Wrongful Death Lawyer in Scranton, PA

Nothing prepares a family for the moment they learn someone they love is gone because of another party’s negligence. If that is where you are, processing grief and, at some point, wondering what legal options your family has, you do not have to figure it out alone, and you do not have to figure it out today.

Scartelli Olszewski, P.C. represents Lackawanna County families in wrongful death cases from our Scranton office at 411 Jefferson Avenue, minutes from the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas at 200 Adams Avenue, and these cases are part of the broader practice handled by our Scranton personal injury attorneys. The firm is led by Melissa A. Scartelli, founder, president, and Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, with Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr., former Luzerne County District Attorney and Court of Common Pleas Judge, on the trial team.

Our wrongful death results include a $3.5 million electrocution wrongful death settlement, a $2 million medical malpractice wrongful death settlement involving a child, a $2 million defective medical device wrongful death settlement, and a $750,000 federal wrongful death settlement from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

We work on a contingency basis, so there is no fee unless we recover for your family. Call (570) 346-2600 for a free, confidential case review whenever you are ready.

“She took on the most delicate case imaginable: the death of my daughter. She became part of our family.” ★★★★★ James · Avvo Verified Review “I hired Melissa to handle the most delicate of cases, the death of my daughter. Not only did she take an interest in my case, she became part of our family. Her attention to our needs as a family and as a client was well beyond what anyone would ever expect. Her professionalism was unmatched by those on the other side of this case and her knowledge base rivaled the medical professionals. Melissa and her staff are competent to handle any case of any size. They did not rest in my case until the truth was known and they spared no expense putting together a TEAM of experts to support the case. You would not be disappointed if you hire Melissa and her firm. They will get you the results you want.”

“He left no stone unturned in the search for the truth about my brother’s death. The people who were negligent were exposed and financially punished.” ★★★★★ Jeffrey · Avvo Verified Review “After an untimely death occurred in my family I needed to find an attorney who would be willing to take on the responsibility of finding out what had happened to my brother. After interviewing with other attorneys I new immediately when I sat down with Peter Paul Olszewski he was the right person for the job. Pete was very welcoming, comforting, and focused right from the start. Pete brought to the table a life committed to legal excellence. Having been a District Attorney and County Judge his credentials were impeccable. Through the process of finding out what had happened in my brothers death Attorney Olszewski was determined and focused unlike any other individual I have ever worked with. Pete left no stone unturned in the search for the truth. If not for his tireless determination and positive attitude I would have never found out what had happened the night my brother passed away. He not only gave me the peace I was searching for but the satisfaction of knowing that the people who had been negligent were exposed and financially punished. For this I am forever grateful. Should you need a person who will fight doggedly on your behalf I wholeheartedly recommend Attorney Olszewski.”

Read more from our clients →

How Scartelli Olszewski Supports Scranton Families After a Wrongful Death

Grief and legal deadlines do not operate on the same timeline, and we understand that. Families who contact us are often not ready to discuss case strategy on the first call, and that is completely fine. What we do from the very start is listen, answer every question honestly, and explain your family’s options without pressure.

In practical terms, that means a free initial consultation with no obligation; direct access to the attorneys handling your case rather than an intake coordinator; transparent communication at every stage so your family always knows where things stand; and cost advancement for expert witnesses, investigation, and evidence so your family pays nothing out of pocket while the case proceeds. We have represented Lackawanna County and Northeastern Pennsylvania families in wrongful death cases from our Scranton office since 2001. Call us at (570) 346-2600 any time, day or night.

“One thing worth knowing early: Pennsylvania law gives most families two years from the date of death to file a claim under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524, and that clock runs from the date of death, not the date of injury.” Schedule a free consultation.

Watch: How Do I Know If I Have a Wrongful Death Case?

Why Hire Scartelli Olszewski for Your Scranton Wrongful Death Case?

The firm you choose determines whether insurers settle for fair value or run out the clock. These are the specific reasons Lackawanna County families choose Scartelli Olszewski.

• Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate. Melissa A. Scartelli holds the National Board of Trial Advocacy’s Civil Trial Advocate certification. Defense firms and insurance carriers track which plaintiffs’ attorneys actually try cases to verdict. That knowledge changes how they respond to your family’s demand from day one.
• Former District Attorney and Court of Common Pleas Judge on the trial team. Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr. served as Luzerne County District Attorney and as a judge before joining this firm. He understands how opposing counsel constructs a defense, how evidence is weighed by a jury, and how government-entity claims are processed differently from private-party claims, a tactical advantage in the complex liability cases that wrongful death often involves.
• Four wrongful death-specific case results, including a $3.5 million electrocution settlement. We are not a general personal injury firm that handles an occasional wrongful death claim. This is a defined part of what we do.
• Evidence preservation from day one. In wrongful death cases, the most consequential evidence: surveillance footage, electronic control module data, full hospital and autopsy records, begins to disappear within days. We act immediately to preserve it before defendants can lose or alter what they control.
• No fee unless we recover. All case costs advanced. We advance the full cost of the case, including accident reconstruction engineers, forensic pathologists, life-care planners, and economists. Your family pays nothing out of pocket to pursue the claim.

