When a person loses their life due to another’s deliberate harmful actions, the law treats the death differently than an accident caused by carelessness. Intentional tort wrongful death occurs when someone’s purposeful conduct—such as assault, battery, or murder—directly results in a fatal outcome, allowing surviving family members to pursue civil compensation even when criminal charges may also apply. Understanding how these claims differ from standard wrongful death cases helps families recognize their full legal options during an already devastating time.
Unlike negligence-based wrongful death claims where someone’s careless mistake caused a fatal accident, intentional tort wrongful death centers on deliberate actions meant to harm or actions taken with reckless disregard for human life. These cases carry unique legal considerations because they involve conduct so egregious that the law permits survivors to seek not only compensatory damages for their losses but also punitive damages designed to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar behavior. The distinction matters significantly when building a legal strategy and determining what compensation a family can realistically pursue.
If your family has lost someone to violence or intentional harm, Wrongful Death Trial Attorney LLC stands ready to help you pursue justice through civil litigation while honoring your loved one’s memory. Our attorneys understand the emotional weight these cases carry and bring both legal expertise and genuine compassion to every client we serve. Contact us today at (480) 420-0500 or complete our online form to schedule your free consultation and learn how we can fight for the accountability and compensation your family deserves.
What Constitutes an Intentional Tort in Wrongful Death Cases
An intentional tort occurs when someone deliberately engages in conduct they know will cause harm to another person. In wrongful death contexts, this means the defendant acted with the specific intent to injure or kill, or acted with such extreme recklessness that the law treats their behavior as intentional. Examples include murder, manslaughter, assault that proves fatal, domestic violence ending in death, or using a weapon against someone knowing it could kill them.
The legal standard differs from negligence because prosecutors or plaintiffs must prove the defendant acted purposefully rather than carelessly. Under most state laws, including O.C.G.A. § 51-1-6 in Georgia, intentional torts create liability when someone commits an act they know is wrong and likely to harm others. This heightened level of culpability opens the door to punitive damages, which courts rarely allow in ordinary negligence cases.
How Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Differs from Negligence-Based Claims
Wrongful death claims based on negligence arise from careless accidents—a distracted driver running a red light, a property owner failing to fix hazardous conditions, or a doctor making a preventable medical error. These cases require proving the defendant owed a duty of care, breached that duty, and caused death as a result. The defendant’s actions were unreasonable but not malicious.
Intentional tort wrongful death involves deliberate harm. The defendant actively chose to engage in dangerous conduct knowing it could kill someone, or acted with such conscious disregard for life that the law treats their behavior as intentional. This distinction affects both the evidence required and the damages available, since intentional conduct typically permits punitive damages meant to punish rather than simply compensate.
Common Types of Intentional Torts Leading to Wrongful Death
Several categories of intentional conduct frequently result in fatal outcomes, each carrying distinct legal implications and evidentiary requirements.
Assault and Battery Resulting in Death
Assault involves threatening someone with imminent harm, while battery means making unwanted physical contact. When an aggressor attacks someone with fists, weapons, or other force and the victim dies from injuries sustained, survivors can bring intentional tort wrongful death claims. These cases often run parallel to criminal prosecutions for murder or manslaughter.
Physical altercations that escalate from arguments, bar fights that turn deadly, or premeditated attacks all fall under this category. The civil claim proceeds independently of criminal proceedings, meaning families can pursue compensation even if criminal charges are pending or have already concluded.
Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Homicide
Domestic violence deaths represent a tragic subset of intentional tort wrongful death, occurring when an abuser’s pattern of control and violence culminates in murder. These cases often involve documented histories of prior abuse, protection orders, and police reports that establish the defendant’s ongoing intentional conduct.
Surviving children, parents, or other family members can file wrongful death suits against the abuser. Many states also permit claims against third parties who enabled the abuse, such as landlords who failed to provide adequate security despite knowing about domestic violence occurring on their property.
Intentional Use of Deadly Force
When someone uses a weapon—firearm, knife, vehicle, or other instrumentality—against another person knowing it could cause death, intentional tort wrongful death liability arises. These cases require proving the defendant deliberately deployed deadly force rather than accidentally discharging a weapon or losing control of a vehicle.
Self-defense claims often arise in these cases, requiring courts to examine whether the defendant genuinely faced an imminent threat or instead acted as the aggressor. The burden typically falls on defendants to prove their use of force was justified under the circumstances.
