Primary Location
Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyers
2700 N Central Ave Suite 320, Phoenix, AZ 85004, United States
Phone: (602) 905-7766
Call us at (855) 855-8910
Call us at (855) 855-8910
A phone call from a hospital should mean your loved one is recovering. But in Phoenix, too many families get a different kind of call. The kind that changes everything.
Preventable medical errors kill people in this city every year. Not rare, freak accidents. Avoidable mistakes made by trained professionals who should have known better.
We see these types of errors in the wrongful death cases families bring to us:
Surgical errors are more common than most people think. Wrong-site surgery still happens. Surgeons leave instruments inside patients. Anesthesia gets dosed wrong, and the patient never wakes up.
Missed diagnoses destroy families. A doctor overlooks the signs of cancer or heart disease. By the time another provider catches it, the window for treatment has closed. That delay killed someone who could have been saved.
Emergency room chaos plays a role, too. Phoenix-area ERs get overcrowded, especially in Maryvale and south Phoenix. Patients wait too long. Imaging gets misread. People get discharged when they should have been admitted.
Medication mix-ups sound minor until they're fatal. Wrong drug. Wrong dose. A dangerous interaction nobody flagged. These aren't judgment calls. They're failures of basic protocol.
After surgery, monitoring matters just as much as the procedure itself. When nurses or staff fail to catch complications during recovery, patients deteriorate fast.
And birth injuries carry their own kind of devastation. Errors during labor or delivery that take the life of a mother or newborn leave families shattered in a way that's hard to describe.
Phoenix has over 60 hospitals and urgent care centers. High volume means higher risk. That's not an excuse. It's a pattern.
A preventable birth injury — including oxygen deprivation during delivery or a missed emergency C-section — can be fatal for a newborn and may give the family grounds for a wrongful death claim.
A fatal surgical error — whether from wrong-site surgery, anesthesia overdose, or a post-operative infection the care team failed to catch — can form the basis of a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital and its staff.
Bad outcomes happen in medicine. That's reality. But there's a difference between a patient who received good care and still didn't make it, and a patient who died because a doctor got careless.
Arizona law draws that line clearly. Four elements make up a medical malpractice wrongful death case:
A duty of care existed. The doctor or hospital accepted responsibility for treating your loved one.
The provider breached the standard of care. They didn't do what a competent physician in the same specialty would have done. Missed a test. Ignored a red flag. Took a shortcut.
That breach caused the death. Not just contributed. Caused it. This is the element defense lawyers attack hardest. They'll argue the patient was already terminal, or that the outcome would have been the same regardless. That argument often falls apart under expert review, but it makes causation the toughest piece to prove.
Your family suffered real damages. Financial losses, emotional devastation, the permanent absence of someone you depended on.
Here's what families often don't know going in: Arizona requires expert witnesses who practice in the exact same medical specialty as the defendant. That comes from ARS 12-2604 [1]. You can't bring a cardiologist to testify against an orthopedic surgeon. The expert has to match.
These cases move through Maricopa County Superior Court [2]. Defense teams are well-funded and aggressive. They drag things out. A solid case, backed by strong medical evidence, is the only way through.
Not every family member can file. Arizona is specific about who has standing.
ARS 12-612 [3] lays it out:
Here's the part that surprises people: Arizona allows only one wrongful death lawsuit per incident. Every eligible family member has to join the same case. Separate lawsuits aren't an option.
There's another layer to this, too. A wrongful death claim compensates the family for what they lost. Income. Companionship. The daily presence of someone they counted on. A survival action is different. That one covers what the patient endured before dying. Pain. Suffering. Medical bills racked up between the error and the death. Both claims can be pursued together.
If your family lives near Central Phoenix, Arcadia, or the Biltmore area, you can sit down with our team at 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320. No charge for the initial meeting.
Nobody thinks clearly after losing a family member. Grief takes over and legal strategy feels impossible. But what you do in the first few weeks matters more than most people realize.
Get the medical records before anything else. Full records. Charts, nursing notes, lab work, imaging, discharge paperwork. Hospitals have to provide them, but you want those files in your hands fast. Records have been known to change after a family raises concerns. Don't give them the chance.
Sit down and write out the timeline while it's fresh. When did you first notice something was wrong? What did the hospital do? What did they miss? Your memory of these details will fade. Put them on paper now.
If the hospital or its insurer sends paperwork, don't sign it. Settlement offers that arrive early are lowball numbers designed to close the matter quickly. Release forms can kill your right to file a lawsuit. Talk to a lawyer first. Always.
Bring in an attorney who actually handles medical malpractice wrongful death claims. Not a general practice firm. Someone who works with medical experts and knows how to read the records, spot the error, and build the case around it.
And watch the calendar. Arizona gives you two years from the date of death under ARS 12-542. That sounds like plenty of time. It isn't. Expert review, record collection, and case preparation eat through those months fast. If the malpractice wasn't obvious right away, the discovery rule may push the deadline out, but banking on that is risky.
Some families tell us they feel guilty talking about money after losing someone. We get that. But here's the honest truth: compensation doesn't replace your loved one. It stops the financial fallout from landing on your family's shoulders when someone else caused the loss.
Arizona breaks recoverable damages into categories.
Economic damages are the measurable financial losses. Medical bills from treatment before death. Funeral and burial costs. The income and future earnings your family will never receive. Household services the deceased would have provided, like childcare, home maintenance, or financial management.
