What Is the Grieving Families Act?

The Grieving Families Act is proposed New York legislation that would let families recover for grief, anguish, and loss of companionship in wrongful death cases. It would also widen who can recover and extend the filing deadline. The New York Legislature has passed it four times. Governor Hochul has vetoed it each time, most recently in December 2025, so it is not law.

Kelner & Kelner represents New York City families who have lost someone in a crash, a construction collapse, a fall, or a medical error. Senior partner Robert S. Kelner and the firm's trial team prepare every wrongful death file as if a jury will hear it. This post explains what the Grieving Families Act would change, where it stands, and what New York wrongful death law allows today. For more on how these claims work, see our New York wrongful death lawyers page.

Is the Grieving Families Act Law in New York Yet?

No. As of this writing, the Grieving Families Act has not become law in New York. Governor Hochul vetoed versions in January 2023, December 2023, December 2024, and December 2025. A new version would have to pass both the Senate and the Assembly again and then be signed or survive a veto override.

Each version has passed both houses by wide, bipartisan margins. Each time, the governor said lawmakers had not adopted the changes she asked for. She cited concerns about higher insurance premiums and the cost to hospitals, especially public hospitals serving lower-income communities. After the December 2025 veto, she said publicly that she remains open to negotiating a narrower bill.

The bill has come back after every veto, so a future version is possible. Until one is signed, wrongful death claims in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island are governed by the existing statute. A family should not wait on the bill before protecting a claim, because current deadlines keep running.

What Would the Grieving Families Act Change About New York Wrongful Death Law?

The version vetoed in 2025 (Senate Bill S4423) would have made three main changes. It would add damages for grief, anguish, and loss of companionship. It would expand who can recover beyond legal heirs to a wider group of close family. And it would extend the filing deadline from two years to three.

The bill would amend two sections of the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL): § 5-4.1, which sets the deadline, and § 5-4.3, which sets the damages. As passed in 2025, it would have done the following:

• Add damages for emotional loss. Grief or anguish caused by the death, plus loss of nurture, guidance, counsel, advice, companionship, and education.
• Expand who can recover. Beyond distributees (the heirs who inherit when there is no will), it would include a wider group of "close family members." That group includes spouses and domestic partners, children and stepchildren, foster children, parents and stepparents, grandparents, siblings, and anyone who stood in the role of a parent.
• Lengthen the deadline. Families would have three years from the date of death to file, instead of two.

Earlier versions differed in their details. One version would have given families three years and six months to file. A future bill could look different again. Any family relying on a proposed change should check the final language of whatever actually passes.

What Can Families Recover Under New York's Wrongful Death Law Today?

Current New York law, EPTL § 5-4.3, limits wrongful death damages to pecuniary loss, meaning financial loss to the family. That covers lost income and support, lost household services, and funeral and medical expenses. Families cannot recover for their own grief. A separate survival claim can recover the person's own conscious pain and suffering before death.

The wrongful death claim compensates the family for what the death cost them financially. Recoverable categories include:

• Lost earnings and support. The income and financial support the person would have provided over their lifetime.
• Lost household services. The value of childcare, home care, and other services the person provided.
• Loss of parental guidance. New York courts treat the loss of a parent's guidance to a child as a financial loss, so it can be recovered.
• Funeral and medical expenses. Reasonable funeral costs and the medical bills from the injury that caused the death.

A survival action, under EPTL § 11-3.2, is a separate claim brought by the estate for what the person suffered before death. It can recover the person's conscious pain and suffering, from the moment of injury until death. Proving conscious suffering often depends on emergency medical service run sheets, 911 audio, witness accounts, and hospital records. Our FAQ on filing for wrongful death in New York covers more of the basics.

Why Do Families and Advocates Say New York's Wrongful Death Law Needs Changing?

Supporters say a statute based on earnings undervalues the lives of children, retirees, stay-at-home parents, and lower-income workers. New York's wrongful death statute dates to 1847, and the state is one of very few that bar families from recovering for grief. Advocates argue the Grieving Families Act would value a life regardless of the paycheck it brought home.

Supporters point out how the current rules work in practice. When a young child dies, the family's provable financial loss can be very small, even though the loss itself is immense. When a retired grandparent dies, the family may recover little beyond funeral costs. Critics of the current law say this falls hardest on families with modest incomes.

