence often discover that seeking justice comes with its own financial burden. Unlike most legal matters where you pay upfront for services, wrongful death claims operate differently because most attorneys understand families are already facing funeral costs and lost income. The structure of these costs determines not just what you’ll pay out of pocket today, but what portion of any settlement or verdict will ultimately go toward covering the expenses of building and presenting your case.
Understanding Attorney Fee Structures in Wrongful Death Cases
Most wrongful death attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning they receive payment only if your case results in a settlement or court award. This arrangement eliminates the need for upfront legal fees and makes representation accessible to families regardless of their current financial situation.
The standard contingency fee ranges from 33% to 40% of the total recovery amount. The percentage often increases if the case goes to trial rather than settling during negotiations. For example, your attorney might charge 33% if the case settles before a lawsuit is filed, 35% if it settles after filing but before trial, and 40% if the case proceeds to a jury verdict.
Some attorneys charge a flat percentage regardless of when the case resolves, while others use a sliding scale based on the stage at which settlement occurs. This fee structure motivates attorneys to maximize your recovery since their payment depends entirely on the outcome. Before signing a representation agreement, ask specifically how the percentage changes at different case stages and what expenses are deducted before or after the fee calculation.
Court Filing Fees and Litigation Costs
Filing a wrongful death lawsuit requires paying court fees that vary by jurisdiction but typically range from $200 to $400. In Georgia, superior court filing fees under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77 currently stand at approximately $265 for the initial complaint, though this amount can change based on county and case type.
Beyond the initial filing fee, additional court costs accumulate as the case progresses. These include fees for serving legal documents on defendants (typically $50-$100 per defendant), court reporter fees for depositions ($300-$800 per deposition depending on length), and fees for filing motions or other court documents throughout the litigation process. If your case requires jury selection and trial, expect jury fees and additional administrative costs that can add several hundred dollars more.
Expert Witness Fees and Professional Testimony Costs
Expert witnesses provide crucial testimony that establishes the cause of death, proves negligence, and calculates economic damages. Medical experts review autopsy reports and medical records to explain how the defendant’s actions caused the death. Accident reconstruction specialists analyze crash scenes or workplace incidents to demonstrate what happened and who bears responsibility.
Retaining expert witnesses represents one of the most significant case expenses. Medical experts typically charge $3,000-$10,000 for their review, written report, and deposition testimony, with additional hourly rates of $400-$800 if they testify at trial. Economic experts who calculate the financial value of lost wages, benefits, and household services often charge $5,000-$15,000 for comprehensive analysis and testimony. Specialized experts like accident reconstructionists or engineers may charge similar amounts depending on the complexity of their analysis.
Medical Records and Documentation Expenses
Obtaining complete medical records requires paying copying fees to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and medical facilities. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, providers can charge reasonable fees for record reproduction, typically $0.50-$1.00 per page with additional retrieval and processing fees.
A wrongful death case involving extended hospital treatment before death can generate hundreds or thousands of pages of medical records. If the deceased received treatment at multiple facilities, obtaining records from each location multiplies these costs. Some attorneys advance these costs and deduct them from any settlement, while others require clients to pay them upfront. Beyond medical records, you may need to purchase copies of police reports, autopsy reports, employment records, and other documentation, each carrying its own fee structure.
Investigation and Evidence Gathering Costs
Building a strong wrongful death case requires thorough investigation that often begins immediately after the incident. Your attorney may hire private investigators to interview witnesses, photograph accident scenes, and gather evidence before it disappears. These investigation services typically cost $75-$150 per hour, with total investigation costs ranging from $2,000-$10,000 depending on case complexity.
Additional evidence-gathering expenses include obtaining surveillance footage, securing 911 call recordings, hiring photographers for scene documentation, and creating visual aids or animations for trial presentation. If the case involves a vehicle accident, your attorney might need to have the vehicle inspected and preserved, which involves towing and storage fees. Complex cases involving product defects or workplace safety violations may require engineering analysis or product testing that can cost $10,000-$25,000 or more.
What Expenses Come Directly from Settlement vs. Attorney Advancement
The timing and method of paying case costs significantly affects how much money you ultimately receive. Most contingency fee agreements specify that case expenses are deducted from the gross settlement before calculating the attorney’s percentage fee, though some agreements calculate the fee first and then deduct expenses.
Under the first method, if you receive a $500,000 settlement with $20,000 in expenses and a 40% attorney fee, the expenses are deducted first ($500,000 – $20,000 = $480,000), then the attorney receives 40% of $480,000 ($192,000), leaving you with $288,000. Under the second method, the attorney takes 40% of the full $500,000 ($200,000), then expenses are deducted from your portion, leaving you with $280,000. The difference of $8,000 demonstrates why understanding the expense payment structure matters before signing a representation agreement.
