How to use this guide
Use the section links to find the records, deadlines, and questions most relevant to your situation.
Topic
After the Tragedy: A Guide for Families
Legal Resource Center
Start with
Section 1
Use the section links to find the information most relevant to your situation.
Individual questions
Case-specific review
An attorney can address how the facts, evidence, deadlines, and governing law apply to a particular matter.
01
If you are reading this, please accept our deepest condolences. We know legal issues are the last thing you want to deal with right now, but a few protective steps can help preserve records, deadlines, and decision-making options.
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1. Early Record and Evidence Steps
Secure the Vehicle: If your loved one's car is at a tow yard, consider whether photos, inspection, or preservation steps are needed before it is moved, repaired, sold, or disposed of.
Order the Report: Ask the responding agency how and when its Oklahoma traffic collision report can be requested.
Public Posts: Consider limiting public posts about disputed facts or private medical information while the matter is being evaluated.
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2. The Probate Process
In many Oklahoma wrongful-death cases, filing authority runs through a court-appointed personal representative. If no personal representative is or has been appointed, Oklahoma law may allow the widow, or if there is no widow, next of kin to bring the action.
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3. The Investigation
Crash reports may not answer every civil-liability question. Depending on the facts, additional investigation may include:
- Preserving available event-data-recorder information.
- Documenting the scene and roadway conditions.
- Reviewing vehicle damage, physical evidence, and witness accounts.
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4. Dealing with Insurance
A driver's or other party's insurer may call you before responsibility is resolved. Be careful with recorded statements and early settlement offers. A release should be reviewed against available coverage, medical prognosis, work-loss issues, and any UM or commercial-policy questions before a decision is made.
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5. Identify Potential Damages and Who They Concern
Oklahoma wrongful-death law separates the person authorized to bring the action from the people or estate interests that may receive particular categories of a recovery. Under 12 O.S. § 1053, potentially recoverable categories may include:
- Medical and burial expenses: These require proof of the expense and who paid it. Distribution may go to the person or qualifying governmental agency that paid, or to the estate if the estate paid.
- Surviving spouse's loss: The statute identifies the surviving spouse's loss of consortium and grief, subject to proof of the relationship and loss.
- Decedent's mental pain and anguish: This category concerns suffering experienced by the person who died before death, if supported by the medical and factual timeline. The statute provides a distribution path to the surviving spouse and children, if any, or next of kin.
- Pecuniary loss to survivors: Admissible evidence may include the decedent's age, occupation, earning capacity, health habits, probable life duration, support, and services. The identity of eligible beneficiaries and allocation depend on the family structure and each person's proven pecuniary loss.
- Children's and parents' grief and loss of companionship: These are individual, relationship-based losses that require case-specific proof and allocation.
Punitive damages may be considered only in a legally proper case and require separate proof; they are not automatic. Other claim, defense, probate, offset, allocation, or damages issues may change the analysis. An attorney should confirm the proper claimant, beneficiaries, causation evidence, available categories, and distribution rules for the specific case rather than treating this list as a final or exhaustive legal conclusion.
Review the Record Early
Evidence can change quickly. Attorney review can help identify records, deadlines, and preservation issues.