The calculator above does one thing, and does it honestly: it adds up the losses your family can document. You enter the household support and help your loved one gave, the funeral bill and the medical bills from before death, and it shows a plain total, split into the family's claim and the estate's claim, the two claims Nevada's wrongful death statute, NRS 41.085, keeps separate.
What it will not do is put a price on grief, sorrow or companionship, or on the pain your loved one suffered before death. NRS 41.085 names those among the damages a court or jury may award and assigns no formula, no schedule and no multiplier to any of them. A calculator that multiplies the bills by three is inventing a rule. The calculator above shows those losses as unpriced, to be settled in negotiation or decided by a court or jury, and never shows a settlement range, an average, a fault percentage or an assumption about insurance. What it does show is which Nevada rules apply to your facts.
Who Can Bring a Wrongful Death Claim in Nevada
Nevada does not treat a wrongful death claim as a single claim. NRS 41.085 creates two, and they may pay different people, cover different categories, and face different creditors.
| Heirs' Claim, NRS 41.085(4) | Estate's Claim, NRS 41.085(5) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Recovers | Each heir, individually | The personal representative, on behalf of the estate |
| What May Be Awarded | That person's "grief or sorrow, loss of probable support, companionship, society, comfort and consortium," and the "pain, suffering or disfigurement of the decedent" | Special damages such as medical expenses the decedent incurred before death, funeral expenses, and any penalties, including punitive damages, the decedent would have recovered had they lived |
| Exposure to the Decedent's Debts | Judgment proceeds "are not liable for any debt of the decedent" | Judgment proceeds "are liable for the debts of the decedent unless exempted by law" |
The part people get backwards: the decedent's own pain and suffering sits with the heirs, and the statute expressly excludes it from the estate's claim. How the estate's side compares with a survival action is taken up separately.
Who Counts as an Heir
NRS 41.085(1) defines an heir as a person who, "under the laws of this State, would be entitled to succeed to the separate property of the decedent if the decedent had died intestate," which points to Nevada's rules for dying without a will in NRS chapter 134, except a person the statute deems to be a killer of the decedent. In most families that works out the way the calculator's "who usually has a claim" list shows it: the spouse and the children first, with the children of a child who died earlier taking that child's place; the parents when there are no children or grandchildren; brothers and sisters when there are none of those and no parents, with a deceased brother's or sister's children in that sibling's place. Other relatives and special cases turn on the facts, including partners who were not married.
The count matters. The statute says the court or jury "may award each person," so each heir proves damages individually rather than sharing one family pot. A single offer for "the family" still has to be divided among the heirs and between the two claims, so ask how it would be allocated.
What Counts Toward a Nevada Wrongful Death Claim
Some categories are computed from records and some are not computed at all.
The Parts the Calculator Adds Up
Loss of Probable Support. The calculator asks what your loved one contributed to the household each month, not what they earned: rent or mortgage, groceries, bills, school, money sent to family, but not their own spending. Survivors lost what the decedent would have contributed, not what the decedent would have spent on themselves, which is why a forensic economist takes a personal consumption deduction off projected earnings. An economist would also estimate how long they were likely to keep working and add employer-paid benefits; the calculator leaves the number of years to you.
Household Services. The category families lose by default, because nobody documented it. The cooking, the driving, the childcare, the repairs and the caregiving for a parent all have a replacement cost. The calculator multiplies the hours each week by what it would cost to hire that help and by the years it would have continued.
Funeral and Pre-Death Medical Bills. These sit in the estate's claim under NRS 41.085(5), and bills make them the easiest line to identify. Identifying is not recovering, though: the reasonableness of a charge, its connection to the death and what a lien reaches can each be disputed. See recovering funeral and probate costs.
Why the Totals Are Plain. The calculator multiplies and adds; it does not grow or discount anything. An economist would adjust for expected raises and for money received now instead of later, and those adjustments can move the number either way.
The Parts No Calculator Prices
Grief or sorrow, loss of companionship, society, comfort and consortium: NRS 41.085 names these among the damages a court or jury may award each heir, and assigns no formula to them. Their value is argued from evidence about who these people were to each other, in negotiation and, if the case does not settle, before a court or jury. The decedent's own pain, suffering or disfigurement belongs in the same group, and proving conscious pain and suffering is its own evidentiary subject.