Hidden Costs and Administrative Fees to Anticipate
Beyond the major expense categories, wrongful death cases generate numerous smaller costs that accumulate over months or years of litigation. Postage and courier fees for serving documents, long-distance phone calls, travel expenses for attorney meetings or depositions in other cities, and document storage or electronic case management systems all contribute to the final expense total.
Some law firms charge administrative fees or case management fees to cover these incidental costs, typically ranging from 5-10% of total expenses or a flat monthly fee. Ask whether your attorney’s fee agreement includes these charges and how they’re calculated. Understanding the complete cost structure prevents surprises when settlement funds are distributed and ensures you know exactly what portion of any recovery you’ll receive after all fees and expenses are paid.
Medicare and Medicaid Liens That Reduce Net Recovery
If the deceased received Medicare or Medicaid benefits for treatment related to the injuries that caused death, federal law under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act and state Medicaid laws may require repayment from any wrongful death settlement or verdict. These government liens must be satisfied before you can receive settlement funds, effectively reducing your net recovery.
Medicare and Medicaid thoroughly track medical payments and assert liens for reimbursement once they learn of a wrongful death claim. The lien amount equals what the program paid for treatment related to the injury or illness that led to death. Your attorney must request a final lien amount from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or your state Medicaid office, then negotiate to reduce the lien if possible. Professional lien resolution services can sometimes negotiate significant reductions, but these services charge fees of 20-35% of the amount they save, adding another layer of cost to your case.
Insurance Subrogation Claims and Their Financial Impact
Private health insurance companies that paid medical bills for the deceased person’s final treatment often assert subrogation rights to recover those payments from your wrongful death settlement. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), employer-sponsored health plans have strong legal rights to reimbursement that can significantly reduce what you ultimately receive.
Subrogation claims operate similarly to government liens but may be more negotiable depending on the insurance policy terms and applicable state law. Some states have “made whole” doctrines that prevent insurers from recovering anything unless the plaintiff is fully compensated first, while other states enforce subrogation rights even when the settlement barely covers damages. Your attorney will need to identify all potential subrogation claims early in the case, obtain coverage information and payment records, and negotiate reductions before finalizing any settlement. Failing to satisfy valid subrogation claims can result in lawsuits against you after the case concludes.
Costs Specific to Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claims
Medical malpractice wrongful death cases involve substantially higher costs than other wrongful death claims because proving medical negligence requires extensive expert testimony. Georgia law under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1 requires plaintiffs to attach an expert affidavit to the complaint stating that the care fell below accepted standards, which means retaining an expert before even filing the lawsuit.
Medical malpractice cases typically require multiple expert witnesses including a physician in the same specialty as the defendant to establish the standard of care and breach, a pathologist or medical examiner to confirm causation between the malpractice and death, and economic experts to calculate damages. Each expert may charge $10,000-$25,000 for their involvement, pushing total expert costs to $30,000-$75,000 or more in complex cases. Additionally, medical malpractice litigation often extends over 2-3 years, accumulating higher deposition costs, court reporter fees, and general litigation expenses compared to other wrongful death claim types.
Funeral and Burial Expenses: Recovery vs. Out-of-Pocket Costs
Georgia’s wrongful death statute under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-5 allows recovery of the full value of the deceased person’s life but separately addresses funeral and burial expenses. Surviving family members typically pay these costs immediately after the death, often totaling $7,000-$15,000 or more depending on burial preferences and cultural traditions.
While you can recover funeral and burial expenses as part of a wrongful death claim, you must pay them upfront months or years before receiving any settlement. Some families finance these costs through funeral payment plans, insurance proceeds, or personal savings. Keep all receipts and invoices related to the funeral, burial plot, headstone, memorial service, and transportation of the body, as these documented expenses become part of your damage claim. The ability to recover these costs in a settlement does not eliminate the immediate financial burden of paying for them while your case is pending.
Trial Costs When Settlement Negotiations Fail
If settlement negotiations break down and your case proceeds to trial, costs increase substantially. Jury trials require additional expert witness preparation time billed at hourly rates, travel expenses for out-of-town experts to attend trial, exhibit preparation and presentation costs for visual aids or technology, and extended court reporter fees for daily trial transcripts.
Trial preparation expenses can easily add $15,000-$40,000 to your total case costs depending on trial length and complexity. Your attorney may need to create medical illustrations, accident reconstruction animations, or enlarged photographs for jury presentation, each costing several thousand dollars. Some trials require renting audiovisual equipment or hiring trial technology consultants to manage electronic presentations. These costs explain why many attorneys prefer settlement over trial, the financial risk to both attorney and client increases dramatically once a trial date approaches.
