Fatal accidents and dependants' claims

What the law provides

When a person dies because of another person's wrongful act, neglect or default, Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961 gives the people who depended on them a claim of their own. It is called a fatal injuries action, or a dependants' claim, and it is separate from any claim the person who died might have had for their own injury before death.

The claim is against whoever would have answered to the person who died had they lived: a driver, an employer, an occupier, a manufacturer. It is a personal injury claim in form, and it goes where other personal injury claims go, with differences this guide sets out. Nothing in it is intended to hurry anyone. The two years run from the death, and a solicitor can take the first steps on a family's instructions while the family does what it has to do.

Who the dependants are

Section 47 of the 1961 Act defines a dependant. The list includes a spouse or civil partner; a cohabitant who had lived with the person who died for a period the section sets; a child, step-child and grandchild; a parent, step-parent and grandparent; a brother, sister, half-brother and half-sister; and others the section names. Whether a particular person is within the section is a question a solicitor answers from the family's facts, and it is the first thing a solicitor asks.

Being a dependant in the section's sense does not require financial dependence. The solatium is shared among the dependants whether or not they depended on the person's income; the dependency claim is for those who did.

One action for everyone

Section 48 of the 1961 Act provides that only one action may be brought for the benefit of all the dependants. It is brought by the personal representative of the estate, that is the executor or administrator, and if no action has been brought within six months of the death, any dependant may bring it on behalf of all. The action names every dependant for whom it is brought, and the court or the settlement divides what is recovered among them.

That rule matters where a family is not of one mind. There is no separate claim for each person, and the person bringing the action acts for all the dependants, including children, whose share a court must approve under section 35 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 at the Board and under the court's own rules in proceedings.

What the claim is for

The solatium is a fixed sum. It does not rise with the number of dependants or with the circumstances of the death, and it is not damages for grief in the sense a dependant might expect. The figure is the figure the law sets at the time, €35,000, and it is divided among the dependants as the court directs or as the settlement provides.

Dependency is where the evidence is. It is the net loss to the dependants of what the person who died would have contributed: earnings and pension, less what they would have spent on themselves, and the value of the services they provided, such as care of children or a home, for the period the dependants would have received them. It needs payslips, tax returns, the household's accounts and, in a larger case, an actuary's report. Social welfare payments and other benefits received because of the death are brought into account in the way the 1961 Act and the social welfare code provide. The special damages guide explains vouching, which applies here as it does in any claim.

The estate's own claim

Where the person who died suffered before death, the estate may have a claim for that injury under Part II of the 1961 Act, which survives the death. It is the claim the person would have had, brought by the personal representative, and it is distinct from the dependants' claim under Part IV. The two are usually brought together, and a solicitor keeps their dates and their heads of loss apart. Where the person had already applied to the Board or issued proceedings, the personal representative takes those over.

Two years from the death

The dependants' action must be brought within two years of the death, under the 1961 Act as amended. The date of knowledge rules for an injured person do not move the date in the usual case: the death is the event, and the period runs from it. A Board application pauses the period under section 50 of the 2003 Act in the same way as for any other claim, from a signed application until six months after an Authorisation, for the respondents named. The time-limit checker counts the two years from the date of death, and the guide to the pause explains how the Board's dates fit.

The one-month notice under section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 applies to a fatal claim as it does to any other. A solicitor usually sends it as the first letter, and a court can draw inferences from a late one without reasonable cause. In the weeks after a death reasonable cause is commonly accepted; it is still a letter to send early.

The Board, by phone

Nearly every personal injury claim must go to the Injuries Resolution Board before court under section 12 of the 2003 Act, and a fatal claim is no exception. The Board does not take fatal claims through its online form. It asks that a claim involving a fatality begin with a phone call, and its page on claims involving a fatality gives the number and lists what it needs: the death certificate, the details of the dependants, the personal representative's authority and the vouched expenses.

From there the Board's process is the usual one, with the usual periods: the Formal Notice to the respondent and its 90 days, the assessment within 9 months of consent, the 28 days to accept, an Order to Pay or an Authorisation. The Board, start to finish sets it out. Where a dependant is a child, acceptance of an assessment needs the approval of a court under section 35.

A fatal claim is one where a figure above the Board's usual range, a contested liability or a complicated dependency often leads to an Authorisation and the courts. The courts guide explains the limits and what a High Court case involves.

A death caused by a crime

Where the death was caused by a crime of violence, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme covers funeral expenses and the dependants' financial loss, on an application to the Tribunal within two years of the incident, a limit that cannot be extended. The Criminal Injuries guide explains the Scheme and the 2026 amendment. A claim against the person responsible, and against any occupier or employer whose own duty is in question, can run alongside it.

Why a solicitor, in this case

The Board's process is built for a claimant without a solicitor, and for an ordinary injury the Board says one is not needed. A fatal claim is different in every part: who the dependants are, who may bring the one action, how the solatium is divided, what the dependency is and over what period, the estate's separate claim, a child's share and the court's approval of it. Each is a question of law or of evidence on which the family's position can be lost by a wrong answer given early. The Law Society's find a solicitor directory lists solicitors by place and area of practice. Section 149 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 means the fee cannot be a percentage of what is recovered, and the arrangement is discussed at the first meeting.

Where this leaves you

The date to hold is two years from the death. The time-limit checker counts it and shows how a Board application pauses it. A solicitor is plainly the right step here, and the family's part in the first weeks is only to keep the receipts, the death certificate and the names of the dependants together for that meeting.