Non-economic damages reflect what numbers can't capture. The loss of daily companionship. Grief that follows you everywhere. The consortium a surviving spouse lost. Mental anguish that doesn't have a receipt attached to it.
Punitive damages come into play when the provider's behavior was more than negligent. An impaired surgeon. A hospital that knew about repeated safety violations and looked the other way. These damages exist to punish conduct that crosses a line.
Survival action damages cover the suffering your loved one experienced between the medical error and their death. Pain, fear, and medical expenses incurred during that window all count.
Arizona's legal framework favors families in two ways. Pure comparative fault means you can recover damages even if the patient bore some responsibility for the outcome. And there's no cap on medical malpractice damages in this state. None. A jury decides what's fair, period.
Our legal team secured a $6 million settlement for a family after an accident resulted in traumatic brain injury and wrongful death. In a separate case, our attorneys obtained a $3.15 million settlement from a wrongful death caused by a commercial truck collision. Results vary by case, but we fight hard for every family we represent.
The doctor who made the mistake is the first name people think of. Fair enough. But medical malpractice wrongful death cases rarely involve just one person.
Multiple parties may share liability:
Hospitals face their own kind of accountability. When a facility is understaffed and the remaining staff is stretched too thin, mistakes happen. When training is inadequate, mistakes happen. When a hospital administration knows about a safety problem and ignores it, that's institutional negligence. The facility is liable, not just the individual who made the error.
Phoenix's largest systems, including Banner Health, HonorHealth, Valleywise Health, and Dignity Health St. Joseph's, handle massive patient loads. Volume alone doesn't cause malpractice. But volume combined with systemic failures does. And when it leads to a death that should have been prevented, the institution answers for it.
Our legal team obtained a $41.6 million verdict in a wrongful death case. This stands as one of the largest wrongful death verdicts our firm has achieved.
We secured a $6 million settlement after an accident caused traumatic brain injury and wrongful death. The family needed aggressive representation, and our team delivered.
Our attorneys recovered $3.15 million in a wrongful death from a commercial truck collision on the freeway. The case settled in a timeframe that allowed the family to move forward.
Every case is different. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
People ask us whether they really need a lawyer for a medical malpractice wrongful death claim. The short answer: yes. Always. Here's why.
Hospitals don't wait to see what you'll do. The moment a potential claim surfaces, their insurance carrier activates a defense team. Seasoned attorneys. Retained medical experts. A strategy designed to minimize what they pay or avoid paying anything at all. Walking into that fight without equal representation is a losing proposition.
Arizona's expert witness requirement adds another layer. Under state law, you must retain a medical specialist in the same field as the defendant. That expert reviews the records, identifies where care fell below the standard, and testifies about what proper treatment would have looked like. These experts don't advertise on Google. Connecting with the right one takes established relationships and industry knowledge.
Here's something else worth knowing. Most of these cases settle before trial. But the settlement number depends entirely on whether the hospital believes you'll actually take them to court. Firms that try cases get better offers. Full stop. A paper tiger gets a paper offer.
At The Simon Law Group, we handle the entire process. Investigation. Evidence preservation. Expert consultation. Negotiation. And if the case needs a courtroom, we're prepared for that too. There's no upfront cost. We work on contingency, and we evaluate every case for free.
Our firm brings over 250 years of combined experience and more than $600 million recovered for clients. Our Phoenix office sits on the Central Avenue corridor, close to the Maricopa County courts where these cases get filed and tried. Proximity to the courthouse matters when depositions, hearings, and trial dates stack up.
Our attorneys have handled personal injury cases across Arizona and California. We know how Phoenix insurance companies operate, and we know how to push back.
That number reflects real results for real families — medical bills paid, lost wages recovered, and futures protected.
You pay nothing upfront. Our fee comes out of your settlement or verdict. If we do not win your case, you owe us nothing.
Accidents do not follow business hours. Neither do we. Call (602) 905-7766 any time — nights, weekends, and holidays.
Our Phoenix team works out of 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320. We know the roads, the courts, and the insurance adjusters you are up against.
“After a crash, you need a team that answers the phone, explains your options, and fights for every dollar you are owed. That is what we do at The Simon Law Group.”
Over 250 years of combined attorney experience
Phoenix office at 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320 |
Licensed in Arizona and California
Under ARS 12-612, the surviving spouse, children, parents, or the estate's personal representative can file. Arizona requires all eligible family members to join one lawsuit.
Two years from the date of death under ARS 12-542. If the malpractice wasn't discovered right away, the discovery rule may apply. Claims against government hospitals may require notice within 180 days.
Surgical mistakes, failure to diagnose, emergency room errors, medication errors, and inadequate post-operative monitoring are the most frequent causes in Phoenix-area hospitals.
A wrongful death claim compensates the family for their losses, including companionship, income, and grief. A survival action compensates the estate for what the patient endured before death, such as pain, medical bills, and lost wages between the injury and death.
Yes. Arizona law (ARS 12-2604) requires expert testimony from a specialist in the same medical field as the defendant. The expert must confirm the provider deviated from the standard of care.
Yes. If the medical provider's negligence worsened the condition or caused death sooner than expected, your family may still have a valid claim. Arizona's comparative fault system allows recovery even if the patient shared some responsibility.
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