Wrongful death is a lawsuit claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in civil court, usually by close relatives of the deceased. Under common law, a dead person cannot bring a lawsuit. However relatives may file a wrongful death claim in cases where had the person not died, activities that resulted in that person’s injury would result in a civil sanction. Just because someone has died should not mean those actions should go unpunished. So wrongful death claims were created to fill a legal hole whereby activities that resulted in a person’s injury would result in civil sanction but activities that resulted in a person’s death would not.