Unpriced does not mean small. These losses can be the main part of the claim, which is why the calculator gives them the same weight on the screen as the documented total.
When the Person Who Died Had Little or No Income
Where the person who died was retired, a homemaker, disabled, or a child, the household services and relationship evidence carry more of the case, which is why the calculator, when no income is entered, says the main part of the claim is not a calculation. Do not assume the claim is zero. NRS 41.085 ties the heirs' recovery to probable support, not to current wages, so pensions, benefits, earning capacity and care actually provided can all move that line. See how Nevada values a wrongful death with no income.
What Takes the Number Down
Nevada's statutes prescribe no single order for what comes off a damages figure, and in a settlement, fault and the limits on what a defendant can pay are ordinarily priced into the offer rather than subtracted after it.
The Decedent's Own Share of Fault
Under NRS 41.141, comparative negligence "does not bar a recovery if that negligence was not greater than the negligence or gross negligence of the parties to the action against whom recovery is sought." The statute measures "the comparative negligence of the plaintiff or the plaintiff's decedent," so in a death case the conduct of the person who died is weighed, and the jury is told there is no recovery if that negligence "is greater than the negligence of the defendant or the combined negligence of multiple defendants."
The statute prints no percentage and no reduction arithmetic. The Nevada Supreme Court stated how the jury's findings combine in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Commissioner of Insurance (1998): a plaintiff who is fifty percent at fault "is not barred from recovery, but his damages are reduced by his own percentage of negligence." The calculator has no fault slider because the share is argued from evidence, and early investigation is what develops that evidence.
Where more than one defendant is liable, NRS 41.141 generally makes each one severally liable only for its own percentage, with exceptions such as intentional torts and claims involving a product, so a defendant with a share of the fault but no assets can leave that share uncollectible.
Limits That Apply Only in Certain Cases
In an ordinary claim against a private person or business, such as a car crash, a truck collision or a dangerous property, Nevada caps neither economic nor noneconomic damages. A few kinds of defendant change that, and the calculator shows the matching rule card when you tick one.
- State and Local Government. Where a claim runs under Nevada's waiver of immunity in NRS 41.031, NRS 41.035 provides that an award "may not exceed the sum of $200,000, exclusive of interest computed from the date of judgment, to or for the benefit of any claimant," and may include no punitive damages. The ceiling is written per claimant rather than per case; in Arnesano v. State, Department of Transportation (1997), the cap, then $50,000, was applied separately to a widow and to each of her two children. The limit covers awards against the State, a city or county, and their officers and employees; it does not limit what a private party who shares responsibility owes. Whether several heirs count as several claimants in your case is a question for a lawyer.
- Federal Agencies. A claim against a federal agency or a federal employee acting on the job, such as at a VA hospital or in a postal vehicle, generally runs under the Federal Tort Claims Act; a private contractor working for the government generally does not. The Act requires an administrative claim to the agency within two years and before any lawsuit, and if the agency denies it, the lawsuit must generally follow within six months of the denial being mailed. Nevada's $200,000 limit does not apply, punitive damages are not available, and federal law caps the attorney's fee, generally at 20 percent of an administrative settlement and 25 percent once suit is filed.
- Medical Care. In an action against a provider of health care based upon professional negligence, NRS 41A.035 caps noneconomic damages "regardless of the number of plaintiffs, defendants or theories upon which liability may be based," so one cap covers the whole action. The figure is adjusted each year and published by the Nevada Supreme Court; the calculator's medical care card shows the current amount. The cap does not reach economic damages. These cases also require an expert affidavit with the complaint under NRS 41A.071.
- A Death at Work. Under NRS 616A.020, workers' compensation, with its death benefits, is generally the exclusive remedy against the employer. A claim beyond those benefits usually lies against someone else, such as an equipment manufacturer or a driver who did not work for the same company.
Insurance Limits
A liability policy pays up to a stated amount, whatever the size of the loss. Nevada's minimum auto liability policy is $25,000 per person under NRS 485.185. That is why every policy matters: the at-fault driver's; the company's where a commercial truck or company vehicle was involved, since the company may be responsible as well as the driver and commercial policies are often larger; and the family's own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Where an impaired driver caused the death, NRS 42.010 can make punitive damages available, though a punitive award is only worth what the defendant can pay.