$3,500,000 – Electrical Negligence / Wrongful DeathElectrical Negligence Took a Life. We Preserved the Evidence, Identified Every Responsible Party, and Recovered $3,500,000 for the Family. A Lackawanna County family came to us after losing their loved one to electrocution injuries. We moved immediately to secure the evidence before it could be lost and identified every party responsible for the condition that caused the death. The case resolved at settlement for $3,500,000.

Our Wrongful Death Case Results

• $3,500,000 Electrocution / Wrongful Death (premises and electrical negligence)


• $2,000,000 Medical Malpractice / Wrongful Death (child)


• $2,000,000 Defective Medical Device / Wrongful Death


• $750,000 Federal Wrongful Death Settlement, U.S. District Court (M.D. Pa.)

Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Every case is different. See our full case results.

What Is a Wrongful Death Claim in Pennsylvania?

A wrongful death claim arises when a person dies because of the “wrongful act or neglect or unlawful violence or negligence” of another, under Pennsylvania’s Wrongful Death Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301. It is a civil claim that seeks financial accountability for the family’s losses, and it is entirely separate from any criminal case. A criminal prosecution is brought by the government and can result in a conviction, but it cannot compensate your family. Even when no criminal charge is filed, or when a defendant is acquitted, the family may still pursue and win a civil wrongful death claim in Pennsylvania. The civil standard of proof is lower than in a criminal prosecution. If you are unsure whether you have a wrongful death case, we can help you evaluate it at no cost.

What Is the Difference Between a Wrongful Death Claim and a Survival Action?

Pennsylvania law actually provides two separate claims after a negligent death, and they are almost always filed together.

A wrongful death claim under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301 compensates the surviving family, the spouse, children, and parents, for their own losses: the loss of the deceased’s financial support, the value of the services and guidance the deceased provided, loss of companionship and consortium, and funeral and burial expenses. Critically, the proceeds of a wrongful death claim pass directly to the family beneficiaries and are not part of the estate, which means they are not reachable by the deceased’s creditors.

A survival action under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8302 is brought by the estate and recovers what the deceased could have recovered had they lived, including the conscious pain and suffering before death and the deceased’s lost future earnings. Survival action proceeds belong to the estate and are subject to estate creditors and inheritance tax. Because the two claims compensate different people and different losses, we pursue both.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Scranton?

A wrongful death action is filed by the personal representative of the estate, for the benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents, under Pennsylvania state laws. The personal representative is the executor named in a will, or, where there is no will, an administrator appointed through the Lackawanna County Register of Wills. If no eligible family member arranges for the personal representative to file within six months of the death, any beneficiary entitled to recover may bring the action as trustee for all of them. The proceeds are then distributed among eligible family members in the shares set by Pennsylvania’s intestacy law. Spouses, children, and parents have standing; more distant relatives generally do not.

See our overview of who can file a wrongful death case and our post on adult dependents and wrongful death recovery for more detail.

Common Causes of Wrongful Death in Lackawanna County

We handle wrongful death across every cause, and most have a recognizable local pattern:

• Motor vehicle and motorcycle crashes, including the fatal collisions that recur on the I-81 corridor through Scranton and the I-81/I-380 interchange near Dunmore.
• Commercial truck crashes on the freight-heavy I-81, I-84, and I-380 routes, handled in coordination with our Scranton truck accident lawyers. Fatal trucking crashes require immediate action: electronic logging device data, black box records, and driver qualification files are all subject to retention deadlines.
• Medical malpractice, such as misdiagnosis, surgical error, and birth injury, which overlaps with the work of our Scranton medical malpractice lawyers. For families dealing with a hospital death, see our guide on steps to take after a loved one dies in the hospital.
• Nursing home neglect and abuse in Lackawanna County’s long-term care facilities, including pressure ulcer deaths, fall deaths, and medication errors, handled by our Scranton nursing home abuse lawyers.
• Alcohol-related wrongful death, including fatal crashes caused by a drunk driver and dram shop liability cases where a bar or restaurant over-served a patron who then caused a death.
• Pharmacy errors and defective medical devices, an area where few NEPA firms have documented case results. Our $2 million defective medical device wrongful death settlement illustrates the depth we bring to these claims. See our Scranton pharmacy error lawyers page for the full treatment.
• Workplace and construction incidents, including falls, equipment failures, and electrical fatalities. When a death results from an electrical contact, our Scranton electrocution lawyers investigate the source of the failure and identify every responsible party, including property owners, contractors, and equipment manufacturers.
• Defective products and dangerous premises conditions that cause preventable deaths across Lackawanna County.

When a death follows treatment at a Lackawanna County hospital such as Geisinger Community Medical Center, the county’s Level II trauma center, we secure the complete medical record before it can be altered.

What Compensation Can Your Family Recover?

Pennsylvania does not cap compensatory damages in a wrongful death case, so the value of a claim is set by your family’s actual losses, not an arbitrary limit.

