Factors Affecting the Chances of Winning a Wrongful Death Lawsuit

If you’ve lost a family member because of someone else’s negligence and you’re thinking about a wrongful death claim, the question that comes up first is usually some version of this — what are our actual chances of winning?

The honest answer is that it depends on the specifics of the case, but there are a few things we can say with confidence based on how these cases actually go.

Most wrongful death claims that get filed do not go to trial. They settle. When a case has clear liability, documented damages, and competent legal representation, settlement is the typical outcome. The “chances of winning” question is really better understood as two separate questions: what are the odds of a meaningful recovery, and what factors push that number higher or lower?

This article walks through both — written from the perspective of a personal injury firm in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington that handles vehicle-accident-related wrongful death cases.

How Often Wrongful Death Plaintiffs Actually Recover

It’s hard to give a single number, but here’s what the available data tells us:

• Cases that settle out of court generally favor the plaintiff when liability is clear. The vast majority of wrongful death claims with strong evidence settle without going to trial. The defendant’s insurance company pays a negotiated amount because the alternative — losing at trial in front of a jury — is more expensive.
• Cases that go to a jury verdict have plaintiff win rates around 60% in most jurisdictions, somewhat higher than the ~50% rate for general personal injury cases. Juries tend to be sympathetic in wrongful death cases when the underlying facts support the family.
• The cases that fail tend to fail for predictable reasons — usually weak evidence on one of the four elements of negligence, or strong evidence that the deceased contributed substantially to causing what happened.

For vehicle-accident wrongful death cases specifically — which is what our firm handles — the odds tend to favor the surviving family when the accident is documented (police report, witness statements, scene evidence) and the at-fault driver had insurance.

The Five Factors That Most Affect Your Chances

Some factors push a wrongful death case toward success. Some weaken it. The five that matter most:

1. The Strength of the Liability Evidence

This is the single biggest factor. A wrongful death case is built on proving that someone else’s negligence caused the death. The clearer the evidence — police report, video footage, witness statements, accident reconstruction — the stronger the case.

In vehicle-accident cases, liability evidence often includes:

• The Oregon or Washington State Police report and the citing officer’s findings
• Video from the scene (dashcam, traffic cameras, nearby business security cameras)
• The other driver’s cell phone records if distraction is suspected
• For commercial truck cases, the truck’s electronic logging device (ELD) data and engine control module data
• Skid marks, vehicle damage patterns, and scene measurements
• Witness statements gathered in the days after the crash, before memories fade

Cases with overwhelming liability evidence — a driver who ran a red light, was impaired, or fell asleep behind the wheel — are the strongest. Cases where the at-fault party has any plausible argument that they were not solely responsible are harder, and that’s where insurance companies push hardest.

2. Whether the Deceased Was Partially At Fault

When the person who died contributed in some way to what happened, that affects compensation. In Oregon and Washington, comparative fault rules reduce a wrongful death recovery by whatever percentage of fault is assigned to the deceased. Your chances of meaningful recovery drop significantly if a substantial percentage of fault gets assigned to your loved one.

This is exactly the argument insurance companies will try to make. They’ll comb through everything — was your loved one wearing a seatbelt, were they speeding, did they have anything in their system, were they distracted. Pushing back on those arguments with evidence is a major part of what wrongful death attorneys do.

3. The Available Insurance Coverage

This is the factor most families don’t think about until late, and it can be the most important one. A wrongful death claim is only worth what can actually be paid out, and the source of payment is almost always insurance.

In a vehicle accident case, that means:

• The at-fault driver’s auto liability policy
• Any umbrella policy the at-fault party may carry
• For commercial truck accidents, the trucking company’s substantially larger commercial policies
• Your loved one’s own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, which often becomes the most important source of compensation when the at-fault driver carries minimum coverage

Identifying every available source of insurance coverage is one of the first things our firm does on any wrongful death case. Families regularly don’t realize they have access to substantial coverage through their own policies.

