Wrongful death is a claim in common law jurisdictions against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives. The claim is the result of statute. Under common law, a dead person cannot bring a suit, and this created a legal hole in which activities that resulted in a persons injury would result in civil sanction but activties that resulted in a persons death would not.

Unlike most criminal law cases, private parties bring the suit. In principle, the defendant can refuse to testify on the grounds of self-incrimination but if a defendant invokes this right, the defendant has presented no case and the plaintiff automatically wins the case.

The standard of proof is typically preponderance of the evidence as opposed to clear and convincing or beyond a reasonable doubt. For all the above reasons, it is often easier for a family to seek retribution against someone for wrongful death in tort than a proper criminal law conviction. It should be noted, however, that the two actions are not mutually exclusive; a person may be prosecuted criminally for causing a persons death (whether in the form of murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, or some other theory) and that person can also be sued civilly in a wrongful death action.

In most, if not all states in the United States, there was no common law right to recover civil damages for the wrongful death of a person. However, now the states have each enacted statutes to correct this deficiency in the law so that there is a right to such recovery. The issue of liability will be determined by the tort law of a given state.