The Relationship Between Criminal and Civil Intentional Tort Cases
Criminal prosecutions and civil wrongful death lawsuits operate on separate legal tracks with different objectives, standards of proof, and outcomes. Understanding this relationship helps families navigate both processes simultaneously.
Criminal cases seek punishment through incarceration, probation, or fines, with the state serving as prosecutor. The burden of proof requires proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—the highest standard in American law. A conviction can strengthen a civil case, but an acquittal does not prevent families from pursuing civil claims because the lower standard of proof in civil court requires only a preponderance of evidence, meaning more likely than not that the defendant caused the death.
Civil intentional tort wrongful death lawsuits aim to compensate survivors for their losses through monetary damages. Families control these cases as plaintiffs, deciding whether to settle or proceed to trial. Evidence from criminal proceedings—witness testimony, forensic reports, defendant statements—often transfers to civil litigation, giving families a head start in building their case.
Who Can File an Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Lawsuit
State laws strictly define which family members have legal standing to bring wrongful death claims, preventing distant relatives or unrelated parties from filing suits that rightfully belong to immediate survivors.
Under Georgia law O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, only specific individuals may file in a particular order of priority. The surviving spouse holds the primary right to file and receives the entire recovery, though children also have an ownership interest. If no spouse exists, surviving children file jointly and share compensation equally. When neither spouse nor children survive, the decedent’s parents may file, and if no parents live, the executor of the estate files on behalf of the next of kin.
This statutory hierarchy prevents conflicts over who controls the litigation and how compensation gets distributed. Courts strictly enforce these rules, dismissing cases filed by individuals without proper standing. Consulting an attorney immediately after a loss helps families identify the correct plaintiff and avoid procedural mistakes that could jeopardize their claim.
Damages Available in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Claims
Civil claims arising from intentional torts allow survivors to recover both compensatory damages that address economic and emotional losses, plus punitive damages that punish the defendant’s egregious conduct.
Economic Damages
These compensate for measurable financial losses including medical bills incurred before death, funeral and burial expenses, lost income the deceased would have earned over their expected working life, and loss of benefits like health insurance or retirement contributions. Economists often provide testimony calculating lifetime earnings based on the decedent’s age, education, career trajectory, and industry standards.
Survivors must document these losses through bills, pay stubs, employment records, and expert reports. The more thorough the financial evidence, the stronger the claim for full economic compensation.
Non-Economic Damages
These address intangible losses that deeply affect survivors but carry no precise dollar value. Loss of companionship compensates for the emotional bond broken by death—the love, guidance, comfort, and daily presence now absent from survivors’ lives. Loss of consortium addresses the destruction of the marital relationship, including intimacy, partnership, and shared life plans.
Georgia law allows the jury to award the full value of the life of the deceased, a unique damages category encompassing both the economic and intangible value of the person’s existence. This standard recognizes human life possesses inherent worth beyond financial contributions.
Punitive Damages
Unlike negligence cases where punitive damages rarely apply, intentional tort wrongful death claims routinely permit these additional awards meant to punish defendants and deter future wrongdoing. Courts impose punitive damages when conduct demonstrates willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or conscious indifference to consequences.
These damages often exceed compensatory awards by significant multiples, particularly when the defendant’s actions show extreme disregard for human life. Most states cap punitive damages, though exceptions exist for intentional conduct. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1, Georgia limits punitive damages to $250,000 in most cases, but intentional harm cases often qualify for exceptions to this cap.
Proving Intentional Conduct in Wrongful Death Litigation
Successfully establishing that a defendant’s intentional actions caused death requires assembling compelling evidence that demonstrates both the deliberate nature of the conduct and the direct causation of the fatal outcome.
Evidence of Intent
Plaintiffs must show the defendant acted purposefully or with knowledge their actions would likely cause death. Direct evidence includes defendant statements before, during, or after the incident revealing intent to harm—threats, admissions, or confessions. Criminal convictions for murder or assault provide powerful evidence since juries already found intent beyond reasonable doubt.
Circumstantial evidence often proves intent when direct admissions are absent. Witness testimony describing the defendant’s behavior, forensic evidence showing how injuries were inflicted, the nature and severity of the attack, and any history of prior violence between the parties all help establish intentional conduct. Courts examine the totality of circumstances rather than requiring a single smoking gun.
