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Fatal Car Accident Lawyers
Losing someone in a car accident is devastating and in the days that follow, the last thing your family should face is fighting insurance companies alone. A California fatal car accident lawyer at Bojat Law Group helps surviving family members pursue the justice and financial compensation they deserve through a wrongful death claim. These cases cover real economic losses like funeral costs, burial expenses, and the income your loved one would have continued to provide, along with non-economic damages for the grief, emotional suffering, and loss of companionship your family will carry for the rest of your lives.
Fatal crashes are rarely simple. Liability can fall on a distracted driver, a trucking company, a government agency that neglected road maintenance, or a manufacturer whose defective part contributed to the crash. At Bojat Law Group, we identify every responsible party and build a case that reflects the true weight of your family’s loss.
Attorney Sasha Bojat founded Bojat Law Group to give California families the kind of focused, personal representation that large volume firms simply cannot offer. When you work with us, you are not passed off to a case manager or left waiting for callbacks. You get direct access to your attorney, honest answers about where your case stands, and a team that treats your family’s situation with the seriousness it deserves.
Bojat Law Group has secured over $100 million dollars in settlements and verdicts for our clients and we bring that same commitment to every fatal car accident case we handle. We fight for the full compensation your family is owed — funeral and burial costs, lost financial support, and the deep loss of companionship and quality of life your family has suffered — and we do not collect a fee unless we win.
A fatal crash leaves no room for delay. Speak with a fatal car accident lawyer today. Call (818) 877-4878.
Common Causes of Fatal Car Accidents
In 2024, 3,807 people were killed on California roads, according to NHTSA. That’s more than 10 lives lost every single day. California ranks second in the nation for total traffic fatalities, behind only Texas. Los Angeles County consistently leads the state, with the 405, the 101, and the I-5 showing up year after year as some of the deadliest stretches of road in America.
The leading causes?
- Distracted drivers looking at a phone instead of the road ahead.
- Tailgaters with no room to stop when traffic suddenly slows.
- Drunk drivers leaving bars or parties and getting behind the wheel anyway.
- Reckless drivers weaving through traffic on the 405, 101, or 5.
- High-speed crashes on rain-slick California roads.
When a fatal crash happens because someone made a careless choice, your family deserves answers. We build the case to prove negligence.
Common Injuries That Lead to Fatal Outcomes in Car Crashes
In fatal car accidents, victims rarely die from a single injury, the body usually sustains multiple types of trauma at once. But the statistics show which injuries appear most often as the cause of death, and the patterns are consistent across decades of crash data. According to the CDC, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) account for about 30 percent of all injury deaths in the United States, and motor vehicle accidents are the second most common cause of fatal brain injuries.
Here’s what shows up most often:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The number-one killer in serious crashes. In 2018 and 2019, motor vehicle crashes caused 10,291 TBI-related deaths annually in the U.S. A head striking the steering wheel, dashboard, or window at 60 mph can cause skull fractures, brain bleeds, and contusions that no surgery can reverse.
- Internal bleeding and organ damage. Seat belts save lives, but the same forces that hold you in place can rupture the spleen, liver, or aorta. Internal bleeding often kills before victims ever reach a hospital.
- Chest and thoracic trauma. Crushed ribs, punctured lungs, and cardiac contusions from high-speed steering wheel impact — common in head-on collisions on canyon roads and rural Ventura County highways.
- Spinal cord injuries and cervical fractures. A broken neck at the wrong vertebra is instantly fatal. We see this constantly in rollovers and T-bone crashes at uncontrolled intersections across LA.
- Catastrophic burns and traumatic amputation. In high-impact freeway collisions — especially those involving commercial trucks coming through the Grapevine or out of the Port — vehicles can rupture fuel lines or trap victims in unsurvivable conditions.
What Compensation Can Families Recover After a Fatal Car Accident?
If you lost a loved one in a fatal car accident in California, your family may have two separate legal options for recovering compensation: a wrongful death claim and, in some cases, a survival action.
A wrongful death claim is brought under California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 and belongs to the surviving heirs, typically the spouse, domestic partner, children, or, if none exist, those entitled to inherit from the decedent. This claim compensates the family for their own losses, including
- funeral and burial expenses
- lost financial support
- lost household services
- the loss of love, companionship, care, guidance, protection, and moral support.
Because California is an at-fault state, compensation after a fatal crash is not automatic. The family must prove that another driver, company, or responsible party caused the death through negligence.
A survival action is different. It is brought by the personal representative of the decedent’s estate under California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 377.30 and 377.34. This claim seeks compensation for losses the decedent personally suffered before death, such as medical bills, lost wages during that period, vehicle damage, and, in limited cases, punitive damages.
