Minnesota Wrongful Death Settlement: Amounts, Deadlines, and Shares

A Minnesota wrongful death settlement is money paid to a deceased person’s spouse and next of kin, through a court-appointed trustee, to compensate for losses caused by another party’s negligent, reckless, or intentional act. The claim is governed by Minn. Stat. § 573.02, and since a 2023 change in state law, the recoverable damages now include not only lost income, funeral costs, and loss of companionship but also the pain and suffering the deceased experienced before dying.¹²

Who Can File and Who Gets Paid

Minnesota does not let a spouse or parent simply file a wrongful death lawsuit in their own name. Instead, the surviving spouse or any next of kin petitions the court to appoint a trustee. The trustee files a consent and oath and, before receiving any settlement money, must post a bond as security. The trustee then acts on behalf of everyone who has a claim.¹

Recovery is for the “exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin,” and it is divided among them in proportion to each person’s pecuniary loss.¹ Eligible next of kin usually include children (biological or adopted), parents, grandparents, siblings, and more distant relatives such as aunts, uncles, and cousins.³ A minor child who loses a parent is a primary beneficiary and can recover for loss of parental guidance, emotional support, and financial support. Parents who lose a minor child are likewise entitled to serve as beneficiaries.⁴

What a Settlement Can Cover

A Minnesota jury is instructed to award whatever amount it considers “fair and just” for the harm caused. In cases against private defendants, the state imposes no statutory cap on wrongful death damages.⁵ Settlements typically reflect three categories of loss.

Economic Losses

These are the measurable financial harms: medical bills incurred before death, funeral and burial expenses, the deceased’s projected future earnings and employment benefits, and the value of household services such as child care or home maintenance the deceased would have provided.⁶

Non-Economic Losses

Survivors can recover for intangible harms including loss of companionship, loss of consortium for spouses, and the loss of “counsel, guidance, aid, advice, comfort, assistance, or protection” the deceased provided.⁴ Standard jury instructions exclude the plaintiff’s own grief and mental distress from what the jury may consider.⁷

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are rare in Minnesota wrongful death cases and are available only when the defendant’s conduct is especially egregious.⁴ Under Minn. Stat. § 549.20, they require clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with “deliberate disregard for the rights or safety of others,” and when sought, the trial is typically split so that the jury first awards compensatory damages and only then, in a separate phase, addresses punitive damages.⁸

How the 2023 Law Expanded Recoveries

For decades, Minnesota families were limited largely to economic damages in wrongful death cases. On May 20, 2023, Minnesota became the last state in the country to pass a survivorship bill. Families can now recover “all damages suffered by the decedent resulting from the injury prior to the decedent’s death,” including non-economic damages like pain and suffering.²

The change also updated Minn. Stat. § 573.01 so that a personal injury lawsuit no longer dies with the plaintiff. If someone who was injured passes away from an unrelated cause before their case is resolved, the trustee can continue the case and pursue the full range of damages.²

Nursing home advocacy groups drove the legislation after testimony about elder abuse and neglect cases where residents suffered significant harm before dying but families had little recourse. The expanded damages, though, apply to every wrongful death case in Minnesota, not just elder care claims. Because the statute refers broadly to “all damages” without spelling out pain and suffering, courts will likely need to define the phrase’s precise scope over time.⁹

Deadlines to File

Most Minnesota wrongful death claims face a dual deadline. The lawsuit must be filed within three years of the date of death and within six years of the act or omission that caused the injury.¹ Two exceptions matter:

Medical malpractice: the claim must be filed within three years of the death but no later than four years after the healthcare provider’s error.¹⁰
Murder: no time limit. A wrongful death claim based on an intentional killing can be filed at any time.¹

When the Family’s Share Is Reduced or Capped

Two rules can shrink what a Minnesota family ultimately recovers. The first is comparative fault. Under Minn. Stat. § 604.01, if the deceased was partly to blame for the incident, damages are reduced by the deceased’s percentage of fault. If the deceased is found to be 51 percent or more at fault, the family recovers nothing.¹¹ The jury allocates fault based on the evidence at trial.¹²

The second is the cap on claims against government defendants. When a city, county, or state agency is the defendant, Minn. Stat. § 466.04 limits municipal liability to $500,000 per claimant and $1.5 million for all claims arising from a single incident, for claims arising on or after July 1, 2009. Punitive damages cannot be awarded against a municipality, and any settlement over $10,000 with a government entity requires district court approval.¹³ These state-law caps do not necessarily limit federal civil rights claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which is why some of the largest Minnesota wrongful death payouts, including the $27 million Minneapolis settlement paid to the family of George Floyd in 2021, have come from police cases filed in federal court and shouldn’t be read as typical.¹⁴

