A fatal crash in New Port Richey begins a process most families have never seen. The Florida Highway Patrol's traffic homicide investigators close the road for hours, measure the scene and tow the vehicles to a lot where they will be held as evidence. The medical examiner takes custody. A trooper or a New Port Richey police officer comes to the house. And within days, an insurance adjuster calls with condolences and a question about whether you have spoken to a lawyer.
Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers takes that process off your family's shoulders. We represent survivors in wrongful death claims under Florida law from our office at 6609 Ridge Road in Port Richey, a few minutes north of New Port Richey, and we meet families at home. There is no charge for the consultation, it stays private, and no attorney's fee is owed unless we recover compensation. Call (240) 421-5511 when you are ready.
Where New Port Richey families lose people
The roads are the ones everyone in the city drives. US-19 through New Port Richey is part of the stretch a 2024 ConsumerAffairs study named the deadliest road segment in Florida, and in June 2025 a person in a wheelchair was killed crossing it at Trouble Creek Road. SR-54 at Grand Boulevard, at the southern edge of the city, was where FHP investigated the death of a New Port Richey woman struck in the crosswalk by a turning propane tanker in November 2024. Trouble Creek Road at Whitetail Lane, where residents had asked Pasco County for a signal, was where a 30-year-old rider died in July 2026 after an SUV crossed through the median opening in front of him.
Pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists account for a disproportionate share of these deaths, because they have no protection when a driver fails to look. Deaths that follow a long stay at Morton Plant North Bay or the trauma center at HCA Florida Bayonet Point are wrongful death claims as well, and so are deaths from falls, drownings and neglect at facilities in the city.
Who may bring the claim for a New Port Richey family
Under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 768.16 through 768.26, the lawsuit is filed by the personal representative of the estate, not by the family members individually. One action is brought on behalf of all the survivors and the estate together, and the complaint identifies each survivor and the loss each one claims (§ 768.20).
The Act defines survivors in § 768.18(1) as the spouse, the children, the parents, and any blood relatives or adoptive siblings who depended on the person for support or services. It defines "minor children" as children under 25 (§ 768.18(2)), which brings a college-age son or daughter inside the categories that recover the most.
If no estate has been opened, that is the first task, and it is done at the West Pasco Judicial Center on Little Road, which handles probate for this side of the county. We prepare the filing so the appointment and the investigation move at the same time.
What each survivor may recover
Section 768.21 assigns damages to specific people. A surviving spouse may recover lost support and services, loss of companionship and protection, and mental pain and suffering. Minor children, and all children when there is no surviving spouse, may recover lost parental companionship, instruction and guidance, and their own mental pain and suffering. Each parent of a deceased minor child may recover for mental pain and suffering; parents of an adult child may do so only when no other survivors exist. The estate recovers lost earnings from the injury to the death, medical and funeral expenses, and in some cases the lost net accumulations the person would have left behind.
One thing the Act does not do is carry forward the deceased person's own claim for the pain of the injury. Under § 768.20, that claim ends at death. What the law compensates is the loss to the people left behind.
Deadlines and the rules that shape a New Port Richey death claim
- Two years from the date of death to file suit under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(e). Opening the estate, obtaining the FHP file and valuing the claim all have to happen inside that window.
- Government defendants. GOPasco runs routes through New Port Richey, the city operates its own police and utility fleets, and FDOT owns US-19 and SR-54. A death involving any of them requires written notice under Fla. Stat. § 768.28(6) within two years, a 90-day wait before suit, and is subject to the statute's caps.
- The decedent's fault. Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) applies to wrongful death. If the person who died is found more than 50 percent at fault, the survivors recover nothing from the other party. Insurers press this argument hardest when the one witness who could answer it is gone, so the reconstruction evidence matters more here than anywhere.
- Insurance. Bodily injury liability coverage is optional for Florida drivers. The decedent's own uninsured motorist coverage under § 627.727 is frequently the largest source of recovery, followed by commercial and umbrella policies when a work vehicle, truck, bus or rideshare driver was involved.