Liens and the Decedent's Debts
Nevada gives a hospital a lien on the recovery, and the same sentence that creates it limits it. Under NRS 108.590 the lien runs "to the extent of the amount due the hospital for the reasonable value of the hospitalization rendered before the date of judgment, settlement or compromise," not whatever the hospital billed. It must be perfected with an itemized notice under NRS 108.610, and under NRS 108.600 it does not reach the part of the recovery that goes to necessary attorney fees, costs and expenses. Government health programs and health plans may assert reimbursement rights of their own. Add the debt rule, under which the estate's judgment proceeds are exposed to the decedent's debts and the heirs' are not, and the allocation between the two claims becomes one of the largest factors in what a family keeps. NRS 41.085 writes that rule about judgments, though, and how far an allocation in a private settlement binds creditors and lienholders is not answered by its text. Allocating a settlement is negotiating and probate practice, not a statutory shield, which is why probate and lien review belong in the conversation before anyone signs.
Attorney Fees and Case Costs
The percentage in an ordinary Nevada injury or death case is the one stated in your written agreement, and that agreement is not unbounded. Nevada Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5 forbids an unreasonable fee, and requires a contingent fee agreement to be in writing, signed by the client, and to state in boldface type the method by which the fee is determined and "whether such expenses are to be deducted before or after the contingent fee is calculated." That ordering changes the net.
Nevada caps a contingency percentage by statute in one kind of case only. NRS 7.095 limits it to 35 percent of the amount recovered, which the statute measures after case costs are deducted, in an action for injury or death against a provider of health care based upon professional negligence. It does not set the percentage in a car crash, a truck crash or a premises case.
What an Offer Includes and How to Check It
The calculator's second path, "We Have a Settlement Offer," walks through the same questions. Before asking whether a number is fair, establish what it is measuring. Three very different things arrive looking identical.
| What the Number May Be | How You Can Tell | What It Changes |
|---|---|---|
| A Measurement of the Loss | It is itemized: lost support, household services, pre-death medical care | Documentation moves it |
| A Statement of Available Insurance | A round figure, early, described as "the most we can do" or "the policy" | The loss could be far larger and the number would not move. The question is whether another policy or defendant exists |
| A Judgment About What Is Collectible | The defendant is uninsured, underinsured, dissolved, or a government entity with a statutory ceiling | Proving more loss does not produce more money. Finding another responsible party might |
An offer that is genuinely the limit of the available coverage is a different problem from a low valuation of a well-documented loss, and the two call for opposite responses.
Five Questions to Ask Before Anyone Signs
- Whose Claims Does It Settle? The heirs and the estate hold separate claims. A person who signs a release without knowing whose claims it extinguishes may purport to give away something that was not theirs to give, and releases commonly include the signer's statement of authority and a promise to indemnify the carrier if that statement turns out to be wrong.
- Which Losses Were Counted? Ask for the offer to be itemized, including the losses no calculator prices. A round figure with no breakdown cannot be checked.
- Which Policies Were Checked? Ask whether the figure is the limit of available coverage, and whether other policies or responsible parties have been identified.
- What Comes Out, Line by Line? Fees, case costs and each lien, in writing.
- What Does the Release Say? Have every term explained before signing, including which claims and which parties it releases.
From the Offer to What the Family Receives
The arithmetic is simple once the figures are real: the offer, less attorney fees, less case costs, less liens. The calculator does that subtraction with your numbers and assumes no fee percentage, because yours is whatever your written agreement says. At the end of a contingency fee matter, RPC 1.5 requires a written statement of the outcome and how any payout was determined. Ask for it, and read each line.
Where an heir is an unemancipated minor with a disputed claim for money, NRS 41.200 makes the compromise of that claim ineffective "until it is approved by the district court," on a petition that sets out the total proceeds, their apportionment, and whether fees and expenses come off before or after the contingency fee is calculated. A judge reviews that allocation and can adjust it (Haley v. Eighth Judicial District Court, 2012). Where no minor is involved, no court reviews the allocation automatically.
Deadlines and What to Do Now
The Filing Deadline
Under NRS 11.190, except as otherwise provided for certain sexual abuse and assault claims, an action for a death "caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another" must be commenced within two years, a period the chapter makes subject to being "further limited by specific statute." In Adkins v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (2024), a case that included wrongful death claims, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the discovery rule can apply to that two-year period, tolling it "until the injured party discovers or reasonably should have discovered facts supporting a cause of action." That is fact-specific and narrow, and not a reason to wait: treat two years as the operating date and raise the discovery question early.