Important 2026 update: For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, California again limits recovery under CCP § 377.34. The estate may generally recover pre-death economic losses and, when allowed, punitive damages, but not the decedent’s pre-death pain, suffering, or disfigurement. Those non-economic damages were temporarily available under Senate Bill 447 for qualifying cases filed from 2022 through 2025.
Why Do You Need a Fatal Car Accident Attorney?
After a fatal crash, your family is grieving. The insurance company isn’t. Within days of the accident, adjusters will start calling sounding sympathetic, asking questions, and quietly building a case to pay your family as little as possible. They have lawyers, investigators, and decades of experience minimizing payouts. You shouldn’t face them alone.
Here’s what a fatal car accident attorney actually does for your family:
- Preserves Evidence Before It Disappears
Skid marks fade. Surveillance footage gets overwritten in 30 days. Trucking companies “lose” driver logs. Witnesses move and forget what they saw. An attorney sends formal preservation letters within days of being retained, securing the evidence that will make or break your case — police reports, dashcam footage, vehicle black box (EDR) data, rideshare trip logs, and commercial carrier records.
- Identifies Every Liable Party
A fatal crash rarely involves just one defendant. The at-fault driver may have been on the job, driving a defective vehicle, leaving a bar that overserved them, or working for a trucking company with negligent hiring practices. Each additional defendant opens access to more insurance coverage and a larger potential recovery. Without an attorney, families typically pursue only the obvious defendant — and leave significant compensation on the table.
- Handles The Insurance Companies
California insurance adjusters are trained to use grief against you. They will ask leading questions, request recorded statements, and push for quick lowball settlements before you understand what your case is actually worth. An attorney becomes the wall between your family and the insurance company — handling every call, every document request, and every negotiation.
- Calculates The Full Value Of Your Loss
Funeral costs are just the beginning. A proper wrongful death case accounts for lost financial support over the decedent’s entire remaining working life, lost household services, loss of companionship, and — when applicable — punitive damages against drunk or reckless drivers. Calculating these damages correctly requires economists, vocational experts, and life-care planners that insurance companies will not pay for unless forced to.
- Files Within California’s Strict Deadlines
Under CCP § 335.1, you have two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Claims against government entities (such as for dangerous road design) require a formal Government Tort Claim within six months. Miss either deadline, and your family loses the right to recover anything — regardless of how clear the other driver’s fault was.
- Takes The Burden Off Your Family
The most important thing an attorney does isn’t legal — it’s human. You should be planning a funeral, supporting your children, and processing your loss. You should not be on the phone with insurance adjusters, gathering medical records, or trying to understand California civil procedure. Bojat Law Group handles every legal piece so your family can focus on healing.
What Sets Bojat Law Group Apart From Other Fatal Car Accident Lawyers In California
Focused Practice In Personal Injury Law
- We concentrate our practice on serious personal injury and wrongful death litigation throughout California — meaning we know the case law, the courtroom procedures, and the insurance industry tactics inside and out.
- Our firm is built around handling complex cases involving fatal car accidents, commercial trucks, rideshare crashes, pedestrian fatalities, and catastrophic injuries — not a scattered practice that touches everything and masters nothing.
California-Specific Legal Expertise
- California is a fault-based state with its own unique rules on wrongful death damages, survival actions, rideshare insurance (TNC statutes), and commercial trucking liability.
- We are deeply familiar with the 2026 changes to CCP § 377.34 that ended pain and suffering recovery in survival actions, as well as the strict two-year statute of limitations under CCP § 335.1 and we structure every case to maximize recovery within California’s current legal framework.
- Our team handles cases throughout Los Angeles County, Ventura County, and across the state from local court filings in Van Nuys and Ventura to complex multi-party litigation against trucking companies and rideshare corporations.
Personalized Client Focus
- When you hire Bojat Law Group, you work directly with attorney Sasha Bojat not a rotating cast of paralegals or junior associates. You get the same attorney from your first phone call to your final settlement.
- We deliberately keep our caseload manageable so each family gets the time, attention, and strategic preparation their case deserves which often leads to higher recoveries and faster resolutions than the volume-firm model.
- Communication matters. You will get your calls and emails returned, your questions answered honestly, and clear updates on where your case stands.
No Out-Of-Pocket Fees
- Every fatal car accident case is handled on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront — no retainer, no hourly billing, no investigation costs.
- If we don’t recover compensation for your family, you owe us nothing. That guarantee makes serious legal representation accessible to every California family, regardless of financial circumstances.