Causation Requirements
Even after proving intentional conduct, plaintiffs must demonstrate that conduct directly caused the death. Medical records, autopsy reports, and expert testimony from forensic pathologists establish the link between the defendant’s actions and the fatal injuries. This element typically proves straightforward in intentional tort cases since the violence directly produces death without intervening causes.
Defendants sometimes argue the victim’s preexisting medical conditions or subsequent medical errors contributed to death, attempting to shift blame away from their actions. Strong medical evidence countering these claims proves essential to maintaining full liability against the intentional wrongdoer.
Statute of Limitations for Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Claims
Every state imposes strict deadlines for filing wrongful death lawsuits, and missing these deadlines typically results in permanent loss of the right to sue regardless of how strong the case might be.
Most jurisdictions apply the standard wrongful death statute of limitations to intentional tort cases. In Georgia, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 provides a two-year deadline beginning from the date of death. Other states use similar timeframes, though some extend the deadline when criminal prosecutions are ongoing or when the defendant concealed their involvement.
Some circumstances pause or extend the statute of limitations. If the defendant flees the jurisdiction or hides their identity, many states toll the deadline until discovery occurs. When criminal charges are filed, some jurisdictions pause the civil deadline until criminal proceedings conclude. However, families should never assume extensions apply without consulting an attorney, since courts strictly enforce these deadlines and grant exceptions rarely.
The Discovery Process in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Cases
Once a lawsuit is filed, both sides engage in discovery—the formal process of exchanging information, documents, and evidence relevant to the claims and defenses.
Depositions allow attorneys to question witnesses under oath before trial, preserving testimony and uncovering facts. Plaintiffs typically depose the defendant, eyewitnesses, law enforcement officers who investigated the incident, and medical personnel who treated the victim. Defendants depose family members about their relationship with the deceased and the impact of the loss.
Written discovery includes interrogatories (written questions requiring written answers under oath) and requests for production of documents. Plaintiffs request police reports, criminal case files, medical records, photographs, surveillance footage, and any communications between parties. This process often reveals critical evidence defendants hoped to hide, strengthening the plaintiff’s position for settlement negotiations or trial.
Settlements vs. Trial in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Cases
Most civil cases resolve through settlement rather than trial, though intentional tort wrongful death claims sometimes proceed to verdict when defendants refuse to acknowledge responsibility or when insurance coverage issues complicate negotiations.
Settlement Considerations
Settling avoids the uncertainty, expense, and emotional toll of trial. Families receive compensation faster and maintain control over the outcome rather than leaving decisions to a jury. Settlement negotiations typically accelerate after discovery reveals strong evidence of intentional conduct, particularly when criminal convictions already established the defendant’s guilt.
However, settlements in intentional tort cases may prove more difficult than negligence cases because defendants often lack substantial insurance coverage. Homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance policies typically exclude coverage for intentional acts, leaving only the defendant’s personal assets available to satisfy judgments. This reality sometimes forces families to accept lower settlements than the case’s true value or pursue trial knowing collection will prove challenging.
Trial Strategy
When settlement fails, taking the case to trial allows juries to hear the full story and assess damages without artificial constraints. Intentional tort trials often prove more emotionally compelling than negligence cases because the defendant’s conduct appears more blameworthy. Jurors typically respond with larger damage awards, particularly punitive damages that express community outrage at the defendant’s actions.
Trial carries risks including unfavorable verdicts, lengthy appeals, and the trauma of reliving events through testimony and evidence presentation. Experienced wrongful death attorneys help families weigh these factors against settlement offers to make informed decisions about how to proceed.
Insurance Coverage Issues in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death
A significant challenge families face in intentional tort wrongful death cases involves the limited availability of insurance coverage to compensate survivors, since most liability policies explicitly exclude intentional acts.
Homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance, and general liability policies contain standard exclusions denying coverage for bodily injury or death caused by intentional or criminal acts of the insured. When defendants murder or assault someone, these policies provide no protection, leaving only the defendant’s personal assets available to satisfy judgments. This often means even substantial verdicts prove uncollectible if defendants lack significant wealth.
Some cases involve third-party liability where insurance does apply. Property owners or businesses may face premises liability claims if they negligently failed to provide security despite knowing violent crime was likely. These negligence-based claims against third parties often carry insurance coverage that intentional tort claims against the actual perpetrator do not, providing a collectible source of compensation for families.