Typical Settlement Ranges and What Drives Them

Minnesota does not publish official average settlement figures, and outcomes vary enormously by case. General industry data (not Minnesota-specific) shows the following approximate ranges by case type:

Motor vehicle accidents: $500,000 to $2 million
Medical malpractice: $1 million to $5 million
Workplace accidents: $300,000 to $1.5 million
Product liability: $750,000 to $3 million
Premises liability: $200,000 to $1 million¹⁵

What actually moves a settlement within or beyond those ranges is the deceased’s age, earning capacity, and health; the number and ages of dependents; the strength of the liability evidence; available insurance coverage; and the jurisdiction where the case would be tried. Younger decedents with strong earnings and dependent children generally produce the largest recoveries. Cases involving elderly decedents or disputed liability tend to settle for less.⁵

How the Money Is Divided

A Minnesota wrongful death settlement doesn’t pass directly to the family. Once a case is resolved, the trustee files a verified petition with the court listing the total recovery, all disbursements (attorney fees, trustee costs, funeral expenses), the names and ages of each surviving spouse and next of kin, and a proposed share for each person. The court can approve, modify, or reject the proposed distribution.¹⁶

Funeral expenses and any court-allowed demands for the decedent’s support come out first.¹ For the remainder, a common starting point is the “Support Years Formula,” which calculates how many years of financial support each beneficiary lost (with minor children assumed to receive support until age 21) and divides the recovery proportionally. Courts also weigh how close each claimant was to the deceased and can deny a share to relatives deemed to have suffered no genuine loss, such as estranged family members. If everyone agrees on a split, courts typically approve it.¹⁷

Protections for Minor Beneficiaries

When children are among the beneficiaries, the court must approve how their funds are held. Options include U.S. securities, annuities, structured settlements, FDIC-insured deposits, or a trust. A parent can also serve as conservator with a court-approved surety bond. For very young children who were not financially dependent on the deceased, courts sometimes allow the entire share to go to the parents outright.¹⁷ Any annuity issuer used must maintain a high financial rating and be licensed in Minnesota.¹⁸

Attorney Fees

Most Minnesota wrongful death attorneys work on contingency, meaning families pay nothing upfront. The standard fee is roughly one-third of the total recovery.¹⁹ Some agreements use tiered rates: about 33 percent before litigation, 38 percent once a lawsuit is filed, and 40 percent or more at trial. Under Minnesota’s Rules of Professional Conduct, every contingency agreement must be in writing, signed by the client, and specify whether litigation expenses come off the recovery before or after the attorney’s percentage is calculated.²⁰ Case costs deducted from the recovery typically include filing fees, expert witness fees, deposition transcripts, medical records, and investigation. Whether the client owes those costs if the case is unsuccessful depends on the specific fee agreement.

Taxes

Under IRC Section 104(a)(2), compensatory damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness are generally excluded from federal gross income, so the bulk of a wrongful death settlement is typically not taxable.²¹ Minnesota generally follows the same approach for state income tax.²² The exceptions: punitive damages are generally taxable as income, settlement amounts specifically designated as lost wages may be taxable, interest on installment payments is reportable income, and previously deducted medical expenses reimbursed through a settlement may be taxable.²³

Workplace Deaths: A Different Path

When a worker dies on the job, the family generally receives workers’ compensation death benefits regardless of fault. Workers’ comp is usually the exclusive remedy against the employer, but if a third party (not the employer) caused or contributed to the death, the family can also file a wrongful death lawsuit against that third party under Minn. Stat. § 176.061. The workers’ compensation insurer then has a subrogation lien on any recovery.²⁴

Third-party recoveries in this context are divided by a statutory formula. Reasonable collection costs, including attorney fees, come off the top. One-third of the remainder goes directly to the family, free of the employer’s subrogation claim. The employer is then reimbursed from the balance, and anything left goes to the family and serves as a credit against future workers’ compensation obligations.²⁴

1
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2
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3
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RB Law. George Floyd Civil Lawsuit Settles for $27 Million
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Scheuerman Law. Wrongful Death Settlement Calculator
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Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Rule 144 — Distribution of Wrongful Death Proceeds
17
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18
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Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minn. Stat. § 176.061 — Third Party Liability