Other clocks run alongside it. A death caused by a health care provider's professional negligence runs on a different deadline under NRS 41A.097, which can be shorter. A claim against a Nevada government entity is also filed with that government under NRS 41.036, within two years, though that filing is not a precondition to suing. Federal agency claims, and claims involving a minor heir, can run on different timing. Have a lawyer check the dates in your case. More on how statutes of limitations affect a wrongful death lawsuit.
What to Do in the Meantime
- Gather the Records the Calculator Asks For. Pay stubs, tax returns, benefit statements, the household bills your loved one paid, the funeral invoice and the medical bills from before death.
- Write Down the Household Work. Who did the cooking, the driving, the childcare and the caregiving, and how many hours a week it took.
- Know Who Is Asking Before You Give a Statement. Questions about what your loved one was doing beforehand go to fault. You can tell the other side's insurer you are not ready to give a statement. Your own insurer is different, because your policy imposes duties to notify and cooperate.
- Do Not Sign a Release Until You Know Which Claims It Ends.
- Preserve the Evidence. Photographs, vehicles, phone records and video can be lost. A lawyer can send preservation notices to whoever holds them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is There an Average Wrongful Death Settlement in Nevada?
No published average can be relied on, because no complete set of settlements exists to average: a private settlement is a contract Nevada requires nobody to file, so any figure is built from the cases that happened to become public. The exceptions are narrow: a settlement with a Nevada government defendant is a public record under NRS 41.0375 and appears in an annual summary under NRS 41.0385, and a minor's compromise goes through a court file under NRS 41.200. Verdicts only show the cases the parties could not settle.
What Happens If the Person Who Died Was Partly at Fault?
Fault reduces the recovery and, past a threshold, ends it. Under NRS 41.141 the decedent's comparative negligence does not bar recovery where it was not greater than the negligence of the defendant, or the combined negligence of the defendants the claim is brought against. Below that line the recovery is reduced by the decedent's share, as the Nevada Supreme Court stated in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Commissioner of Insurance (1998).
Why Is the Check Smaller Than the Settlement Amount?
The decedent's share of fault and what each defendant can actually pay are ordinarily priced into the settlement amount itself, so they are not taken off a second time. Between that amount and the payment come liens, including a hospital lien under NRS 108.590 limited to the reasonable value of the care, and case costs and the percentage in your written agreement. Check whether costs come off before or after the percentage is calculated, because that ordering changes the net.
Do Attorney Fees in a Wrongful Death Case Have a Legal Cap in Nevada?
Only in one category of case. NRS 7.095 limits a contingent fee to 35 percent in an action for injury or death against a provider of health care based upon professional negligence. In a death from a crash or a dangerous property, the percentage is the one in your written fee agreement, which RPC 1.5 requires to be reasonable, in writing and signed by the client.
How Long Does a Family Have to Decide?
Generally two years under NRS 11.190 for a death caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another, unless a specific statute sets a shorter period. Under Adkins v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (2024) the discovery rule can delay the start in some cases, but that is fact-specific and narrow, so raise it with a lawyer early. Claims against government entities and health care providers carry their own requirements and clocks.
Are Wrongful Death Settlements Taxable?
Compensation for the death itself, including lost financial support and damages for grief and loss of companionship, is generally not taxable as income under federal law. Punitive damages and any interest added to a judgment are taxable. Nevada does not tax individual income; a family member who lives in another state should check that state's rules. Confirm the treatment of your specific settlement with a tax professional.
Does a Life Insurance Payout Reduce a Wrongful Death Settlement?
Generally no. Nevada's collateral source rule keeps an at-fault party from taking credit for benefits your family paid for or arranged, and life insurance is the clearest example. An adjuster who suggests otherwise is taking a negotiating position, not stating the law. In a professional negligence case against a health care provider, NRS 42.021 lets the defendant introduce evidence of certain other benefits, such as Social Security and health or disability insurance, but life insurance as such is not on that list.
Talking with a Lawyer About Your Family's Claim
Asking a lawyer what a claim is worth does not commit a family to a lawsuit, and it answers three things no calculator can: what coverage is actually available, whose claims are inside the figure, and what comes out before it reaches you. Read about our Las Vegas wrongful death practice, or call Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers at (702) 633-3333.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on facts a calculator cannot see.