Wrongful Death Claims Against Estates and Incarcerated Defendants
When defendants die before litigation concludes or serve lengthy prison sentences, families face unique challenges pursuing compensation but can still hold estates legally accountable.
Claims Against Deceased Defendants
If an intentional wrongdoer dies before a wrongful death suit is filed or concluded, families may file claims against the defendant’s estate. State probate laws govern how creditors, including wrongful death plaintiffs, recover from estate assets. Families must typically file their claims within the probate statute of limitations and compete with other creditors for available assets.
Estates may contain real property, bank accounts, investments, business interests, or other valuable assets that satisfy judgments even though the defendant is deceased. An attorney can help identify estate assets and ensure the wrongful death claim receives proper priority in the distribution process.
Collecting Judgments from Incarcerated Defendants
When defendants are convicted and imprisoned, they typically lack current income or assets to satisfy wrongful death judgments. However, states often permit garnishment of prison wages, though these amounts are minimal. Some jurisdictions allow seizure of inmate trust accounts or future assets defendants acquire after release.
The more valuable collection opportunity often involves placing liens on any property the defendant owns. These liens remain attached even during incarceration, ensuring families eventually collect if the defendant sells property or acquires assets after release. While immediate collection proves challenging, preserving legal rights through judgment ensures families can pursue compensation when circumstances change.
The Role of Criminal Restitution in Intentional Tort Cases
Criminal courts sometimes order defendants convicted of murder or manslaughter to pay restitution to victims’ families, though these orders typically provide limited compensation compared to civil wrongful death damages.
Restitution in criminal cases covers specific out-of-pocket expenses like funeral costs, medical bills, and lost financial support. Courts base restitution on the victim’s actual losses rather than broader damages like pain and suffering or punitive damages that civil courts award. Restitution orders also face practical collection challenges since incarcerated defendants cannot earn substantial income.
Criminal restitution does not prevent families from pursuing full civil damages through wrongful death lawsuits. The two proceedings operate independently, and civil judgments can exceed restitution amounts by significant margins. However, families generally cannot collect twice for the same losses—restitution payments typically offset civil damages rather than providing additional compensation.
Wrongful Death Claims When Self-Defense Is Claimed
Defendants in intentional tort wrongful death cases frequently assert they acted in self-defense, creating complex factual disputes about who initiated violence and whether deadly force was justified under the circumstances.
Self-defense laws permit using reasonable force to protect oneself from imminent harm. Most states follow the principle that defenders may use force proportional to the threat faced—deadly force is justified only against deadly threats. The burden typically falls on defendants to prove they genuinely faced danger requiring a lethal response and did not act as the initial aggressor.
Families overcome self-defense claims by presenting evidence contradicting the defendant’s version of events. Witness testimony, forensic evidence showing the victim was shot in the back or while retreating, physical evidence demonstrating the defendant pursued the victim rather than withdrawing, and prior history between the parties all undermine self-defense claims. Even when criminal juries accept self-defense defenses and acquit defendants, civil courts sometimes reach different conclusions under the lower burden of proof, holding defendants liable for wrongful death despite criminal acquittals.
Comparative Fault in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Cases
Some defendants argue the deceased victim’s own actions contributed to their death, attempting to reduce damages through comparative fault principles, though courts treat this defense skeptically in intentional tort cases.
Comparative fault or contributory negligence allows reducing damage awards when victims share responsibility for their injuries. In negligence cases, if a victim was 30% at fault, damages decrease by that percentage. However, many jurisdictions prohibit applying comparative fault when defendants engaged in intentional misconduct, reasoning that deliberate wrongdoing should not receive mitigation based on victim behavior.
Even in states that technically allow comparative fault defenses in intentional tort cases, juries typically reject attempts to blame victims of violence for their own deaths. Defendants who initiated violence cannot credibly claim victims share fault simply by defending themselves or provoking an argument. Courts also prohibit using victim character evidence or past behavior unless directly relevant to the specific incident in question.
Multiple Defendants in Intentional Tort Wrongful Death
When more than one person participated in the intentional conduct causing death, families can sue all responsible parties, though liability allocation between defendants creates complex legal questions.
Joint and several liability typically applies in intentional tort cases, meaning any defendant found liable can be forced to pay the entire judgment even if other defendants were more culpable. This doctrine protects plaintiffs from defendants pointing fingers at each other while avoiding responsibility. Once a plaintiff collects from one defendant, that defendant can seek contribution from co-defendants based on their relative fault, but the initial collection obligation belongs to whoever has collectible assets.
