What the insurance company does not want you to know is that in West Virginia, a wrongful death case is not filed by "whoever was closest" and it is not limited to a spouse.

The legal rule in plain English: the claim must be filed by the personal representative of the estate under West Virginia's wrongful death law. That person may be an executor named in a will or an administrator appointed by the Raleigh County Circuit Clerk if there is no will. The case is brought for the benefit of surviving family members, which can include a spouse, children, parents, siblings, and other dependent distributees, depending on who survived the person who died.

West Virginia generally gives 2 years from the date of death to file the wrongful death action.

Damages can include funeral and burial costs, medical expenses, lost income and services, and the survivors' sorrow, mental anguish, and loss of companionship, guidance, and care. A spouse may have major damages, but a spouse is not the only person who matters.

There is also a separate issue people mix up: a survival claim belongs to the estate for harms the person suffered before death - for example, conscious pain and suffering, medical bills, or lost wages between the crash and death. A wrongful death claim is for the family's losses caused by the death itself.

Example: say a road-work lane shift near Beckley causes a sideswipe with heavy equipment traffic, and a husband dies after several hours in the hospital. His wife cannot just file in her own name because she is the wife. The estate's personal representative files. The case may seek hospital bills and pre-death pain and suffering for the estate, plus funeral costs, lost financial support, and the wife's and children's loss of companionship and anguish under the wrongful death claim.