Losing a family member to someone else's negligence, whether it was caused by a drunk driver on Interstate 85 or a structural hazard at a rental property, is a loss no claim can undo, and pursuing a legal claim is rarely the first thing on a grieving family's mind.
South Carolina law gives certain family members and the estate the right to seek compensation for the harm caused by a wrongful death. The law also sets a three-year deadline for bringing a claim, making it important to understand your rights before the deadline passes.
The Arndt Law Firm represents families throughout Spartanburg and Spartanburg County who have lost loved ones because of negligence. When you’re ready, we’re here to listen, answer your questions, and help you understand your legal options. Contact us at (843) 310-4645 for a free case review.
A wrongful death claim arises when a person dies because of the negligence or wrongful act of another, in circumstances where the deceased could have brought a personal injury claim had they survived.
South Carolina's wrongful death statute, found at S.C. Code §§ 15-51-10 through 15-51-60, creates this right of recovery for the benefit of the deceased person's statutory beneficiaries. The claim addresses the harm the death causes to the surviving family, rather than to the deceased person.
Wrongful death claims can arise from many of the same circumstances as personal injury claims, when those circumstances prove fatal. Fatal motor vehicle crashes, including truck, motorcycle, and car accidents, are a common source, as are fatal pedestrian and bicycle crashes, deaths from dangerous property conditions, and other fatal incidents caused by negligence.
What makes a death a wrongful death is not the type of incident but the fact that it resulted from another party's negligence or wrongful conduct. The purpose of the claim is twofold: to provide a measure of accountability for the family and to address the very real losses the death imposes on them.
While no amount of money can replace a lost family member, the law recognizes that a wrongful death inflicts genuine harm on the survivors, both financial and deeply personal, and it provides a means to recover for that harm and to hold the responsible party accountable. For many families, the accountability matters as much as the recovery, because it affirms that the loss was caused by another's wrongful conduct and was not simply an unavoidable tragedy.
South Carolina law actually provides two distinct claims that can arise from a death. The wrongful death claim compensates the surviving beneficiaries for their own losses resulting from the death, while a separate survival action compensates the estate for the harm the deceased person suffered before death. These are different claims, with different beneficiaries and different categories of damages, and a complete case involves both.
The wrongful death claim addresses what the survivors lost. This includes the financial support the deceased would have provided, the loss of the deceased's companionship, care, and guidance, the grief and mental suffering of the beneficiaries, and the funeral and burial expenses. These damages flow to the statutory beneficiaries and reflect the impact of the death on the family who survives.
The survival action, by contrast, belongs to the estate and addresses what the deceased person experienced. Under S.C. Code § 15-5-90, the survival action allows the estate to recover for the deceased person's own pain and suffering before death, the medical expenses incurred in treating the final injury, and the conscious suffering the person endured between the injury and death.
Where a person survived for a period after the injury, conscious and in pain, the survival action can be substantial, while where death was instantaneous, this component may be limited.
Distinguishing what the family lost from what the deceased endured, and pursuing both the wrongful death and survival claims, is essential to capturing the full measure of a recovery. The two address fundamentally different harms, and overlooking either leaves part of the loss unaddressed.
The distinction between instantaneous death and death after a period of survival is worth understanding because it affects the survival component of the recovery. When a person dies at the scene of a crash, the recovery of the survival action for conscious pain and suffering may be limited, because there was little or no period of conscious suffering.
But when a person survives for hours, days, or longer after the fatal injury, conscious and in pain, enduring medical interventions and the awareness of their situation, the survival action can recover substantially for that suffering. The medical course between the injury and death, including whether and for how long the person was conscious, is an important piece of evidence for valuing the survival claim.
In South Carolina, a wrongful death claim must be brought by the executor or administrator of the deceased's estate, the person formally appointed to represent it. This means that before a wrongful death claim can proceed, the estate generally must be opened and a personal representative appointed, a step that is part of the early process in these cases.
While the personal representative brings the claim, the recovery belongs to the statutory beneficiaries, whom the law identifies in a specific order of priority. The first priority is the deceased person's spouse and children, who are the beneficiaries when they survive.
If there is no spouse or child, the deceased person's parents are the beneficiaries. If there are no surviving spouse, children, or parents, the beneficiaries are the heirs of the deceased as determined by the law of intestate succession. This structure determines who receives the recovery and shapes how a claim is handled.
