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
Drunk driving kills people in Phoenix. Every year, without fail. In 2023 alone, the city lost 109 people to DUI crashes. More than double the year before. If a drunk driver took someone from your family and you landed on this page looking for answers, here is where we start. Arizona law gives you the right to file a wrongful death claim, go after real money, and make that driver answer for what they did in civil court.
We put this page together to explain the whole process. Who gets to file. What evidence actually wins. How punitive damages work in DUI death cases. And a law called dram shop liability that most families have never heard of, but that could let you sue the bar that kept pouring drinks.
Free case reviews. No fee unless your family wins.
Families call us after DUI deaths asking one thing before anything else. Do we have to wait for the criminal case, or can we move now? The answer is you move now. Not next month. Not after arraignment. Right now. Your civil claim exists from the moment your loved one dies.
A.R.S. 12-611 makes this work [1]. When someone dies because another person was negligent or acted wrongfully, surviving family members get to sue. A drunk driver who blows through a red on 7th Street after pounding drinks at a downtown Phoenix bar? Textbook case.
But not everyone in the family gets to file. A.R.S. 12-612 keeps the list short on purpose. Surviving spouse. Children. Parents or legal guardians. Estate personal representative. Nobody else makes the cut. Your brother can't file. Grandma can't file. An unmarried partner has no standing unless a court names them estate rep.
Phoenix averages about 1,350 DUI crashes a year. Downtown, Laveen, South Mountain, these neighborhoods keep showing up in the data. If your family lost someone in one of these areas, or anywhere in the city, you don't need a criminal conviction in hand before you pick up the phone.
Whether your family member survived with catastrophic injuries or did not survive at all, our DUI accident lawyers handle both the personal injury and wrongful death sides of these claims.
This part confuses people more than anything. They think a criminal guilty verdict is step one. It isn't.
Criminal cases and civil cases are two completely different animals in Arizona. Separate courts. Separate judges. Separate rules of evidence. And the standard of proof? Night and day difference.
A criminal prosecutor needs proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The hardest standard anywhere in American law. Your wrongful death attorney? Preponderance of the evidence. Was the drunk driver more likely than not responsible for the death? If yes, you win. Much easier hill to climb.
Driver gets acquitted at trial? Your claim survives. DA drops the charges over a paperwork problem? Still alive. Remember the O.J. Simpson case? Acquitted of criminal murder. Found liable in the civil wrongful death trial. Same principle works in Maricopa County right now.
And here's a piece most families don't think about. Everything the police and prosecutors collect during the criminal investigation, the blood draws, the body cam video, the crash reconstruction, all of it feeds directly into your civil case. You benefit from their work whether or not the DA gets a conviction.
One warning though. Maricopa County courts are buried in DUI cases. Criminal dockets move slow. If you sit on your hands waiting for that process to finish before starting the civil side, you could slam right into the two-year statute of limitations wall. Run both tracks at the same time. We can show you how.
Four elements. That's all a wrongful death case requires. The driver owed everyone on the road a duty of care. They broke that duty by driving drunk. The breach caused someone to die. And your family suffered real, measurable losses.
The breach element in a DUI case? Basically writes itself. Nobody can argue that driving hammered is reasonable behavior. Where the case gets won or lost is in the evidence. And evidence has a shelf life.
Your attorney needs to grab these things fast. Blood alcohol results showing 0.08 or higher. Arizona goes further than most states here, recognizing extreme DUI at 0.15 and super extreme at 0.20. Those elevated numbers aren't just criminal sentencing factors. In civil court they scream recklessness to a jury, and recklessness unlocks punitive damages.
Our attorneys secured $6 million for a family after a wreck that caused a brain injury and eventually killed their loved one. Our team started collecting evidence within days. That's not a coincidence. Blood samples degrade. Security footage? Most systems tape over it within 30 to 90 days. Witnesses relocate, or their memories just get fuzzy.
Don't wait on the evidence part. Call before things disappear. That's the most practical advice we give.
DUI cases hit different in one specific way. Punitive damages. Most wrongful death claims max out at two buckets of money. DUI cases open up a third.
Bucket one is economic damages. The calculable stuff. Hospital bills from however long your loved one survived after the crash. Funeral costs. The income they would have earned over a lifetime. Property destroyed in the wreck.