Costs Associated with Appeals and Post-Trial Motions
Even after a jury verdict in your favor, the defendant may file post-trial motions or appeal the decision to a higher court. Responding to these challenges generates additional legal work and expenses that can extend the case for another 1-2 years beyond the initial trial.
Appellate work involves preparing written briefs, compiling the trial record, and potentially presenting oral arguments before appellate judges. Most contingency fee agreements cover post-trial and appellate work under the same percentage arrangement, but the case expenses continue accumulating. Appellate court filing fees, transcript preparation costs, and brief printing expenses can add $5,000-$15,000 to total case costs. If you win at trial but lose on appeal and must retry the case, costs essentially double as you pay for two complete trials.
How Payment Plans and Financing Options Affect Total Costs
Some law firms offer payment plans for case expenses when clients must cover certain costs upfront rather than having the attorney advance them. While this arrangement makes representation more accessible, paying expenses over time through a payment plan often includes interest or administrative fees that increase total costs.
Third-party litigation financing companies sometimes fund case expenses in exchange for a portion of any recovery. These companies charge interest rates or fees that can range from 15-40% annually, substantially increasing the cost of financing compared to traditional loans. Before agreeing to litigation financing, compare the total cost including all fees and interest against other options like personal loans or payment plans through your attorney. The convenience of having expenses covered may not justify the premium if financing costs consume a significant portion of your potential recovery.
Why Some Cases Cost More Than Others
Case complexity directly determines total costs. A straightforward car accident wrongful death case with clear liability, thorough police investigation, and cooperative insurance company might settle for $30,000-$50,000 in total expenses. A complex medical malpractice case with disputed causation, multiple defendants, and trial might accumulate $75,000-$150,000 in costs before resolution.
The number of defendants affects costs because each defendant may require separate service of process, independent expert analysis of their specific conduct, and additional depositions of their employees or representatives. Cases involving corporate defendants often generate higher costs because corporations have extensive legal resources and fight claims more aggressively than individual defendants. The geographic scope also matters; cases requiring expert witnesses from distant cities or evidence located in multiple states incur substantial travel and coordination expenses beyond local cases.
When Attorneys Cover Costs vs. When Clients Pay
Standard contingency fee agreements specify which party advances case costs during litigation. Most established wrongful death attorneys advance all case expenses and recover them only if the case succeeds, protecting clients from financial risk if the case loses. This arrangement means the attorney essentially loans you the money needed to pursue your claim.
Some attorneys, particularly smaller firms or solo practitioners, require clients to pay certain expenses as they arise, especially large costs like expert witness fees. This arrangement reduces the attorney’s financial risk but shifts burden to the client. Before hiring an attorney, clarify exactly which expenses they will advance and which you must pay directly. Also confirm whether you must repay advanced expenses if the case loses, though most contingency agreements specify that clients owe nothing if there is no recovery.
Common Questions About Wrongful Death Claim Costs
How much do wrongful death lawyers typically charge in legal fees?
Most wrongful death attorneys work on contingency fees ranging from 33% to 40% of the total settlement or verdict amount. The percentage often increases if the case goes to trial rather than settling during negotiations. This fee structure means you pay nothing upfront and owe attorney fees only if your case results in financial recovery.
The contingency percentage may also vary based on when the case settles. Early settlement might result in a 33% fee, while settlement after filing a lawsuit could increase the fee to 35%, and going to trial might push it to 40%. Some attorneys charge a flat percentage regardless of when settlement occurs. Always review the fee agreement carefully to understand exactly what percentage applies at each stage and whether the percentage is calculated before or after deducting case expenses.
What happens to case costs if I lose the wrongful death claim?
Under most contingency fee agreements, you are not responsible for repaying case costs if your wrongful death claim is unsuccessful. The attorney absorbs these costs as part of the financial risk of taking your case. This arrangement protects families from devastating financial consequences if a claim does not result in recovery.
However, some fee agreements specify that clients remain responsible for costs even if the case loses, particularly in situations where the attorney required upfront payment for certain expenses. Read your representation agreement carefully and ask directly whether you will owe anything if the case is unsuccessful. Most reputable wrongful death attorneys never require clients to repay advanced costs after an unsuccessful claim, but confirming this protection before signing prevents unpleasant surprises later.
Are expert witness fees negotiable or fixed?
Expert witness fees are typically negotiable to some extent, though highly specialized experts or those with exceptional credentials command premium rates. Your attorney can discuss budget considerations with potential experts and sometimes negotiate slightly lower rates, particularly for experts who work regularly with the firm or for long-term engagements.
The most effective way to manage expert costs is selecting the right expert for your case needs. Not every case requires the most expensive expert in the field. A local medical expert with solid credentials may charge substantially less than a nationally recognized specialist while providing equally effective testimony for your specific case. Your attorney should recommend experts who balance cost with the credibility and expertise needed to prove your claim, ensuring you get necessary expert testimony without excessive expenses.