The personal representative acts on behalf of the beneficiaries, and the recovery is distributed according to the statutory priorities rather than under the deceased's will. The proper personal representative and the statutory beneficiaries must be identified early in the process because it establishes who has the right to pursue the claim and who will benefit from it.
In most cases, the structure is straightforward, with a surviving spouse and children as the clear beneficiaries, but when the family situation is more complex, sorting out the beneficiaries and their priorities is part of properly handling the claim.
The distinction between the personal representative and the beneficiaries is one that families do not always anticipate, and it is worth clarifying. The personal representative is the person with the legal authority to bring the claim, often a surviving spouse, an adult child, or another family member, but the recovery does not belong to that person individually; it belongs to the statutory beneficiaries as a group, distributed according to the priorities the law sets.
This means that even when one family member serves as the personal representative and brings the claim, they do so on behalf of all the beneficiaries, and the proceeds are allocated among them under the law rather than retained by the representative.
South Carolina law allows recovery for the full range of harm a wrongful death causes the surviving family, including both financial and deeply personal losses. The economic damages include the financial support the deceased would have provided to the family over their lifetime, the value of services the deceased provided to the family, and the funeral and burial expenses.
For a family that depended on the deceased's income, the loss of future support can be a substantial component, calculated based on the deceased's earnings and expected working life.
The non-economic damages address the human dimension of the loss, which is the heart of a wrongful death claim. These include the loss of the deceased's companionship, the loss of their care, guidance, and protection, and the grief and mental suffering the death causes the beneficiaries.
South Carolina law recognizes these losses as real and compensable. Even though they cannot be measured with the precision of financial losses, they reflect the genuine impact of losing a spouse, parent, or child, a loss that reshapes the daily lives of those left behind.
Where the conduct that caused the death was especially egregious, punitive damages may be available. Punitive damages can carry particular significance in a wrongful death case, because the conduct that causes a death is sometimes genuinely reckless rather than merely careless.
A death caused by a drunk driver, by a driver who fled the scene, or by a company that knowingly disregarded safety can involve exactly the kind of conduct punitive damages are designed to punish and deter. Where the responsible party was impaired by alcohol or drugs, the usual cap on punitive damages is lifted, allowing an award that reflects the full gravity of the conduct.
For a grieving family, the punitive component can be an important part of the accountability a wrongful death claim provides, affirming that the conduct that took their loved one was not a mere accident but a wrong the law condemns.
Punitive damages require proof by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct, under S.C. Code § 15-32-520. They are generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000, under § 15-32-530.
That cap does not apply at all where the defendant intended to harm, was convicted of or pled guilty to a felony arising from the same conduct, or acted while impaired by alcohol or drugs to the extent that their faculties were impaired.
The combination of wrongful death damages, the survival action's recovery for the deceased's own suffering, and any punitive damages allows a case to reflect the full measure of the loss.
Valuing a wrongful death claim is among the most difficult and important parts of these cases, because the law asks for a measure of losses that resist easy calculation.
The economic component, the financial support and services the deceased would have provided, can be estimated using the deceased's earnings, work history, and expected working life, along with the value of the contributions they made to the household that were not financial, such as childcare, home maintenance, and the countless ways a family member supports those around them. These calculations draw on economic analysis to project what the family has lost in concrete terms.
The economic analysis in a wrongful death case can be more involved than it first appears, because it must account not only for the income the deceased would have earned but for the full range of their contributions over a lifetime. A parent who stayed home to raise children provided services of real economic value even without a paycheck, and a working family member provided not only income but also the benefits, the household labor, and the support that the family relied on.
Projecting these losses requires considering the deceased's age, health, earnings, occupation, and expected working life, along with the value of the non-financial contributions, often with the help of economic professionals who can quantify what the family has lost in support over the years to come. This careful projection is what allows the economic component of a wrongful death claim to reflect the true financial impact of the loss, which can be substantial for a family that depended on the deceased.
The non-economic component is harder to quantify but usually accounts for the larger part of the loss. The companionship of a spouse, the guidance of a parent, the presence of a child, and the relationships that a death severs are losses of immense value that no formula can capture.
South Carolina law entrusts the measure of these losses to the judgment of a jury, guided by the evidence of who the deceased was and what they meant to their family, and conveying that fully requires telling the story of a life and a family rather than reducing it to numbers. The account of the deceased's relationships, their role in the family, and the void their death has left is what allows a claim to reflect the true dimensions of the loss.
This is why a wrongful death claim is, in an important sense, about establishing the value of a particular life to a particular family, rather than applying a standard figure. Two people of similar age and income may leave behind very different losses depending on their relationships, their role in their families, and the people who depended on them, and a claim that captures the full loss has to convey those specifics.
The work of valuing the loss, drawing on both the economic analysis and the human story, is central to a wrongful death case that seeks to reflect what the family has actually lost, and it is part of what distinguishes a claim handled with care from one that settles for an insurer's formula.
Fatal incidents in the Spartanburg area arise from the same kinds of negligence that cause serious injuries, but with the gravest consequences. The area's roads are a frequent setting where heavy traffic, freight volume, and the high speeds of the interstate system can turn a crash into a fatal one.
According to data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS), Spartanburg County recorded 190 fatal and serious-injury crashes in 2025. The two heaviest corridors by total casualties were US-29 and I-85.
Spartanburg sits at the interchange of I-85 and I-26, one of the busiest commercial-freight crossroads in the Southeast, and the mix of tractor-trailers, finished vehicles from the BMW plant, supplier trucks, and commuter and local traffic at high speed creates the conditions in which fatal crashes occur, particularly when a truck is involved.
Heavy commercial traffic contributes to the area's fatal crashes. A collision between a passenger vehicle and a fully loaded tractor-trailer, given the enormous disparity in weight, is far more likely to be fatal than a collision between two cars, and the freight corridors that run through the area concentrate this danger.
When a fatal crash involves a commercial vehicle, the investigation must account for federal trucking regulations, the multiple parties who may bear responsibility, and the substantial insurance that commercial operations carry, all of which are relevant to a wrongful death claim arising from such a crash. The freight-corridor character of the area thus shapes not only how some fatal crashes happen but also how the resulting claims must be built.
The other roads and conditions of the area contribute as well. I-26 and the major arterials carry fast-moving traffic where fatal crashes occur, and the mix of vehicles, including motorcycles and the cyclists and pedestrians who share the area's roads, means fatal crashes can involve the most vulnerable road users.
Fatal incidents also arise off the roads, from dangerous property conditions and other negligence, wherever a failure to exercise reasonable care proves deadly.
When a fatal or critical injury occurs in the Spartanburg area, the most critically injured are taken to Spartanburg Medical Center, an American College of Surgeons-verified Level I trauma center. In some cases, a person is pronounced at the scene, while in others, they survive for a period, conscious or not, before succumbing to their injuries.
The difference bears on the survival action, since a period of conscious suffering before death is a recoverable harm. The trauma care records document the final injury and any period of survival, which is relevant to both the wrongful death and survival claims.
The presence of a Level I trauma center in Spartanburg means that many critically injured people in the area receive the highest level of trauma care available, and some who might not survive elsewhere are saved, while others, despite that care, do not survive their injuries.
For a family, the period during which a loved one received trauma care, whether it ended in recovery or in death, is part of the story of the loss, and the medical records from that period document both the severity of the injury and any conscious suffering the person endured.
Where a person was brought to the trauma center and survived for a time before dying, that period is relevant to the survival action, and the detailed records that a Level I center generates can establish what the person experienced. The full medical course, from the scene through the trauma care to the death, is necessary to build a wrongful death and survival case that reflects everything the incident took from the family and inflicted on the deceased.
While traffic fatalities on I-85, I-26, and the area's arterial roads are the most common source of wrongful death claims in Spartanburg, negligence that proves fatal is not limited to the highway. A family's claim can arise from a hospital room, a nursing home, a job site, or a business's failure to keep its property safe, and each setting brings its own legal framework.
When a death results from a misdiagnosis, a surgical error, a medication mistake, or a delayed response to a patient's declining condition, the claim proceeds as a medical malpractice wrongful death case, which carries additional legal steps beyond an ordinary negligence claim.
Under S.C. Code § 15-79-125, before a lawsuit can even be filed, the family must serve a Notice of Intent to File Suit on every healthcare provider believed to be responsible, accompanied by an affidavit from a qualified medical expert identifying at least one negligent act or omission, as required by § 15-36-100. The parties are then required to participate in a mediation conference within roughly 90 to 120 days of that notice, a step intended to resolve some cases before litigation begins.
Spartanburg's nursing homes and assisted living facilities are entrusted with residents who are often unable to protect themselves, and a death caused by understaffing, medication errors, unaddressed bedsores, dehydration, or a preventable fall is a wrongful death claim in its own right.
These cases often present the added complication of an arbitration agreement, since many facilities ask a resident or their family member to sign one at admission, requiring disputes to be resolved outside of court.
Spartanburg's manufacturing and logistics base, anchored by the BMW plant and its supplier network along the I-85 corridor, means that a fatal workplace incident is a claim families in the area may face.
Under S.C. Code § 42-1-540, workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against a deceased worker's own employer, a rule that bars the family from suing the employer directly even in a wrongful death case. But that exclusivity does not extend to other parties whose negligence contributed to the death.
Under § 42-1-560, the family retains the right to bring a wrongful death claim against a negligent third party, such as another contractor on a job site, the manufacturer of a defective piece of equipment, a driver from an outside company, or a property owner whose premises were unsafe. Where a third-party recovery is obtained, the workers' compensation carrier that paid benefits typically holds a lien against it, which is accounted for in how the claim is resolved.
A death can also result from a dangerous condition on someone else's property, such as an unaddressed structural hazard, an unsecured swimming pool, or inadequate lighting and security in an apartment complex or business parking lot that allows a foreseeable assault to occur.
In these cases, the property owner's or manager's knowledge of the danger and what they did or failed to do about it is often central to establishing liability. Because these claims turn heavily on what a property owner knew or should have known before the death occurred, an early investigation into prior incidents, maintenance records, or the location's security history is necessary to build the case.
For a family considering a wrongful death claim, understanding the general process can help, even before they are ready to begin. The process starts with opening the estate and appointing a personal representative, since the claim must be brought by that representative on behalf of the beneficiaries. This step, part of the probate process, establishes authority to pursue the claim and is a prerequisite to doing so.
With the personal representative in place, the claim proceeds much like any serious personal injury claim, with the investigation establishing how the death occurred and who was responsible, the gathering of the evidence and the records that document the loss, and the development of the wrongful death and survival claims.
The investigation examines the circumstances of the death, identifies the responsible parties and the available insurance, and assembles the proof of both the family's loss and the deceased's pre-death suffering. The medical records, accident or incident reports, witness accounts, and economic and personal evidence of the loss all come together to support the claim.
Most wrongful death claims, like most injury claims, are resolved through settlement rather than trial, though filing suit within the deadline preserves the family's rights and strengthens their position. Because a wrongful death recovery is for the benefit of the statutory beneficiaries, South Carolina law provides for court approval of a wrongful death settlement and the allocation of the proceeds among the beneficiaries, which is part of concluding the claim.
Any wrongful death or survival settlement must be approved by a probate court, a circuit court, or the U.S. District Court under S.C. Code § 15-51-41, and only a duly appointed personal representative has authority to settle under § 15-51-42.
Where the beneficiaries are the decedent's parents, § 15-51-40 allows the probate court, on motion, to deny or limit a parent's share if that parent failed to reasonably provide support during the decedent's minority.
Throughout the process, a grieving family can move at a pace that respects their loss, and the practical and legal steps can be handled for them, so that pursuing accountability for their loved one's death does not add to the burden of their grief.
Yes. A criminal prosecution and a civil wrongful death claim are separate proceedings that can move forward independently of one another, and a criminal conviction is not required for a family to recover in a wrongful death case.
This matters because the burden of proof differs significantly between the two: a criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while a wrongful death claim requires only a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely than not that the defendant's negligence or wrongful conduct caused the death.
A family can pursue a wrongful death claim whether the responsible party is criminally charged, convicted, acquitted, or never charged at all, though a criminal conviction, if one occurs, can sometimes serve as useful evidence in the civil case.
In South Carolina, the wrongful death claim runs three years from the date of death under S.C. Code § 15-3-530(6), which states that the period begins to run ‘upon the death of the person on account of whose death the action is brought.’
The survival action is a different claim on a different clock: it is the injury claim the deceased person owned, and it runs three years from the date of the injury under § 15-3-530(5). Where someone survived for a long period after the injury, the survival claim can expire before the wrongful death claim, so both dates should be checked.
