Tennessee Wrongful Death Settlement Calculator
Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-107 — who may bring the claim. The filing deadline is drawn from § 28-3-104's one-year personal-injury period via the survival structure of § 20-5-106, not from a statute that names "wrongful death" directly.
How much is a Tennessee wrongful death claim worth? No verified settlement or verdict figures for Tennessee are confirmed here, so this page does not publish a dollar estimate. What is confirmed: who is allowed to sue, how the one-year deadline works, and how attorney fees are set.
⚠ Tennessee's wrongful-death deadline is one year, but no statute uses the words "wrongful death" next to that time period — it is derived from the personal-injury statute through § 20-5-106.
Your Injury
Your Estimated Settlement
$36,000 — $66,000
Pain and suffering = $15,000 in medical bills × 3.0 severity multiplier. Your bills are already included in that figure, so they are not added again.
What you'd actually take home
- Estimated settlement
- $51,000
- Attorney fee (33–40%)
- −$17,000 to −$20,400
- Roughly yours
- $30,600 – $34,000
Not included: case costs (court filing, expert witnesses, medical records) and any medical liens or health-insurance reimbursement. Those come out of your share too, so treat the figure above as an upper bound.
Keep this estimate — it is gone when you close the tab.
Editorially Reviewed — Content reviewed for accuracy using published legal research, government data, and verified court records. See our methodology
Reviewed by Leonard Goldberg, Editor · Last updated
Tennessee Wrongful Death: Who Can File, and the One-Year Trap
Tennessee does not have a wrongful-death statute of limitations labeled as such. Instead, Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-106 provides that the decedent's own personal-injury cause of action does not die with them but "passes to" the surviving spouse, children, next of kin, or personal representative. A wrongful-death claim in Tennessee is, legally, the decedent's personal-injury claim continued by the survivors. As a result, it is governed by the ordinary one-year period for "injuries to the person" under Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A), running from the date of death. The statute itself reads: "Except as provided in subdivision (a)(2), the following actions shall be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrued: (A) Actions for libel, injuries to the person, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, or breach of marriage promise."
This is a well-established rule under Tennessee case law built on the § 20-5-106 survival structure, but because no single statute quotes the words "wrongful death" together with a time period, this deadline is flagged here as needs-review rather than asserted as a directly labeled statutory number. It is also the single easiest deadline to miss in Tennessee wrongful-death practice, for exactly that reason. Anyone relying on it for an active claim should confirm there has been no more recent amendment to the Tennessee Code before treating it as final.
Who may bring the suit is set out separately, in Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-107(a): the surviving spouse, suing in the surviving spouse's own name; if there is no surviving spouse, the children of the deceased or the next of kin; the personal representative of the estate may also institute the action, and either the personal representative or the qualifying relative may use the other's name in bringing and prosecuting the suit, on giving bond and security for costs, or in the form prescribed for paupers. A related provision, § 20-5-106, governs who ultimately benefits from a recovery: the surviving spouse first, then children or next of kin, then, if the decedent was a minor in parental custody, the parents.
Tennessee Wrongful Death FAQs
Who can file a wrongful death claim in Tennessee?
Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-107(a): the surviving spouse, in the surviving spouse's own name; if none, the children of the deceased or the next of kin; the personal representative of the estate may also institute the action.
How much time do I have to file a Tennessee wrongful death claim?
One year from the date of death, drawn from Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A) via the § 20-5-106 survival mechanism. This is flagged as needs-review here because no statute explicitly labels a "wrongful death" deadline by name; confirm there has been no more recent amendment before relying on it for an active claim.
Why is Tennessee's wrongful death deadline so easy to miss?
Because no Tennessee statute is titled or labeled as a wrongful-death limitations period. The one-year deadline is derived indirectly, through the survival structure described above, so a search of the code for "wrongful death statute of limitations" will not turn up those words paired together anywhere.
Who receives the money if a Tennessee wrongful death claim succeeds?
Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-106 sets the order: the surviving spouse first; if there is no surviving spouse, the children of the deceased or the next of kin; and if the decedent was a minor in parental custody, the parents.
Does the case have to be brought in the estate's name?
Not necessarily. Under § 20-5-107(a), either the personal representative or the qualifying relative may institute the action and may use the other's name in bringing and prosecuting the suit, on giving bond and security for costs, or in the form prescribed for paupers.
What percentage will a Tennessee wrongful death attorney charge?
There is no statutory cap on contingency fees for an ordinary Tennessee wrongful-death claim. The only limit is the reasonableness standard in Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 8, RPC 1.5(a) — a ceiling on what counts as a reasonable fee, not a fixed rate you would be quoted as "X percent."
Is there a different fee rule if the death was caused by medical malpractice?
A 33 1/3% figure is sometimes cited under Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-120, but it applies only to health care liability claims, not to wrongful-death actions from ordinary accidents. Outside health care liability, there is no set percentage — a court weighs effort and complexity under the RPC 1.5(a) standard instead.
What if the death happened in a car accident, at work, or in a hospital?
The rules above apply generally. Depending on how the death occurred, the Tennessee car accident settlement calculator, the Tennessee workers' compensation calculator, and the Tennessee medical malpractice calculator may also be relevant. The statute of limitations by state page covers deadlines in other states.
Related
Wrongful Death Calculators by State
Wrongful-death damages, caps, and who can file vary by state:
Other Calculators for Tennessee
Each Tennessee calculator reflects state-specific laws (caps, statutes of limitations, comparative-negligence rules) and uses Tennessee verdict data where available.