- Drunk driving. A DUI manslaughter prosecution proceeds separately from the civil claim. Florida's dram shop law, § 768.125, reaches a bar only in narrow circumstances, so most of these claims are brought against the driver and the family's UM coverage.
Do not sign anything an insurer sends in the first weeks. A wrongful death release ends every survivor's claim at once. Call (240) 421-5511 and let us take the calls.
How Conde-Huggins works with a New Port Richey family
We come to your home, on your schedule, and explain the process once, plainly. We request the FHP traffic homicide report, the 911 recordings, the medical examiner's findings and the New Port Richey police records, and we send preservation demands for the vehicles and for video along the corridor. We identify each survivor under § 768.18 and document each person's loss under § 768.21, with help from an economist where lost support must be valued. We locate every policy, present the claim to each insurer, and file at the West Pasco Judicial Center when the offers do not reflect the loss.
Clementine Conde, a Florida Bar member since 1992 with decades of trial experience in Pasco and Pinellas courts, handles each of these cases personally. Our wrongful death page explains the Act in more detail, and our New Port Richey page covers the other claims we handle in the city. If the person you lost was on foot, our New Port Richey pedestrian accident page describes how those crashes are investigated.
Talk to a Port Richey wrongful death lawyer about your New Port Richey loss today
There is no right moment to make this call, only a two-year limit that does not pause for grief. When your family is ready, Conde-Huggins is at (240) 421-5511 at any hour, or reach us online. The consultation is free, there is no attorney's fee unless we recover compensation for your family, and staff members speak Spanish.
Free consultation, no attorney's fee unless we win. We meet New Port Richey clients at home, in the hospital, or at our office on Ridge Road. (240) 421-5511
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Questions people ask us about new wrongful death cases
The FHP traffic homicide investigation is still open. Do we have to wait for it to finish?
No, and you should not. A traffic homicide investigation can take months, and any criminal charge takes longer still. Your family's civil claim runs on its own track, draws on the FHP file as it becomes available, and does not depend on a conviction. The two-year deadline in Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(e) runs from the date of death regardless of the criminal case, and the evidence we need, from vehicle data to video along US-19, is disappearing while the investigation is pending.
Where do we open the estate for someone who lived in New Port Richey?
A personal representative is appointed by the circuit court in Pasco County through a probate proceeding, and probate matters for the west side of the county are handled at the West Pasco Judicial Center on Little Road in New Port Richey. If there is a will, it usually names the representative; if not, Florida law sets an order of preference, beginning with the surviving spouse. We coordinate the probate filing with the wrongful death investigation so that neither waits on the other.
My father was killed on US-19 by a driver with no bodily injury insurance. Is there any claim?
Often, yes. Uninsured motorist coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.727 on your father's own auto policy, or on the policy of a relative he lived with, stands in for the coverage the driver did not carry. His PIP also pays a $5,000 death benefit under Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1). We also examine whether the driver was working, who owned the vehicle, and whether any commercial or umbrella policy applies. Bring every insurance card and declarations page in the household to the first meeting.
A GOPasco bus was involved in my mother's death. What is different?
A claim against Pasco County, the City of New Port Richey, the school board or FDOT falls under Fla. Stat. § 768.28. Written notice of the claim must be presented to the agency within two years of the death, suit cannot be filed until the agency denies the claim or 90 days pass, and recovery is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident unless the Legislature passes a claims bill. The investigation is the same; the procedure is less forgiving, which is why we start the notice immediately.
Our son was 26 and unmarried. Can his parents recover anything?
Under Fla. Stat. § 768.21(4), the parents of a deceased adult child may recover for their own mental pain and suffering only when there are no other survivors, such as a spouse or children of the decedent. The estate may still recover medical and funeral expenses and, in some circumstances, lost net accumulations. Had he been under 25, Florida's Wrongful Death Act would have treated him as a minor child under § 768.18(2), and each parent could recover for mental pain and suffering regardless. Call us and we will walk through exactly how the Act applies to your family.