If you are reading this having just lost someone, the only urgent thing is this: do not assume the ordinary deadlines apply, and do not let anyone dispose of evidence. Everything else can wait a few days.
It is a different kind of claim
A death claim is not a larger injury claim. In Florida it proceeds under the Wrongful Death Act, which has its own rules about who may bring it, what may be recovered, and when.
Three practical consequences:
The claim is brought by the personal representative of the estate, not by family members individually — though it is brought for the benefit of surviving family.
Who counts as a survivor, and what each may recover, is defined by statute. It is not the same list as “the people who are grieving,” and getting this right at the outset affects everything downstream.
The timetable follows the Wrongful Death Act, not the ordinary injury limitations period. Do not calculate a deadline from the two-year injury rule and assume it applies. Get it confirmed.
None of that is something to work out from a web page, and it is the main reason to speak to someone early even if you are not ready to do anything.
Liability
Section 767.04 makes the owner liable, and the dog’s history is irrelevant to that. In fatal cases there is frequently a history anyway, and it matters for other reasons.
Other parties are often involved in a way they are not in a minor bite — a landlord who knew, a property owner, a business, or whoever had charge of the dog. Fatal attacks commonly involve more than one dog and more than one responsible party.
What happens to the dog, and why it matters
Section 767.135 requires that a dog not previously declared dangerous which “attacks and causes the death of a human” be “immediately confiscated… and thereafter destroyed in an expeditious and humane manner.”
Where the dog had been classified dangerous beforehand, § 767.13 makes the owner’s conduct a second-degree felony for severe injury or death.
A criminal investigation is not your civil claim and does not substitute for it. But it generates sworn statements, forensic work, and findings your claim can use — and a prior classification establishes that the owner knew exactly what their dog was, which is difficult to argue around. It also carries a $100,000 statutory insurance requirement.
What to preserve
Say plainly to anyone who asks that nothing is to be cleaned, repaired, or discarded:
- The scene, the enclosure, the gate, the fencing
- Clothing and personal effects
- Any camera or doorbell footage, immediately — these overwrite within days
- Contact details for everyone present
Ask the investigating agency what they have taken and how to obtain it later.
What is recoverable
Under the Wrongful Death Act this typically includes medical and funeral expenses, the loss of support and services the deceased provided, and — for defined survivors — loss of companionship, guidance, and the pain and suffering of certain family members.
The specific entitlements depend on who survives and their relationship to the deceased. That is a statutory analysis, not a general rule, and it is worth having done properly rather than estimated.