A fatal car accident attorney helps a family hold the responsible driver accountable and recover after a crash takes someone they love. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, we handle the wrongful death claim, take the weight of the legal process off the family, and pursue full accountability, all with the care a loss like this deserves. Nothing brings a person back, but a claim can protect the family they left behind.
Losing someone in a car crash is a different kind of grief, sudden, senseless, and impossibly hard. If your family is facing that, we're deeply sorry. When you're ready, our Buffalo fatal car accident attorneys can carry the legal side so you can focus on each other. This is one focus of our broader Buffalo car accident and personal injury practice, so the full resources of the firm are behind your family.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
In New York, the claim is filed by the personal representative of the person who died, meaning the executor named in a will or an administrator appointed by the court. Individual family members don't file it themselves, but the surviving spouse, children, or parents are usually the ones the claim is brought for and who share in any recovery.
Most families are surprised by that rule, because it feels like the people grieving should be the ones to bring the case. In practice, the representative is almost always a close family member, so it usually comes down to getting that person officially appointed. We handle that step alongside the injury claim, so you're not navigating two processes at once during the hardest weeks of your life.
They're two separate claims that usually go together. A wrongful death claim covers the family's losses now that their loved one is gone. A survival action covers what the person themselves went through between the crash and their death, including their conscious pain and suffering and their own medical bills. Both are brought by the estate.
The distinction matters when someone survived a crash for a time before passing. That suffering is legally separate from the family's loss, and pursuing both claims together is what reflects the full weight of what happened. Our attorneys look at every fatal crash through both lenses.
As of 2026, a New York wrongful death claim recovers economic losses, not grief. That includes the income and financial support the person would have provided, the value of the services and guidance they gave their family, lost inheritance, and reasonable medical and funeral costs. A survival action can add the person's own conscious pain and suffering before death.
Here's the part families find hardest to hear: New York does not currently allow recovery for the emotional loss itself, the grief, the empty seat at the table, the missing parent or child. Only financial harm counts on the wrongful death side. For the family of a child, a retiree, or a stay-at-home parent who wasn't drawing a paycheck, that rule can feel deeply unfair, and putting an honest value on everything they contributed takes careful, experienced work. That's exactly the work our Buffalo fatal car accident attorneys put in.
Not right now. The Grieving Families Act would have added damages for grief and expanded who can recover, but Governor Hochul vetoed it a fourth time on December 5, 2025. Until some version becomes law, New York fatal crash claims stay limited to economic losses.
Lawmakers keep bringing the bill back, and a future version could change the picture significantly for grieving families. We follow it closely, and we'll tell you exactly where the law stands on the day we talk.
Because New York limits recovery to economic loss, valuing a fatal crash claim means putting an honest dollar figure on what the person would have provided their family over a lifetime. That's the income and benefits they would have earned, the household work they did, and the care and guidance they gave their children, all projected across the years they were expected to live.
It's difficult, careful work, and it's where these cases are won or lost. The value of a young parent's claim looks nothing like that of a retiree, and neither is captured by adding up a few bills. Our attorneys build the number with economists, and sometimes vocational and life-care experts, who can measure lost future earnings, lost pension and benefits, and the real worth of the daily support the family no longer has. Done right, it reflects a life, not a paycheck. The insurance company's first offer almost never does.
The recovery is shared among the surviving family members based on how much each one depended on the person financially, most often the spouse and children. In New York, a court reviews and approves that division, so the money is allocated fairly rather than left to chance or conflict.
This surprises many families, but it's a protection, not a hurdle. It keeps one relative from taking more than their share and gives everyone, including children, a fair result. When family members disagree about how a recovery should be split, that gets resolved as part of the process, and having a lawyer who handles both the claim and the court approval keeps it from turning into a second source of pain.
Any fatal crash caused by someone else's carelessness. Around Western New York, the deadliest crashes tend to trace back to a familiar set of causes, and each one shapes how the case is investigated and who can be held responsible.