Determining individual liability depends on each defendant’s specific actions and intent. Under the law of parties or accomplice liability, participants in violent crimes share responsibility for foreseeable deaths even if they did not personally strike the fatal blow. Someone who drives a getaway car during a robbery resulting in murder faces wrongful death liability despite not pulling the trigger, because they intentionally participated in dangerous criminal conduct that foreseeably led to death.
Wrongful Death Based on DUI and Vehicular Homicide
Driving under the influence causing death occupies a gray area between negligence and intentional tort, with courts treating these cases differently based on the defendant’s level of intoxication and prior DUI history.
Standard DUI wrongful death cases typically proceed as negligence claims since most impaired drivers did not intend to kill anyone. However, when drivers show extreme intoxication—blood alcohol levels far exceeding legal limits—or have multiple prior DUI convictions demonstrating knowledge of the danger, some jurisdictions permit treating these deaths as intentional torts or allow punitive damages despite the negligence framework.
Georgia law O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1(b) specifically permits punitive damages when a defendant caused harm while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or intentionally failed to stop after hitting a pedestrian. This exception recognizes that choosing to drive while severely intoxicated demonstrates such conscious disregard for human life that the law treats it as equivalent to intentional conduct for purposes of punitive damages.
Wrongful Death Claims Against Multiple Parties for the Same Death
Intentional tort wrongful death cases sometimes involve claims against both the primary wrongdoer and secondary parties whose negligence enabled the violence, creating complex litigation with multiple defendants and legal theories.
Primary wrongdoers face intentional tort liability for deliberately causing death. Secondary parties like property owners, security companies, or employers may face negligence claims for failing to prevent foreseeable violence. For example, if a nightclub patron murders someone after repeated violent incidents the club ignored, both the murderer and the nightclub owner could face wrongful death suits—the murderer for intentional tort, the nightclub for negligent security.
These cases require carefully crafted legal strategies addressing different liability standards for each defendant. Intentional wrongdoers typically lack insurance and assets, while negligent third parties often carry substantial liability coverage. Experienced attorneys identify all potentially liable parties and pursue maximum compensation from every available source.
The Emotional Impact of Pursuing Intentional Tort Wrongful Death Claims
Families pursuing intentional tort wrongful death claims face unique emotional challenges beyond those in negligence cases because intentional violence carries the additional trauma of knowing someone deliberately killed their loved one.
The legal process forces families to relive the violence through depositions, document review, and potentially trial testimony. Reading autopsy reports, viewing photographs, and hearing defendant explanations of their actions reopens psychological wounds repeatedly. Many families experience PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and complicated grief that professional counseling helps address.
Despite these challenges, many survivors find pursuing legal accountability provides a sense of justice and purpose during grief. Holding defendants financially responsible through civil litigation offers validation that their loved one’s life mattered and that society will not tolerate intentional violence. The process can bring closure when combined with appropriate mental health support and a legal team that handles sensitive issues with compassion.
Subrogation and Third-Party Recovery Rights
When families receive compensation from sources like life insurance, health insurance, or workers’ compensation, these insurers may assert subrogation rights—claims to recover their payments from wrongful death lawsuit proceeds.
Subrogation allows insurers who paid benefits to stand in the family’s shoes and recover their costs from responsible parties. For example, if health insurance paid the victim’s emergency treatment costs before death, the insurer can claim those amounts from wrongful death settlement or judgment proceeds. This reduces the net recovery families ultimately receive.
Some states protect families from subrogation in wrongful death cases through anti-subrogation statutes or the “made whole” doctrine requiring families to be fully compensated before insurers can recover anything. Georgia law generally permits subrogation, but attorneys can negotiate reductions in subrogation claims particularly when settlements do not fully compensate all losses, preserving more money for surviving family members.
Tax Implications of Wrongful Death Settlements and Judgments
Federal tax law generally treats wrongful death compensation favorably, though specific circumstances determine whether recovery amounts face taxation.
Under 26 U.S.C. § 104(a)(2), compensation for personal injuries or wrongful death is not taxable income. This includes both economic damages for lost income and non-economic damages for pain and suffering or loss of companionship. Families receive the full settlement or judgment amount without owing federal income tax on these proceeds.