Local Presence, California-Wide Reach
- Based in Westlake Village, Bojat Law Group represents families throughout Southern California from the freeways of Los Angeles County to the rural roads of Ventura County and beyond.
- We know the courts, the judges, the insurance adjusters, and the realities of California driving including the patterns that make the 101, 405, 118, and Pacific Coast Highway some of the deadliest stretches of road in the country.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can file a fatal car accident claim in California?
In California, a wrongful death claim is usually filed by the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, or other heirs who would inherit from the deceased person if there are no closer surviving family members. In some cases, the personal representative of the estate may also bring the claim on behalf of the heirs.
What if the fatal crash involved a commercial truck, Uber, Lyft, or company vehicle?
These cases typically involve much larger insurance policies and more parties who can be held liable. Commercial trucks must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage under federal law, with most carriers holding $1 million or more. Uber and Lyft provide up to $1 million in liability coverage when their driver is logged into the app. And under California’s respondeat superior doctrine, employers can be held responsible for crashes caused by employees driving company vehicles on the job.
How much is a fatal car accident case worth?
Every case is different, but fatal car accident settlements in California typically range from several hundred thousand dollars into the millions. The final value depends on the decedent’s age and earning capacity, the number of surviving family members, the strength of the evidence against the at-fault driver, and the insurance coverage available — a crash with a commercial truck or rideshare driver ($1 million+ policies) carries far more recoverable value than one involving a minimally insured driver.
Any attorney who promises you a specific number before reviewing the case is guessing. At Bojat Law Group, we evaluate every fatal crash case carefully and give you an honest answer about what it’s actually worth.
How much does a lawyer cost for a fatal car accident case?
Nothing upfront. Bojat Law Group handles every fatal car accident case on a contingency fee basis, which means your family pays no out-of-pocket fees, no hourly rates, and no retainer. We cover all the costs of investigating the crash, hiring expert witnesses, and litigating the case and we only collect a fee if we recover compensation for you. If we don’t win, you don’t owe us anything.
Speak With a Fatal Car Accident Lawyer Today
Losing someone in a car accident is the kind of loss that doesn’t have a script. One minute your family is whole, and the next you’re trying to plan a funeral while insurance adjusters are already calling. You shouldn’t have to navigate any of that alone.
At Bojat Law Group, we sit down with your family for a free, no-pressure consultation to talk through what happened and walk you through your legal options. We handle every fatal car accident case on contingency, which means you pay nothing upfront and nothing at all unless we recover compensation for your family. Sasha Bojat has been recognized by Super Lawyers, the National Trial Lawyers, and Avvo for his work representing injury victims and grieving families across California. We know how to investigate fatal crashes, identify every responsible party, and stand up to the insurance companies that will otherwise treat your loved one’s life as a number on a spreadsheet.
Call us anytime at (818) 877-4878 or fill out the form on our site. We answer calls 24/7, and if you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you whether that’s your home, a hospital, or anywhere else you need us to be. One conversation could be the difference between facing this alone and having a legal team that fights for the full justice your family deserves.
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“Sasha was absolutely amazing!! Very attentive, very communicative, and would always handle each interaction with white gloves. He worked with the very best to make sure I was taken care of and recovered accordingly. At the end of the day, he exceeded my expectations by a large margin. Thank you, Sasha!!”
Andrew Schmidt
“Bojat Law Group is a group that actually cares about its clients. They helped me with a case I would have lost if I had gone to anyone else. They provided a life changing experience and I will never go to a different law group in regards to personal injury.
They transparent this law group is one of a kind and I couldn’t be more grateful to have found them.”
Dylan Short
“Sasha was wonderful handling my case. Explained everything in detail where we could understand the process. My case was handled smoothly and efficiently. His eased all our worries when it came to getting compensation for my case. Very accommodating! Would recommend him to anyone.”
Bethany Braun
Client Stories
We can tell you what it’s like to be represented by Bojat Law Group after a car accident, but the best proof of our hard work are our clients’ positive testimonials.
Lauren was injured when an inexperienced truck driver suddenly veered off the road and hit her car on the highway. “In my situation”, she says, “after I had a traffic accident and told the officers on the scene ‘I don’t know what happened,’ the BoyLaw Group had accomplished what I thought was impossible. Eventually, we won the case”. She adds: “This is the legal team you need. I have nothing but gratitude for them”.
Amanda was injured when a vehicle rear-ended her from behind while she was stopped on Thousand Oaks Boulevard. “The very fact of being able to speak directly to a lawyer, without an intermediary, brought me great relief in knowing that he would represent me. He was with me through all the mediations”, she says. “It gave me peace to know that I always had someone on my side”.
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