4. The Strength of the Damages Documentation

A wrongful death recovery is calculated based on the losses the family actually suffered. The better-documented those losses are, the larger the recovery.

Documented losses in a wrongful death case include:

• Medical expenses from the deceased’s final illness or injury
• Funeral and burial expenses
• The income the deceased would have earned over their working life — calculated by economic experts based on their job, age, education, and earning trajectory
• The financial support family members were receiving
• Loss of household services the deceased provided
• Loss of care, comfort, and companionship for the spouse and children
• Pain and suffering the deceased experienced before death, where applicable

The cases that recover the most are the ones where every category of loss is properly documented. The cases that under-recover are usually the ones where the family didn’t have an attorney working with economic and life-care planning experts to put real numbers on the long-term financial impact.

5. The Quality of Legal Representation

This is the factor every law firm’s website mentions, but it really does matter — particularly with wrongful death cases.

A few specific things that move a case from average to strong outcome:

• Acting quickly to preserve evidence before it disappears
• Identifying every responsible party (in trucking cases, that often includes the company, not just the driver)
• Working with the right experts (accident reconstructionists, economists, life-care planners)
• Understanding the insurance company’s playbook and pushing back on their tactics
• Knowing when to settle and when to file suit

Wrongful death cases handled by attorneys with relevant experience routinely recover several times what cases handled by general practitioners or pro se claimants recover. The contingency fee model means there’s no out-of-pocket cost to use experienced representation, which is a major part of why most families do.

The Most Common Reasons Wrongful Death Cases Fail

The cases that don’t recover usually fail for one of these reasons:

• The deceased was assigned a substantial percentage of fault — making any potential recovery small
• The at-fault party has no insurance and no recoverable assets — meaning even a winning case has no source of payment
• Critical evidence wasn’t preserved in the days and weeks after the death, leaving the case unable to prove what happened
• The family tried to handle the case themselves and signed a release in exchange for a quick, lowball settlement before understanding what their case was actually worth
• The wrong cause of death — for example, in cases where a chronic condition or unrelated factor can plausibly be argued as the actual cause

The first three are situational. The last two are preventable, and they’re why we encourage families to get legal advice early — before signing anything an insurance company puts in front of them.

Vehicle-Accident Wrongful Death Cases in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington

Our firm handles wrongful death cases arising from vehicle accidents — cars, trucks, motorcycles. Common case types include:

• Fatal crashes on I-84, I-82, Highway 730, and Highway 395
• Multi-vehicle pile-ups, including those triggered by sudden weather conditions like blowing dust or smoke
• Head-on collisions on two-lane rural highways
• Commercial truck accidents involving fatigue, hours-of-service violations, or improperly maintained equipment
• Motorcycle deaths, where insurance companies routinely try to assign disproportionate fault to the rider

We’ve written separately about who can sue for wrongful death in Oregon, who actually receives the money in a wrongful death case, and how wrongful death settlements get paid out — those pages cover the procedural side in more depth.

Talk to a Wrongful Death Attorney About Your Family’s Case

If you’ve lost a family member in a vehicle accident in Eastern Oregon or Eastern Washington and you’re trying to figure out whether you have a case, the most useful thing you can do is talk to a personal injury attorney who handles these cases. The consultation is free and there’s no obligation.

A few things we’ll talk about during that conversation:

• What happened, based on the records and information you have
• What the insurance situation looks like — both the at-fault driver’s coverage and your family’s own
• What evidence still needs to be preserved
• A realistic assessment of what your case might be worth
• Whether the case is one we’d take on a contingency basis (no fee unless we recover compensation)

Hess Injury Law represents families across Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington from offices in Walla Walla, Hermiston, and Pullman. Personal injury and wrongful death cases are all our firm does.

Contact our office to speak with a wrongful death attorney about your family’s situation.

Disclaimer: The content of this blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel.