California Wrongful-Death Household Services: A Family Worksheet

This guide is for a spouse, domestic partner, child, personal representative, or other family decision-maker trying to organize the practical work a person performed before death. It is especially useful when one family member quietly handled meals, cleaning, transportation, childcare, home maintenance, scheduling, paperwork, or care for another household member. The worksheet is a memory and document tool. It is not a damages calculator, an expert report, or a conclusion about who may bring a claim.

Start with the broader California wrongful-death overview if the family is still sorting out eligibility and claim structure. California Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 identifies people who may assert a wrongful-death cause of action, including a surviving spouse or domestic partner, children, issue of deceased children, and certain other people depending on the family facts. Read the current Code of Civil Procedure §377.60. A household-services worksheet does not expand that statutory list.

The reason to document this work is narrower. The Judicial Council’s 2026 CACI No. 3921 lists the reasonable value of household services the deceased adult would have provided as one potential category of economic damages. The same instruction says damages may not be based on speculation or guessing and separates economic categories from noneconomic losses. See CACI No. 3921. The worksheet helps preserve facts for that later analysis; it does not supply the answer.

Families often use the word “support” to describe many different things. A cleaner file separates at least five questions:

1. Household services: practical work performed for the home or family, such as cooking, cleaning, repairs, transportation, or household management.
2. Financial support: money the person would have contributed from earnings, benefits, a business, or other sources.
3. Funeral and burial expenses: documented expenses connected with disposition and services.
4. Gifts or benefits: benefits a claimant expected to receive, evaluated under the applicable law and evidence.
5. Noneconomic relationship losses: loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, moral support, and, when applicable, training, guidance, or sexual relations.

CACI No. 3921 places these concepts in distinct categories. California Code of Civil Procedure section 377.61 provides that damages may be awarded when they are just under all the circumstances, but it does not turn every family effect into the same item. Read Code of Civil Procedure §377.61. Keeping separate lanes helps the family avoid counting a wage contribution, a paid invoice, and an unpaid task as if all three were the same loss.

This article focuses only on the first lane. For a wider organizing framework, use the damages evidence guide. A licensed California attorney should decide which categories fit a particular case and which evidence is legally usable.

Use one row for one concrete activity. “Took care of the house” is too broad. “Planned five dinners, bought groceries, cooked on weeknights, and cleaned the kitchen” is easier to verify. For each task, record the following fields:

• Activity: the specific work performed.
• Recipient or household benefit: who relied on the task or how it maintained the household.
• Usual frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, or event-driven.
• Typical time and variation: an honest range, including busy periods and weeks when the task was not done.
• Skill, equipment, or responsibility: for example, meal planning for dietary needs, bookkeeping software, yard equipment, or school pickup authorization.
• Before-death proof: calendar entries, messages, photos, account activity, school records, service history, or people with firsthand knowledge.
• Current replacement: family member, paid provider, reduced frequency, postponed work, or no replacement.
• Current proof: invoices, quotes, mileage notes, changed work schedules, or a simple dated family log.

Do not force every activity into a weekly average. Gutter cleaning, tax-paper organization, irrigation repair, school enrollment, holiday cooking, and medical transportation may be seasonal or irregular. Preserve the pattern first. A later evaluator can decide how, if at all, to convert that pattern into a time period or value.

A category list can refresh memory without telling the family what the answer should be. Mark only tasks the person actually performed.

Food and routine household work

Meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, cleanup, laundry, housecleaning, trash and recycling, household supplies, and routine organization. Note whether the task included special dietary planning, bulk preparation, or care for a child or adult.

Child and dependent support

School transportation, homework support, appointments, activity coordination, supervision, bedtime routines, and hands-on care. Keep primary childcare tasks separate from general household work when possible because the evidence and replacement arrangements may differ.

Transportation and errands

Driving household members, picking up prescriptions, shopping, vehicle fueling, maintenance appointments, and trips tied to school, health, work, or family administration. Record the route and purpose rather than multiplying all vehicle mileage automatically.

Home, vehicle, yard, and pet maintenance

Repairs, preventive maintenance, lawn and garden care, irrigation, pool work, pet care, vehicle upkeep, vendor supervision, and emergency fixes. Distinguish ordinary labor from licensed work that the person coordinated but did not personally perform.

Household management

Budgeting, bill payment, insurance renewals, taxes and records, appointment calendars, school forms, benefits paperwork, digital account administration, contractor scheduling, and family communications. These tasks are easy to miss because they may happen in short intervals throughout the week.

Care and coordination for household members

Medication pickup, appointment transport, physical assistance, translation, provider communication, health paperwork, and care scheduling. Describe the task carefully without publishing private medical details beyond what the file genuinely needs.

Before adding a task to the working inventory, ask five questions in order:

1. Was it actually done? Identify a person with firsthand knowledge or a contemporaneous record.
2. Did it benefit the household or a claimant? Personal hobbies and leisure should not be relabeled as household services merely because they occurred at home.
3. How often did it occur? Use a range and state seasonality instead of choosing the highest plausible number.
4. What changed? Identify who performs the task now, whether the task was reduced, or whether it remains undone.
5. What proves the replacement response? Preserve invoices, quotes, schedule changes, mileage, or a dated log without assuming that any one measure is legally controlling.

