Nothing a court awards replaces the person your family lost. What a wrongful death claim can do is hold the responsible party accountable and secure the financial footing your family needs going forward, particularly where the loss removed an income, a caregiver, or both. Shammas Law Office handles these cases for families in Aurora and across the Fox Valley from an office on Galena Boulevard. Attorney Michael A. Shammas has recovered millions of dollars for Illinois clients, and the firm handles the legal process so that families are not managing deadlines and insurance adjusters during the months when they least should have to.
Lost a family member to someone else’s negligence? Call Shammas Law Office at 312-909-2129 for a free and confidential conversation.
Who Is Allowed to File
Illinois does not permit family members to file individually. Under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, the action is brought by the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate, for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin. That means an estate usually has to be opened and a representative appointed before the lawsuit can proceed, which is a probate step rather than an injury law step.
Any settlement or verdict is then distributed among the surviving spouse and next of kin in proportions the court approves, based on the degree of dependency. Families are sometimes surprised that a judge signs off on the division rather than the family deciding privately. The requirement exists to protect minor children and relatives who are not at the table, and handled properly it is administrative rather than contentious.
Most Families Actually Have Two Claims
The Wrongful Death Act covers what the survivors lost when the person died. A separate claim under the Illinois Survival Act covers what the person who died experienced between the injury and their death, including conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses incurred during that period, and lost wages. The two are filed together and are governed by different rules.
The distinction matters most when someone survives an injury for days, weeks, or months before passing. A crash victim who spent three weeks in intensive care has a substantial survival claim in addition to the family’s wrongful death claim, and overlooking it leaves real compensation unclaimed. Where the death followed a hospital error rather than an accident, the analysis also overlaps with medical malpractice, which carries its own proof requirements.
What Illinois Families Can Recover
Illinois recognizes losses that go beyond financial support. Recoverable damages include the loss of the deceased person’s financial contributions, the loss of services they provided to the household, the loss of society, companionship, and guidance, funeral and burial costs, and grief, sorrow, and mental suffering experienced by the surviving spouse and next of kin. Illinois places no cap on these damages.
Since August 2023, punitive damages have also been available in Illinois wrongful death and survival actions where the defendant’s conduct was willful or showed reckless indifference. This was a significant change, and it does not apply everywhere. Punitive damages remain unavailable in medical malpractice cases, in legal malpractice cases, and against state and local government entities. A plaintiff also cannot simply plead them in the complaint. Illinois requires a separate motion for leave, decided by the judge after a hearing.
The Deadline Runs From the Date of Death
Most Illinois wrongful death actions must be filed within two years of the date of death rather than the date of the injury. When someone survives for an extended period, those dates are not the same, and using the wrong one is a costly error. Survival Act claims follow their own limitations analysis, which is one more reason the two claims are evaluated together rather than separately.
Shorter deadlines apply against government defendants. Where a municipality, county, school district, or transit agency contributed to the death, a one year deadline generally applies under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, and some claims require written notice sooner than that. Evidence follows a shorter timeline still. Camera footage, vehicle data, and facility records are frequently gone within weeks of the incident that caused them to matter.
Aurora Cases and Where They Are Heard
Aurora crosses DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will counties, so two families living a mile apart can end up in different circuit courts with different judges and different timelines. Downtown and most of the west side fall in Kane County, where cases are heard at the Kane County Courthouse in Geneva. The probate estate is typically opened in the county where the deceased person lived, which is not always the same county where the incident occurred, and the two proceedings have to be coordinated.
Fatal traffic crashes remain the most common origin of these cases locally, on Interstate 88, Route 59, Ogden Avenue, and the arterials feeding the industrial corridor on the east side. The Illinois Department of Transportation publishes fatal crash counts by county. Where a commercial vehicle was involved, the case proceeds along the lines described on the Aurora truck accident page, with federal regulations and preservation of electronic data in play from the first week.
Practical Steps in the First Weeks
Order certified copies of the death certificate early, and order more than you think you need. Banks, insurers, employers, and the probate court each require one, and the Illinois Department of Public Health processes mailed requests slowly enough that waiting creates delays elsewhere. Keep the deceased person’s records together rather than distributed among relatives.
Do not sign anything an insurance company sends, and do not give a recorded statement. Early contact from an adjuster in a fatality case is not a courtesy. It is an attempt to resolve liability cheaply before anyone has counsel. Illinois also applies comparative fault to these claims under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, so insurers work early to assign blame to the person who died.
Talk to an Aurora Wrongful Death Lawyer
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If it is too soon, it is fine to call simply to understand what the deadlines are and what should be preserved, and to decide about representation later. The firm’s Aurora personal injury lawyers represent families in Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery, Oswego, Naperville, and the surrounding Fox Valley communities.
Call 312-909-2129, visit the Aurora office at 411 W Galena Blvd, Suite 102, or reach out through the contact page. There is no cost up front, and no fee unless the firm recovers for your family.