Opponents, including insurers and the Medical Society of the State of New York, argue that a broader law would raise insurance premiums and strain hospitals. That disagreement is why the bill has passed the Legislature four times without becoming law.

Who Can Bring a Wrongful Death Claim in New York Right Now?

Under EPTL § 5-4.1, only the personal representative of the person's estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit in New York. That is the executor named in a will or an administrator appointed by the Surrogate's Court. Any money recovered goes to the distributees, the heirs defined by EPTL § 4-1.1.

When there is no will, the family must ask the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person lived to appoint an administrator. That might be New York County Surrogate's Court in Manhattan or Kings County Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn. The appointment can take time, and the lawsuit cannot be filed until it happens. Starting that process early protects the family's position on filing deadlines.

Under today's law, an unmarried partner, a stepchild who was never adopted, or a close friend who acted as a parent generally has no right to recover. The Grieving Families Act would have widened that circle, but until a version becomes law, the current list of distributees controls.

How Long Do New York Families Have to File a Wrongful Death Claim?

Under EPTL § 5-4.1, a wrongful death lawsuit in New York must generally be filed within two years of the date of death. Claims against the City of New York or another public entity also require a notice of claim, usually within 90 days of the estate representative's appointment.

A notice of claim is the formal notice you serve on the City or another public entity before you can sue it. Under General Municipal Law § 50-e, the 90-day clock in a death case runs from the appointment of the estate's representative. Under General Municipal Law § 50-i, the lawsuit must generally be filed within two years of the death. These rules apply to deaths involving the City, the MTA, NYCHA, and city agencies, such as a fatal crash with a city vehicle or a fall caused by a defective City sidewalk.

Medical malpractice deaths carry their own timing rules. Construction deaths may involve both a wrongful death claim and workers' compensation benefits. Because these deadlines interact, families should have the timeline reviewed soon after a death, even while the estate paperwork is still in progress.

Would the Grieving Families Act Apply to a Death That Already Happened?

That depends on the final language of any version that becomes law. Earlier versions differed on which deaths and pending cases they would cover. Since no version is law today, families should plan around the current two-year deadline and current damages rules rather than a proposed change.

Waiting for a bill that has not passed is a risk. If a family lets the current deadline pass expecting a longer one, the claim may be lost entirely. The safer course is to protect the claim under today's law. That way the case stays alive if a future law does change the damages rules.

How Does New York's 2026 Tort Reform Affect Wrongful Death Claims?

The May 2026 auto tort reform did not change New York's wrongful death damages. It rewrote fault and serious injury rules for motor vehicle injury lawsuits, but the Grieving Families Act's changes were not part of it. The new $100,000 cap on pain and suffering for certain at-fault drivers specifically excludes death cases.

Families who lost someone in a car, truck, or pedestrian crash still recover under EPTL § 5-4.3 and the survival statute. The new reform's comparative fault rules can still matter in some fatal crash cases, depending on the facts. Our fatal vehicle accident page explains how those cases are investigated. Deaths on job sites are covered on our construction accident wrongful death page.

How Do Our NYC Wrongful Death Lawyers Handle These Cases?

Our NYC wrongful death lawyers begin by preserving evidence and helping the family get an estate representative appointed. From there, the team proves both the cause of death and the full financial loss under current New York law. Every file is prepared as if a jury will hear it.

The work starts with preservation letters for surveillance footage, vehicle data, maintenance logs, and medical records, much of which can disappear within days. Where a public entity is involved, the notice of claim and the 50-h hearing come next. The 50-h hearing is an examination under oath that the City or another public entity can require before a lawsuit. The case then moves through filing in New York State Supreme Court, discovery, depositions, motion practice, mediation where appropriate, and trial and appeal where needed.

Proving the family's financial loss often requires outside professionals. Vocational economists project lost earnings and support. Life care planners and treating physicians document what the person endured. Accident reconstruction engineers or construction safety engineers explain how the death happened.

Who Can Explain Your Family's Options Under New York Wrongful Death Law?

If you lost a loved one in New York City, our NYC wrongful death attorneys can explain what current law allows and which deadlines apply. They can also tell you how any future change to the law might affect your family's claim.

Reach out to Kelner & Kelner when you are ready to talk.

Sources

• Hochul defends fourth veto of the Grieving Families Act (Spectrum News, December 2025)
• Families brace for decision on the Grieving Families Act (NY1, December 2025)
• Grieving Families legislation (New York State Senate)