If the family cannot answer question one, flag the row for follow-up rather than filling the gap with an estimate. If the task was shared, identify each person’s part. If a family member now performs it without pay, record the actual change; do not invent an invoice. If a paid service handles only part of the original task, describe both the purchased work and the remaining family work.

General time-use studies, vendor rate sheets, and replacement-service estimates may help a qualified reviewer test whether a family inventory needs more support. They do not describe what a particular person actually did, how often the work occurred, who benefited, or which period matters in a California case. Build the family-specific record first.

Do not multiply a general hourly average by a market rate and label the result a claim value. Outside material may define categories differently, combine tasks the person never performed, or omit seasonal work and household management. Preserve the source and date of any outside figure so counsel or an expert can evaluate whether it has a proper role.

Likewise, a current quote for housecleaning may help document one replacement option but may omit childcare, driving, scheduling, repairs, or management. A quote can also include overhead, minimum visit charges, supplies, or tasks that the person never performed. Keep the quote and describe what it covers.

Gather records in a way that preserves context and avoids unnecessary private information:

• a dated family worksheet showing who supplied each entry and whether it is confirmed or still uncertain;
• calendars, task lists, school or care schedules, appointment reminders, and household messages;
• photos that incidentally show routine work, equipment, yard condition, meals, projects, or caregiving setup;
• bank or card records showing ordinary household purchases, while redacting unrelated account data from working copies;
• maintenance logs, vendor communications, receipts, warranties, and service appointments;
• names and contact information for relatives, neighbors, teachers, caregivers, or vendors with firsthand observations;
• post-death invoices, written quotes, canceled appointments, postponed maintenance, and schedule changes;
• employer records only when a surviving family member changed work hours to handle replacement tasks and the record is relevant;
• a simple folder index showing the date, source, task supported, and original file location.

Keep originals unchanged. Make working copies for highlighting or redaction. Do not rewrite old calendars, alter message timestamps, or ask a witness to adopt another person’s wording. A clean source trail is more useful than a polished reconstruction with no provenance.

1. First two weeks: save existing calendars, messages, photos, vendor records, and recurring reminders before accounts or devices change. Write down immediate replacement arrangements.
2. First month: interview household members separately, using open questions. Build the task list, then compare entries and mark disagreements rather than silently averaging them.
3. As bills and quotes arrive: connect each document to a specific task and time period. Record whether the service is temporary, recurring, partial, or a one-time catch-up.
4. Before formal valuation: give the organized facts to counsel. Ask which claimants, periods, tasks, and documents are relevant and whether an economist, vocational professional, care expert, or other qualified witness is needed.
5. Before relying on a deadline: review the California timing guide and obtain case-specific advice. Defendant type, public-entity involvement, medical facts, and other circumstances can create different procedures or shorter timing concerns.

California Evidence Code section 801 requires an expert opinion to concern a subject beyond common experience that would assist the factfinder and to rest on matter reasonably relied on by experts in the field. Section 802 permits examination of the reasons and supporting matter behind an opinion. Read Evidence Code §801 and Evidence Code §802. These rules are one reason a transparent fact file is more valuable than an unexplained total.

Use neutral language that invites memory without suggesting an amount:

“I am making a factual list of the household work [name] actually did. Please describe one ordinary week before the death, then tell me about monthly or seasonal tasks. For each task, who benefited, how often did it happen, what do you personally remember seeing, and what has changed now? If you are unsure, say so. We are not assigning a dollar value in this conversation.”

Follow with concrete prompts: “Who usually noticed supplies were low?” “Who scheduled repairs?” “Who handled school forms?” “What happened when that person was away?” “Is there a calendar, message, receipt, or neighbor who can confirm the routine?” Avoid “They did everything, right?” or “Would it cost at least this much?” Those questions invite agreement instead of reliable recollection.

• Starting with a dollar target. Build the activity history before choosing any rate, period, or total.
• Counting the same loss twice. Keep unpaid household work separate from earnings, direct expenses, and noneconomic relationship losses.
• Using only the busiest week. Include ordinary weeks, low-activity periods, vacations, illness, and seasonal work.
• Treating shared work as one person’s work. Record how tasks were divided and how that division changed.
• Assuming unpaid replacement has no relevance—or an automatic market price. Preserve what happened and let qualified reviewers address legal treatment and valuation.
• Using national averages as personal proof. Outside data can test assumptions but cannot replace evidence about this household.
• Buying services only to create invoices. Choose replacement help for real family needs, not to manufacture a record.
• Overcollecting sensitive information. Keep the minimum necessary health, financial, school, and account data in the working file.
• Waiting to save digital records. Recurring reminders, shared calendars, account access, and messages can disappear or become difficult to authenticate.

Complete the worksheet in two passes. First, list tasks from memory without numbers. Second, add frequency, variation, sources, and the current replacement response. Circle gaps rather than filling them with assumptions. Then create a one-page index that lets a reviewer move from each task to its supporting record.

If the family needs case-specific review, the wrongful-death service page explains the referral path and the case-review form can organize an intake request. The contact route should be used only when the family is ready; submitting information does not create an attorney-client relationship or guarantee representation.

Hurt Advice is a lawyer referral and legal information service, not a law firm. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice, and no attorney reviewed this displayed version. Review the editorial standards, the Editorial Team archive, and the referral and legal disclaimer for role and sourcing details.