Some circumstances carry different deadlines. When a government entity caused the death, the claim falls under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, and the deadline is two years from the date the loss was or should have been discovered. That deadline extends to three years if a verified claim is first filed with the entity, and such a claim must be received within one year of the loss.
Because the area includes public roads, facilities, and government operations, the question of whether a government entity is involved can arise. The Act also caps recovery at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence and bars punitive damages against the government.
While the three-year deadline gives families time, there are reasons not to wait too long, even when the standard deadline applies. The evidence that establishes how the death occurred, the scene, the witnesses, and the physical evidence degrade over time, and opening the estate and appointing a personal representative takes time of their own.
There is a balance between respecting the family's need to grieve and ensuring that the evidence and legal steps are not lost to delay, so that a family can begin to understand their options without committing to anything before they are ready.
The estate process is a prerequisite for the claim and takes some time to complete. A wrongful death and survival claim must be brought by the personal representative of the estate, which means the estate must be opened and a representative formally appointed before the claim can proceed. This is a routine legal step, but it does not happen instantly, and beginning it does not commit the family to anything beyond appointing the necessary representative.
A family that understands this can take the step when they are ready, knowing that it clears the way for a claim without forcing any decision about whether or how to pursue one. The combination of the perishable evidence and the time the estate process requires is why a gentle awareness of the timeline, rather than any pressure to act, serves a grieving family best.
A wrongful death claim, like any serious injury claim, depends on identifying every party whose negligence contributed to the death, both to establish full responsibility and to reach the insurance the loss requires.
In a fatal crash, the at-fault driver is the starting point, but responsibility can extend further. When a death results from a crash involving a commercial vehicle, the trucking company and others in the chain may bear responsibility under the principles governing commercial trucking, and the substantial insurance that commercial operations carry can be important to a recovery addressing a catastrophic loss.
Other parties may share responsibility depending on the circumstances. When a death resulted in part from a defective vehicle component, a manufacturer may be liable under product liability principles.
When a dangerous road condition contributed, the government entity or contractor responsible for the road may be responsible, though a claim against a government entity is subject to the shorter deadlines and procedural steps of the Tort Claims Act.
One distinction matters when the person who died was working at the time. Under S.C. Code § 42-1-540, workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against the deceased worker's own employer, and that exclusivity reaches the personal representative and next of kin, not just the worker.
The family's tort claim runs instead against any third party whose negligence caused the death, under § 42-1-560, and the workers' compensation carrier will assert a lien against that recovery. The at-fault driver's employer is a separate matter and can be liable in the ordinary way.
When a death occurred on property, the property owner may bear responsibility for a dangerous condition, and when an impaired driver caused the death, a business that overserved the driver may share responsibility under the principles governing alcohol-server liability.
A thorough investigation that identifies each party whose conduct contributed to the death, and the insurance that stands behind each, is what allows the recovery to reflect the full measure of the loss. This is part of building a wrongful death case, and it is one of the reasons a careful investigation matters even when the at-fault party seems obvious: additional responsible parties and additional coverage can be essential to a recovery that addresses a catastrophic loss.
South Carolina follows modified comparative negligence. Under Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243 (1991), a plaintiff may recover if their negligence is not greater than the defendant's, meaning recovery is available at 50 percent fault or less and barred at 51 percent or more, with the award reduced by the plaintiff's share.
In a wrongful death case, this applies to the deceased's own conduct because S.C. Code § 15-51-10 makes the claim available only where the deceased could have maintained an action had they survived. Insurers routinely argue the decedent's fault for this reason.
The insurance available to a wrongful death claim often determines what the family can ultimately recover, particularly because the losses in a fatal case are so large. The at-fault party's liability insurance is the starting point, but South Carolina's minimum coverage requirements are low, and a wrongful death claim can quickly exceed the minimum policy limits, making the search for additional coverage essential.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on the deceased person's policy can be an important source of coverage. South Carolina limits stacking.
Under S.C. Code § 38-77-160, an insured with excess UM/UIM coverage is protected only to the extent of the coverage on the vehicle involved in the crash, and if none of the insured's vehicles was involved, only to the extent of coverage on any one vehicle carrying that excess coverage. Reviewing every household policy still matters because which policy applies depends on which vehicle was involved.
Where the death involved a commercial vehicle, an employer, or a business, the higher commercial insurance limits that those parties carry can be central to addressing the loss. A fatal crash involving a commercial truck, for example, may reach multiple policies covering the various responsible parties, and the layered coverage that commercial operations carry is often what makes addressing a catastrophic loss possible.