Through the wrongful death claim (for the family): Funeral and burial expenses, the deceased’s final medical expenses, lost future financial support and benefits, the value of lost household services and guidance, and loss of companionship, comfort, and consortium.

Through the survival action (for the estate): The deceased’s conscious pain and suffering in a wrongful death case before death and lost future earning capacity.

The distinction between compensatory and punitive damages matters here, because punitive damages may also be available where the conduct that caused the death was outrageous, reckless, or intentional rather than merely negligent.

What Is a Scranton Wrongful Death Case Worth?

No lawyer can give an honest fixed figure. Pennsylvania wrongful death settlement values depend on the deceased’s age and health, their earnings and the financial dependence of the surviving family, the strength of the liability evidence, and the available insurance, which is why average wrongful death settlements in Pennsylvania vary as widely as the cases themselves. Because Pennsylvania places no cap on compensatory damages against private defendants, the value is built from your family’s real losses. We retain economists and life-care experts to document those losses fully so the number reflects what was actually taken from your family.

How Do We Prove a Wrongful Death Case?

A wrongful death claim requires the same four elements as any negligence case: a duty owed to the deceased, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to the death, and damages. We establish them with police and incident records, complete medical and autopsy records, sworn witness statements, accident reconstruction, testimony from treating and same-subspecialty physicians, and economists who calculate the present value of lost support and earnings. In cases involving defective products, engineering expert testimony is added to establish design failure. In workplace cases, occupational safety experts establish the violation that caused the death. See our posts on how wrongful death is proved and proving medical malpractice in wrongful death cases for more detail on each path.

How Does a Wrongful Death Lawyer Help Your Family?

A wrongful death case asks a grieving family to run a complex civil action during the hardest months of their lives, and a lawyer carries that weight for you. Specifically, we:

• Investigate the death and preserve perishable evidence before a defendant can lose or alter it.
• Obtain the personal representative’s appointment through the Register of Wills so the case can be filed correctly.
• Calculate the full value of the loss, including future support and the deceased’s lost earning capacity, with economists and life-care experts.
• Identify every responsible party and source of insurance.
• Negotiate with the insurers from a position of trial readiness, and take action against bad faith insurance conduct if an insurer unreasonably delays or underpays your family’s claim.
• Try the case to a Lackawanna County jury if the defense will not pay fair value.

How Long Does a Family Have to File a Scranton Wrongful Death Claim?

A wrongful death claim and the related survival action must generally be filed within two years of the date of death under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524. The clock runs from the date of death, not the date of the underlying injury. If the death involved a government entity, such as a death on a government-maintained road or at a government facility, a written notice of claim is generally required within six months under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5522(a). These statutes of limitations on personal injury claims are strict, so it is best to speak with a lawyer promptly.

Resources for Families in Scranton

While a wrongful death claim proceeds, many families also need support outside the legal process. The following Scranton-area resources may help.

Grief counseling and support

• Family Service Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania; grief counseling and trauma support services in Lackawanna County
• Diakon Family Life Services; bereavement support for adults and children in the NEPA region
• Geisinger Community Medical Center grief support program; Scranton campus

Local funeral and burial services

If your family needs assistance locating Lackawanna County funeral services or understanding Pennsylvania burial requirements, the Lackawanna County Register of Wills (570-963-6727) can provide guidance on estate administration steps.

Scranton Wrongful Death FAQ

Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim if I Live Outside Pennsylvania?

Yes. If your loved one died in Pennsylvania or the negligence occurred here, the case is generally filed in Pennsylvania, and we represent families who live out of state.

Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim if There Was No Criminal Case?

Yes. A wrongful death claim is a civil case that is separate from any criminal prosecution and uses a lower burden of proof, so a family can pursue and win it even where no charge was filed or a defendant was acquitted.

Can a Family Recover if the Deceased Was Partly at Fault?

Your family can still recover in most cases. Under Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule at 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102, the family can recover as long as the deceased is not found to have been more than 50 percent at fault. If the deceased is found 51 percent or more at fault, the claim is barred. Below that threshold, the award is reduced by the deceased’s share of fault but recovery is not eliminated. Insurance companies routinely argue shared fault to reduce what they pay; the strength of your legal representation in rebutting that argument directly affects your family’s recovery.

What Does It Cost to Hire a Scranton Wrongful Death Lawyer?

There is no fee unless we recover for your family. We work on a contingency fee basis under Pa.R.P.C. 1.5(c) and advance all case costs, including the expert witnesses these cases require. We discuss the specific contingency percentage at your free consultation, as it varies by case type. Your family pays nothing out of pocket to pursue the claim.

Speak With a Scranton Wrongful Death Lawyer

Nothing returns the person you lost, but holding the responsible party accountable can bring answers and the financial security your family needs. There is no rush to make this call before you are ready, but the deadlines are real, and the first conversation is free with no fee unless we recover for you. Call (570) 346-2600 or visit our Scranton office at 411 Jefferson Avenue.

Families in Luzerne County can reach our Wilkes-Barre wrongful death lawyers at our Public Square office.

Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Every case is different.