Bucket two is non-economic damages. Harder to measure but just as real. The empty chair at dinner. Your kids asking questions you can't answer. The mental weight of that phone call you got. Loss of companionship, consortium, guidance, emotional support.
Bucket three only shows up when the defendant did something truly reckless. Like driving drunk. Arizona puts no cap on punitive damages. None. Zero. A Maricopa County jury that believes a drunk driver deserves punishment can award whatever amount they decide fits the crime. That is a direct quote of how the law works here.
Lump sum or structured payout, either one works. Depends on what makes sense for your family's situation. We walk clients through those options when the time comes.
Our firm brings 250 plus years of combined experience to wrongful death work. Over $600 million recovered across all personal injury cases. For the damage calculations, we bring in economists, vocational analysts, and life care planners to build a number that holds up in front of a jury.
Two years. That's how long Arizona gives your family to file. A.R.S. 12-542 starts the clock on the date your loved one actually died [2]. Not the crash date. If they hung on in the hospital for two weeks before passing, the deadline runs from the day they passed.
Miss it and the courthouse door is locked. Doesn't matter why you were late. Grief, confusion, the criminal case dragging on, none of that buys you an extension. Two years and it's over.
Some families get even less time. If the drunk driver was a government employee on the job, a city worker, a county vehicle, whatever, your family has only 180 days to file a notice of claim. Six months. Blow that shorter deadline and the government entity walks away clean.
Survival actions have their own timeline too. If you're going after damages for the suffering your loved one experienced before they died, the filing window might be different from the wrongful death deadline.
Here's what families keep telling us. "We thought we had plenty of time. Then we looked up and a year and a half was gone." Grief swallows time like nothing else.
One call to our office costs nothing and preserves everything. Even if you're months away from being ready to think about legal action, getting on the phone now means your options stay open.
Most families assume they're suing one person. The drunk driver. But Arizona has a statute that could put a second or third defendant on the hook, and that means more money available for your family.
A.R.S. 4-311. Arizona's dram shop law [3]. It holds bars, restaurants, and any licensed alcohol seller responsible when they serve someone who is obviously intoxicated and that person then causes harm. Including killing someone on the road.
"Obviously intoxicated" isn't vague in Arizona law. It means the person's physical faculties were substantially impaired. Stumbling. Slurring words. Can't stand up straight. The kind of condition any halfway attentive bartender would spot immediately.
Phoenix is full of places where this happens. The bar scene along Roosevelt Row. Establishments near the Old Town Scottsdale line. Mill Avenue in Tempe, right next door. Bartenders at these spots serve hundreds of people a night. When one of them watches a patron down eight cocktails over three hours and never cuts them off? That establishment just bought itself a lawsuit.
Dram shop evidence looks like this:
Company events create liability too. An employer throws a holiday party with an open bar. Employee drinks too much, drives home, kills somebody. That employer could be on the hook.
Your family sues the driver and the bar in the same case. Here's why that matters practically. Drunk drivers are often young. Sometimes uninsured. Sometimes carrying Arizona state minimum coverage, which is $25,000. Against a wrongful death claim worth six or seven figures, that's nothing. But the bar's commercial insurance policy? The restaurant's umbrella coverage? Those are worth real money. Two defendants means two insurance policies. More coverage means more recovery for your family.
We share actual case results below because you deserve to see the kind of outcomes aggressive legal work produces. These are not predictions. Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances.
Every case is different. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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
No. The civil claim is independent. Evidence from the criminal case can help, but a conviction is not required. Families can file both at the same time in Maricopa County.
Most cases resolve in 12 to 24 months. Cases involving multiple defendants or disputed liability take longer. Dram shop claims that add a bar or restaurant as a defendant can extend the timeline. An early consultation helps set realistic expectations.
Request the police report. Preserve all medical records and crash scene evidence. Don't talk to the at-fault driver's insurance company. Contact a wrongful death attorney for a free case review before the statute of limitations begins to run.
Yes. Arizona allows punitive damages when the defendant acted with extreme recklessness. Drunk driving often meets this threshold, especially at extreme BAC levels (0.15+) or super extreme levels (0.20+). There is no cap on punitive damages in Arizona.
Arizona's dram shop law (A.R.S. 4-311) permits claims against establishments that served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron. This adds another source of compensation for Phoenix families.
Arizona law directs damages to the surviving spouse, children, or parents. If multiple family members are eligible, the court may order a fair distribution plan.
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