Oregon wrongful death cases often resolve in the six- or seven-figure range, but the worst-case answer is this: a family member usually cannot file personally at all.

In Oregon, the lawsuit is normally filed by the personal representative of the estate, not by a spouse, parent, or child in their own name. If someone is killed in a Salem crash, a fishing boat accident, or a head-on collision on a rural two-lane road, the first legal step is often opening an estate in Marion County Circuit Court and having a personal representative appointed.

That sounds harsher than it plays out in practice, because the case is still brought for the benefit of the family. Under Oregon law, the claim can benefit a surviving spouse, children, parents, stepchildren, and sometimes other heirs depending on the family structure.

The basic deadline is usually 3 years from the injury that caused the death.

What can be recovered often includes:

• Funeral and burial expenses
• Medical bills tied to the final injury
• The family's loss of financial support
• The family's loss of services, society, and companionship
• In some cases, punitive damages

A spouse's relationship losses are usually folded into the wrongful death case rather than brought as a separate standalone claim after death.

Where things go better is when the estate also has a survival claim. That is different from wrongful death. A survival claim belongs to the estate for harm the person suffered before death, such as conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages between injury and death. In a work-zone crash on I-5 near Salem, for example, there may be both: a wrongful death claim for the family's losses and a survival claim for what the deceased went through before passing.

If no estate has been opened yet, that usually delays the case, but it does not automatically destroy it if the 3-year deadline has not run.