If the person I'm suing dies before the case is over, does my lawsuit disappear?
Samantha B. Cohn's Answer
Quick Answer
If the person you are suing for a car accident dies, your case can still proceed by substituting the deceased with an appropriate party, typically from their estate.
Key risks of waiting too long
Potential Risk
Failing to identify the correct representative for the deceased.
Potential Risk
Not researching whether an estate has been opened.
Potential Risk
Potential delays in the lawsuit due to improper party substitutions.
Potential Risk
Missing deadlines for filing against the right entity or representative.
Full Transcript
Below is an AI-generated transcript of the video answer.
Another day, another question. What happens if the person that you are suing after a car accident or the person that caused the accident dies?
Either I'll do before the case or in the middle of while the case is pending. Does your case morbidly die with them?
The short answer is no. Just because that person who caused the incident or accident passed away, it does not mean that you do not have a case or your case cannot continue.
What that means is you now have to substitute or name the proper party, which is obviously no longer a deceased person.
So you have to either research whether or not they have an estate, if they had a will, if somebody was appointed to either manage that will or estate or execute their wishes.
It would be an administrator or an executor. Also, the female versions, executrix or administratrix.
Typically, that would be the jurisdiction where they owned property when they passed away or where they were living when they passed away.
You can go to the clerk's office and you can research that and ask questions and see if there is in fact an estate opened in that person's name.
If there's not, there are codes in Virginia that allow you to appoint an administrator for the purposes of managing the estate just to be named in a lawsuit.
So you can get an uninterested party who's over the age of 18 to be appointed as an administrator for lawsuit purposes to accept service.
Now typically at that point, the service will get passed along to an insurance company and that insurance company will select a lawyer, will either appoint a lawyer, hire a lawyer, or has an in-house lawyer that will handle the case moving forward.
But the person can be appointed just for purposes of that lawsuit.
So no, the case does not conclude just because the person dies.
There are very specific things that need to be researched and looked into to ensure that you are appointing the proper party or person to represent the deceased defendant either should you file a lawsuit or substitute them in as the proper defendant if the lawsuit is already pending.