Wrongful Death Lawyer in Massachusetts

Massachusetts's three-year wrongful death statute of limitations under G.L. c. 260, § 2A runs from the date of death. Massachusetts courts apply the discovery rule — the clock runs from when the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known the facts constituting the cause of action. But the discovery rule rarely extends the deadline in clear-liability wrongful death cases; the operative question is whether the decedent died from the defendant's negligence. For government road-defect claims — crashes caused by MassDOT-maintained highway defects, inadequate crash barriers, or unlit road obstructions — written presentment to the attorney general or agency head under G.L. c. 258, § 4 must be made within two years of the injury (not death) before any lawsuit is filed. The Commonwealth's liability cap of $100,000 per claimant under G.L. c. 258, § 2 is often the operative limit in government wrongful death cases.

Massachusetts wrongful death punitive damages under G.L. c. 229, § 2 are automatically triggered when the death was caused by "malicious, willful, wanton or reckless conduct" or by the "gross negligence" of a person under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. The statute sets a floor — not less than $5,000 — but the jury may award any amount above that floor commensurate with the circumstances. In OUI-related wrongful deaths (predicated on G.L. c. 90, § 24 violations), the punitive trigger is straightforward. In commercial vehicle wrongful death cases where hours-of-service violations or ELD tampering can be characterized as conscious disregard of known fatigue risk, the "reckless conduct" standard may also be satisfied. A Massachusetts wrongful death attorney identifies the punitive trigger in the initial case assessment and preserves the evidence needed to support it — BAC records, ELD logs, prior OUI convictions — before the defense suppresses or delays discovery.

The personal representative brings the Massachusetts wrongful death action under G.L. c. 229, § 2 as a representative for the beneficiaries enumerated in G.L. c. 229, § 1 (spouse, children, next of kin in intestacy order). The recoverable damages under § 2 go to the beneficiaries — not the estate — which means that distribution is determined by the court based on each beneficiary's relationship to and financial dependence on the decedent, not by the will or intestacy rules. Separately, the survivorship action under G.L. c. 229, § 6 is brought by the personal representative for the estate and distributes under the will or intestacy. Coordinating the two tracks — identifying all beneficiaries, their loss of income and companionship, and the estate's pre-death expenses and conscious pain and suffering — is the opening legal task in every Massachusetts wrongful death case.

Gaudette v. Webb, 362 Mass. 60 (1972) established the constitutional and common-law basis for Massachusetts wrongful death damages, holding that the Massachusetts wrongful death statute derives from the constitutional right of personal representative to sue. The case clarified that Massachusetts wrongful death is a new cause of action created by statute, not a mere continuation of the decedent's personal injury claim. The distinction matters when analyzing whether comparative negligence bars the estate's claim (it does, pro rata) and whether a prior judgment in a survival action extinguishes a wrongful death claim (it does not). Massachusetts wrongful death law thus preserves the two-track framework — wrongful death for beneficiaries, survivorship for the estate — without either extinguishing the other.