Can I recover wrongful death case costs from the defendant?
Georgia law allows recovery of litigation costs as part of a successful wrongful death claim, but “costs” in this legal context refers to specific court-imposed fees rather than all case expenses. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-15-14, prevailing parties can recover court costs including filing fees, service of process fees, and certain other statutorily defined expenses.
Most case expenses including attorney fees, expert witness fees, investigation costs, and medical record expenses are not separately recoverable beyond being factored into the overall settlement or verdict amount. When calculating fair settlement value, experienced attorneys account for all case costs to ensure the final recovery adequately compensates the family after expenses and fees are deducted. While you cannot bill defendants directly for your attorney fees or expert costs, these expenses should influence settlement negotiations and the total amount demanded.
How do wrongful death costs compare to personal injury claim costs?
Wrongful death claims typically cost more than personal injury claims because they require additional experts to establish the value of the deceased person’s life and future economic contributions. Personal injury cases focus on medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering that the injured person can directly testify about, while wrongful death cases must prove damages through economic expert analysis and testimony.
Expert witness costs in wrongful death cases often run $10,000-$30,000 higher than in personal injury cases because of the need for economic experts who calculate lost lifetime earnings, lost household services, and lost retirement benefits. Additionally, wrongful death cases more frequently go to trial because settlement negotiations are complicated by the difficulty of agreeing on the value of a life, whereas personal injury settlements can reference specific medical bills and documented lost income. Higher trial rates mean more wrongful death cases incur the substantial additional costs associated with jury trials.
What upfront costs should I expect before filing a wrongful death lawsuit?
Most wrongful death attorneys working on contingency advance all upfront costs, meaning you should expect to pay nothing before filing the lawsuit. The attorney pays for the initial case investigation, medical record retrieval, expert consultations, and court filing fees, recovering these expenses only if the case succeeds.
However, some attorneys require clients to pay certain costs directly, particularly if the firm is small or the case requires unusually expensive investigation or expert analysis. Before hiring an attorney, ask specifically whether you will need to pay anything upfront and what costs, if any, you will be responsible for during the case. Reputable wrongful death attorneys understand that families are already facing funeral expenses and financial hardship, so they structure their practice to eliminate upfront costs and financial barriers to seeking justice.
Do wrongful death settlements cover all case expenses, or do some come from my portion?
How expenses are handled depends on your specific fee agreement with your attorney. Most agreements deduct case expenses from the gross settlement or verdict before calculating the attorney’s percentage fee, ensuring costs come from the total recovery rather than solely from your portion.
For example, in a $500,000 settlement with $25,000 in expenses and a 40% attorney fee, the expenses are deducted first ($500,000 – $25,000 = $475,000), then the attorney receives 40% of $475,000 ($190,000), leaving you with $285,000. Some agreements instead calculate the attorney fee first (40% of $500,000 = $200,000), then deduct expenses from your remaining portion, leaving you with $275,000. The $10,000 difference shows why understanding your fee agreement’s expense-handling provisions matters significantly to your final recovery.
Are there any hidden fees in wrongful death cases I should know about?
Reputable wrongful death attorneys operate with transparent fee structures, but some potential additional costs exist beyond the main contingency fee and case expenses. Administrative fees, case management fees, or technology fees sometimes appear in fee agreements, typically adding 5-10% to total case costs or charging a flat monthly amount.
Government and insurance liens represent another category of costs that reduce your net recovery even though they are not technically “fees” charged by your attorney. Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance subrogation claims must be satisfied from settlement proceeds before you receive any money. These liens can total tens of thousands of dollars depending on the medical treatment provided before death. Your attorney should identify all potential liens early in the case and include them when calculating net recovery projections, but ask specifically about liens and subrogation claims to ensure you understand the complete financial picture before settlement.
Conclusion
Understanding the financial structure of wrongful death claims helps you make informed decisions about pursuing justice while managing expectations about ultimate recovery. Most families never pay anything upfront because attorneys advance all costs under contingency fee arrangements, making representation accessible regardless of current financial circumstances. The costs of expert witnesses, medical records, court fees, and investigation are substantial, often totaling $30,000-$100,000 depending on case complexity, but these expenses are recovered from settlement proceeds rather than requiring out-of-pocket payment.
Before hiring a wrongful death attorney, review the fee agreement carefully to understand what percentage the attorney will receive, how that percentage changes based on when the case settles, and whether expenses are deducted before or after calculating the attorney’s fee. Ask about potential Medicare or Medicaid liens, private insurance subrogation claims, and any administrative fees that might reduce your final recovery. A transparent attorney will explain all costs clearly and provide realistic projections of what you will receive after all fees, expenses, and liens are satisfied.