Alameda County · Wrongful Death
Wrongful death lawyers serving Berkeley families
The claim your family may hold is not about a number. It is about support, companionship, and accountability — and about letting someone else carry the legal weight while you carry each other.
In a city where so many people move through the day on foot and by bike, the deaths that bring families to a page like this one are often collisions between the vulnerable and the fast. Whatever brought you here, the legal core is the same: California gives certain family members a wrongful death claim, the claim carries deadlines, and no family should have to manage either alone.
Oguz Injury Lawyers LLP represents Berkeley families from our office in Walnut Creek, through the Caldecott and minutes away. We begin however your family prefers — by phone, by video, or in person — and we work in English, Spanish, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese. The first conversation is free and without obligation.
Our first weeks on a case are spent on what cannot wait: preserving camera footage and physical evidence, obtaining the police and coroner's records, identifying every responsible party and insurance policy, and protecting the deadlines — including the short one that applies whenever a public entity may be involved. There is no fee unless we recover.
The shape of a Berkeley case
Most Berkeley incidents are investigated by the Berkeley Police Department — the crosswalks and bike corridors of Telegraph, Shattuck, San Pablo, and Ashby are city jurisdiction — while crashes on I-80 along the waterfront belong to the California Highway Patrol. The Alameda County coroner's bureau examines every sudden death. In pedestrian and cyclist cases especially, the official report is only a beginning: camera footage from nearby businesses and transit, witness accounts, and street-design evidence often say more than the report does, and they must be gathered before they disappear.
Street design is not just context in these cases — it can be a defendant. Where the condition of a public street, crossing, or signal may have contributed to a death, a claim against the responsible public entity generally must be presented within six months. Berkeley's dense grid of crossings and bike routes makes that question worth asking early in nearly every roadway case, and we ask it as a matter of course.
A Berkeley wrongful death lawsuit is filed in the Alameda County Superior Court, whose civil courts sit in Oakland, a short distance away. Most cases resolve by settlement; the ones that settle fairly are the ones prepared as if they would not.
California wrongful death law, plainly stated
- The deadline for a wrongful death claim in California is generally two years from the date of death, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
- If a public entity bears responsibility — a government vehicle, a dangerous public road or property — a government claim generally must be presented within six months. This shorter deadline surprises grieving families constantly, and missing it can end the claim.
- Eligible claimants are defined by law: generally the surviving spouse or domestic partner and children first, then those entitled to the estate through intestate succession if there is no surviving spouse or issue.
- Pure comparative negligence applies: if the person who died was partly at fault, the family's recovery is reduced proportionally — not eliminated.
- A criminal prosecution, if any, is separate from the civil claim. The family's wrongful death case proceeds independently, under a different standard of proof, whatever the criminal outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Our loved one was walking or cycling. Does the insurer's blame-shifting have force?
Less than they imply. California's pure comparative negligence rule means that even if the decedent bore some share of fault, the family's recovery is reduced proportionally — never eliminated. Insurers lean on fault arguments hardest when the person they blame cannot respond, which is why we investigate independently, and early.
What deadlines does our family face?
Generally two years from the date of death under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. But if a public entity may share responsibility — including through the design or condition of a public street or crossing — a formal claim generally must be presented within six months. Which deadlines apply is a question we answer in the first, free conversation.
Who holds the right to bring the claim?
Generally the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner and children first; if there are none, those who would inherit under California's intestate succession rules, often parents or siblings. Certain financially dependent household members may qualify as well. Eligibility is worth settling carefully at the start — it protects everyone in the family.
Is any of this contingent on a criminal prosecution?
No. The civil claim is independent: it does not require charges or a conviction, proceeds under a lower standard of proof, and runs on its own deadlines regardless of what prosecutors do. Your family does not need to wait — and should not.
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The case review is free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we win. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you honestly where you stand.