Our Buffalo fatal car accident attorneys handle wrongful death cases arising from crashes like these:
Whatever the cause, the question is the same: whose carelessness led to the death, and how do we hold them fully accountable.
Often more than just the driver. Depending on the crash, responsibility can reach a trucking or delivery company, a bar that overserved a drunk driver, a vehicle or parts manufacturer, an employer, or a government agency responsible for a dangerous road. Each additional party is another source of accountability and coverage for your family.
Finding every responsible party matters even more in a fatal case, because the losses are so large and a single driver's insurance is often nowhere near enough. New York's comparative fault rule can also come into play, and insurers may try to shift some blame onto the person who died. We answer those arguments with evidence and protect your family's recovery.
Your family may still have a path to compensation through the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy. That coverage exists for exactly this situation, a death caused by a driver who had no insurance, carried too little, or drove off and was never found.
Fatal hit-and-run cases are especially painful, and families often assume there's nowhere to turn. There usually is. We'll review the available policies, work with law enforcement to identify the driver where possible, and pursue every source of coverage, including your own, so the lack of a named defendant doesn't leave your family without recourse.
The two run separately. If the driver faces criminal charges, like vehicular manslaughter or a DWI, that case is the state seeking punishment. Your family's wrongful death claim is a civil case seeking compensation. A criminal conviction can help prove the civil case, but even court-ordered restitution rarely comes close to covering the loss.
You don't have to wait for the criminal case to finish to protect your own claim, and waiting can cost you evidence and time. We coordinate with what's happening on the criminal side while we build the civil case that actually provides for your family.
Generally two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim in New York, which is shorter than the deadline for many injury cases. If a government vehicle was involved, a formal notice can be due within just 90 days. Missing these deadlines usually ends the claim.
We understand that legal deadlines are the last thing on a grieving family's mind, and no one should feel rushed to grieve. But an early conversation, even just to understand the timeline, makes sure the family's rights are protected while there's still time and evidence to act.
In the immediate aftermath, take care of each other first. When you're ready, the practical steps that protect a claim are getting the right person appointed to represent the estate, preserving the evidence from the crash, and being careful with any insurance company that reaches out early.
Insurers sometimes approach grieving families quickly, hoping to settle before anyone understands the full value of the loss. You don't have to talk to them, and you shouldn't accept anything without advice. Let a lawyer handle those conversations and the evidence, from the police report to the vehicles, so nothing important slips away while your family focuses on healing.
Gently, and thoroughly. We start by taking the legal burden off the family, getting the estate representative appointed, launching the investigation while evidence is fresh, and building the case that measures the full weight of the loss, so you can put your energy where it belongs.
From there, our attorneys investigate how and why the crash happened, identify every party who shares responsibility, and preserve the records, scene evidence, and witness accounts these cases depend on. We work with economists and other experts to show the true value of what your family lost, present the claim to every available insurer, and file suit in New York State Supreme Court when a fair resolution isn't offered. Many cases settle through negotiation or mediation, and when they don't, we're prepared to take the case to trial. We keep these matters in house from start to finish.
We represent grieving families across Western New York, and we handle fatal crash cases in house from the first call through trial and appeal. We know the Erie County courts, the wrongful death process, and the insurance tactics families face, and we treat every case with the seriousness a lost life deserves.
A fatal crash case asks a firm to do several hard things at once, guide a family through grief, manage the estate process, and win a contested fight over accountability, and none of it can be rushed or handled by a stranger. That's the kind of case our Buffalo fatal car accident attorneys are built for. We keep you informed in plain language, and we carry the fight so your family doesn't have to.
If your family lost someone in a car crash in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are here to help when you're ready. Contact us for a free, confidential consultation, and a fatal car accident attorney will explain who can file, what a claim can recover, and what the deadlines mean, with no fee unless we recover for your family.
There's no pressure and no obligation. When the time is right, the sooner we can begin, the more we can do to protect the evidence and the deadlines that matter most.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
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