Punitive damages face different treatment. The IRS considers punitive damages taxable income since they punish the defendant rather than compensate actual losses. Families receiving wrongful death awards including punitive damages should structure settlements to clearly segregate compensatory and punitive portions, ensuring only punitive amounts face taxation. Consulting a tax professional when receiving substantial wrongful death recoveries helps families comply with tax obligations while maximizing their after-tax compensation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file a wrongful death lawsuit if the person who killed my loved one was acquitted in criminal court?
Yes, you can absolutely pursue a civil wrongful death claim even after a criminal acquittal. Criminal cases require proof beyond reasonable doubt while civil cases need only a preponderance of evidence—a much lower standard. Many families have successfully won wrongful death judgments against defendants acquitted of murder, as the O.J. Simpson case famously demonstrated when the civil jury found him liable for wrongful death despite his criminal acquittal.
How long do I have to file an intentional tort wrongful death lawsuit?
Most states impose a two-year statute of limitations from the date of death under statutes like Georgia’s O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, though deadlines vary by jurisdiction. Some circumstances pause this deadline such as when the defendant conceals their identity or flees the state, but you should never assume extensions apply without consulting an attorney. Missing the deadline typically means losing your right to sue permanently regardless of how strong your case is.
What if the person who killed my family member has no money or assets?
Even defendants without current assets or income can be held legally accountable through wrongful death judgments. You can place liens on any property they own, garnish future income or assets they acquire, and pursue collection for many years after obtaining judgment. Additionally, your attorney may identify other potentially liable parties like property owners or businesses whose negligence enabled the violence and who carry insurance coverage.
Do I need to wait for criminal proceedings to finish before filing a civil wrongful death lawsuit?
No, you can file a civil lawsuit while criminal charges are pending, and many families do exactly that to preserve their legal rights before statutes of limitations expire. The two cases proceed independently on separate tracks, though your attorney may strategically delay certain civil proceedings until after the criminal trial to avoid interfering with prosecution and to use the criminal conviction as evidence in your civil case.
Can I sue for wrongful death if my loved one was killed during the commission of a crime?
Yes, families can pursue wrongful death claims even when victims were engaged in illegal activity at the time of death, though defendants will likely argue comparative fault or that their actions constituted lawful self-defense. Courts examine whether the defendant’s response was proportional and necessary under the circumstances. Even if the victim participated in criminal conduct, intentional murder typically remains unjustified and creates wrongful death liability.
What damages can I recover in an intentional tort wrongful death case that I couldn’t get in a negligence case?
The primary difference is the availability of punitive damages in intentional tort cases, which are designed to punish egregious conduct and often exceed compensatory damages by substantial amounts. While both case types allow recovery of economic damages like lost income and non-economic damages like loss of companionship, only intentional tort cases routinely permit these additional punitive awards that can significantly increase total compensation.
How do intentional tort wrongful death cases work when the defendant is in prison?
You can still pursue wrongful death lawsuits against incarcerated defendants and obtain judgments that remain enforceable for many years. While immediate collection proves challenging since prisoners have minimal income, you can place liens on any property they own, garnish their prison wages, and pursue collection of future assets they acquire after release. These judgments typically remain enforceable for 10-20 years depending on state law and can often be renewed.
Will homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance cover an intentional tort wrongful death claim?
Probably not, since most liability insurance policies contain exclusions denying coverage for bodily injury or death caused by the insured’s intentional or criminal acts. However, coverage may exist through claims against third parties whose negligence enabled the violence—such as property owners who failed to provide adequate security—since those claims sound in negligence rather than intentional tort and fall within typical liability policy coverage.
Contact a Wrongful Death Attorney Today
If your family has suffered the devastating loss of a loved one due to intentional violence or criminal conduct, you deserve justice and full compensation for your profound losses. Intentional tort wrongful death cases require experienced legal representation that understands both the complex legal standards and the emotional weight these cases carry for grieving families.
Wrongful Death Trial Attorney LLC has dedicated our practice to helping families hold wrongdoers accountable when intentional violence destroys innocent lives. We handle every aspect of your claim with skill and compassion, from investigating the circumstances of your loved one’s death to aggressively pursuing maximum compensation through settlement or trial. Our team understands that no amount of money replaces the person you lost, but legal accountability matters and financial compensation helps families rebuild their lives after tragedy. Call us at (480) 420-0500 or complete our online contact form to schedule your free consultation and learn how we can fight for the justice your family deserves.