Identifying all applicable policies and establishing each party's responsibility are what allow a wrongful death recovery to reflect the full measure of the family's loss rather than being limited to the first and smallest source of coverage.
In the aftermath of a wrongful death, a grieving family is not expected to manage a legal claim, but a few steps help preserve the family's options for when they are ready.
Preserving any documentation related to the death is valuable: the accident or incident report, photographs, witness names, and records related to the death. These materials establish how the death occurred and who was responsible, and they are easiest to gather while they are still available.
It can help a family to know that they do not have to gather all of this themselves, and that much of the investigative work can be handled for them once they decide to pursue a claim. A family in the depths of grief should not feel that the burden of building a case rests on their shoulders in the days after a loss.
The documentation that exists, the official reports, the scene evidence, the witness accounts, can be obtained and preserved as part of handling the claim, and a family's main role early on is simply to keep whatever materials come to them and to avoid losing access to anything that might matter later.
Opening the estate is necessary for a wrongful death claim, as the claim must be brought by the personal representative. This is part of the legal process and can be handled in due course, but understanding that it is required helps a family see the path ahead. The personal representative, once appointed, has the authority to pursue the wrongful death and survival claims on behalf of the beneficiaries and the estate.
Beyond these practical matters, a family should feel free to seek information about their options without any obligation, and at whatever point they are ready. Understanding the available claims, the applicable deadline, and what a case might involve can be helpful even for a family that is not ready to act, because it allows them to make informed decisions when the time comes.
There is no need to have everything figured out before reaching out; a family can ask questions and learn about the process as they continue to grieve, taking steps toward a claim only when they feel prepared.
| Aspect | Wrongful death claim | Survival action |
| Whose loss | The surviving beneficiaries' loss | The deceased's own pre-death harm |
| Who recovers | Statutory beneficiaries (spouse, children, then parents, then heirs) | The estate |
| Damages | Support, companionship, grief, funeral costs | Pre-death pain, suffering, and medical expenses |
| Brought by | The executor or administrator of the estate | The executor or administrator of the estate |
The claim must be brought by the executor or administrator of the deceased person's estate, on behalf of the statutory beneficiaries, who are the spouse and children first, then parents, then heirs.
A wrongful death claim compensates the family for their losses from the death, while a survival action compensates the estate for the deceased's own pain, suffering, and medical expenses before death. A complete case often involves both.
Three years from the date of death under S.C. Code § 15-3-530(6). A shorter two-year deadline and a verified-claim step apply if a government entity is responsible.
The financial support the deceased would have provided, the loss of companionship and guidance, the family's grief, funeral and burial costs, and, through the survival action, the deceased's pre-death suffering and medical expenses.
No. The three-year deadline gives families time to grieve, though evidence is perishable and opening the estate takes time, so understanding the options sooner rather than later helps protect the claim.
A Spartanburg County wrongful death suit is filed in the Court of Common Pleas for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, at the Spartanburg County Courthouse, 180 Magnolia Street. Any settlement must also be approved by a court under S.C. Code § 15-51-41.
Losing a loved one because of someone else's negligence is a devastating experience, and no legal process can undo that loss. What we can do is make sure your family's rights are protected and that the person or company responsible is held accountable.
At The Arndt Law Firm, we handle every Spartanburg wrongful death case with the care a grieving family deserves. That means pursuing both the wrongful death claim, for what the family has lost, and the survival action, for the pain and suffering your loved one experienced before passing. We take care to identify the proper beneficiaries and personal representative, and we build a clear case establishing the responsible party's negligence.
Attorney Arndt previously worked defending insurers and institutional clients, so our firm has an understanding of how these claims are evaluated and contested from the other side. We use that insight to build each case around the full measure of your family's loss, while still respecting the time and space a grieving family needs.
If you've lost a loved one to negligence in Spartanburg or anywhere in Spartanburg County, we're here to walk you through your options, at whatever pace feels right, with no obligation.
Consultations are free, and we handle wrongful death cases on a contingency basis, meaning there's no fee unless we recover compensation for your family. When you're ready, reach out and we'll talk through what happened and what your next steps could look like.
Last reviewed: June 2026
This page was reviewed by Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018.
Content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed South Carolina attorney for guidance specific to your situation.
